Guest blogger Jana Mathews: Pregnancy comes with a license to complain about just about everything, from first trimester nausea to third trimester swollen ankles and sleepless nights. The further into your pregnancy you are, the more whining about gestational discomforts are tolerated by your family, friends, and coworkers, so that by the end, it is perfectly acceptable for you to waddle around holding your crotch, telling anyone who asks (and even those who don't) that you feel like you are going to die.

I felt that the fact that I am missing half of my internal organs due to Crohn's Disease (a chronic inflammatory bowel disease) gave me the right to complain extra long and loud during my current pregnancy, that is, until I took a good look at the women sitting next to me in the waiting room of my high-risk pregnancy clinic. To my right, was a gorgeous 28-year-old with Cystic Fibrosis sporting an oxygen tank and a tracheotomy. To my left was a woman no taller than my kindergartner. Born with Brittle Bone Disease, a form of dwarfism, this cute mom-to-be's belly was so large and heavy that she had trouble walking ... and breathing. Suddenly, my problems didn't seem so bad.

Everyone knows that pregnancy comes with discomforts, which is all the more reason why you should keep your own aches and pains to yourself. Trust me: no one wants to hear about your constipated bowels, even if it is something cute and cuddly that is causing it. Moreover, incessantly whining about your life-threatening heartburn and hideously engorged breasts is hurtful to the scores of women who desperately want to be pregnant -- but aren't -- not to mention deeply offensive to the many women out there who literally risk their lives to have a baby.

The next time you feel sorry for yourself because your shoes don't fit or your hemorrhoids burn when you wipe, try to remember that having a baby doesn't justify acting like one.