Speaking English - Pregnancy & Having a Baby

Hi. My name is Rebecca, and in today's very special lesson for both men and women, you're

going to learn how to announce a pregnancy and the birth of a child. Okay? So we're going

to take it from both points of view, from the point of view of the people who are giving

the news, and from the point of view of those who are receiving the news. I'll let you know

what are the most common expressions and vocabulary that you need to talk about this special subject.

Okay? So let's have a look at the board. All right. So when you are announcing the pregnancy,

you can use these expressions. You could say, "I'm pregnant." Or, "She's expecting." All

right? "Expecting" means expecting a baby, not expecting a letter or an email. If someone

just says, "I'm expecting", it means, "I'm expecting a baby." All right? Or, "She's expecting."

All right? Next, you could also say... A man could say, for example, "My wife is going

to have a baby." All right? That's another way to announce the news. You could say, "I'm

six months pregnant." Because usually, after you say that you are pregnant, people will

ask you how far along you are, which we'll talk about in a few minutes. So you could

say, "I'm six months pregnant." Or, "She's in her third month." Or, "I'm in my third

month." Okay? That's another way. And you could also use the expression "due". So, "When

you're due" means when is the baby going to be born. So you could say, "The baby is due

in November." Or sometimes, they also say, "I'm due in November." It doesn't mean you're

going to be born, but it means you're going to have a baby at that time. All right? So,

again, for all of these, you could say, "I'm", or you could say, "She is", or sometimes couples

like to say, "We're expecting", for example, "We're expecting our first child in November."

Or, "We're expecting our second child in December." Right? So sometimes, a couple will make the

announcement, and then they don't say "I" or "She", they say "We". So that's another

possibility. Okay. So what do you say when someone gives you this good news? Of course,

as with all good events, in English, we first say, "Congratulations", right? This long word,

"Congratulations". And then, usually, we'll say something more. For example, "That's wonderful."

"Congratulations, that's wonderful." Or, "Congratulations, that's wonderful news." "You must be so excited."

"You must be thrilled." Something like that, just to express happiness, right? And then,

usually women may start to ask other questions of the woman, like, "Are you feeling well?",

"How are you feeling?" And you could also say something or perhaps write something like,

"What a special time for you", or "What a special time for you and your family." Okay?

Because you're kind of giving your blessing and your wishes to the couple, all right?

Or to the family. Women may also ask more specific questions

of other women, such as, "When are you expecting?" "When are you due?" Both of these words are

used, right? Or, "What's the due date?" Or, "What's your due date?" "Due date" means the

date when the baby is expected to be born. And women may also ask each other, "How far

along are you?" All right? That means, "How many months have passed?" "How many months have you been pregnant?"

All right? So, these are some of the expressions you can use when a pregnancy is being announced.

Next, we'll be looking at what to say when the baby is actually born. Okay?

Okay, so now, let's fast-forward about nine months, and it's time to go to the hospital.

So what do you say, or what are some of the questions that might be asked to you at this

rather critical time? Let's look. So if, let's say, somebody at the hospital asks, "What's

the problem?" Or somebody in an ambulance asks, "What's the situation?" You can say,

"My wife is in labor." Okay? When you say that a woman is in labor, it means that she

is in the process of having a baby. So, you say, "She's in labor." And you might want

to add, "We need to get to the hospital immediately." Or, "We need to get to the hospital right

away." Both of those expressions basically convey the idea. The important thing is to

say, "She's in labor." If you don't remember that, you can always say, "She's going to

have a baby." And usually, people can see that, so they get the idea. Okay? All right.

They might also ask you, "How far apart are the contractions?" Now, "contractions" are

the pains that a woman goes through, they're called labor pains, and they start coming

faster and faster so that eventually the baby's born. So, they may ask you, "How far apart

are the contractions?" Contractions or labor pains. So, you could say, "Her contractions

are five minutes apart or ten minutes apart." "Ten minutes apart" means ten minutes apart

from each other, away from each other. There's ten minutes in between each labor pain or

contraction. All right? So, that's on the way to the hospital or when you've just arrived

at the hospital, and so on. Now, let's suppose that everything is fine and the baby is born.

Then, how do you announce that good news? Well, in many different ways. You could say,

"She delivered a healthy baby boy." For example, "She delivered" is the verb that we use, that

means she delivered, or you can also say, "She gave birth to a healthy baby girl." All

right? So, these are the two expressions, the two verbs that you can use, "gave birth"

or "delivered". All right? You could also add some more information. Usually, people

are very happy, they ask you all kinds of questions, so you might want to tell them

the baby was born at a certain time, at 5 a.m. or at night, or something like that.

You could also add how much the baby weighs, because people are often interested in knowing

that the baby was a healthy weight. So, you could say, "The baby weighs 7.5 pounds." or

"The baby weighs 3.4 kilos." Something like that. Okay? People do tend to ask those kinds

of questions.

So, now, what do you say when someone gives you this wonderful news? Again, you're going

to use that word which we used before, "Congratulations", right? That you can use any time there's any

good news, whether someone has a baby or whether someone gets a job, right? Doesn't matter.

Same word. Or someone gets married, we also say, "Congratulations." And then, we can - usually,

we add something more. For example, "How are the mother and baby?" or "How are the mother

and baby doing?" "Are they well?" If you don't know already, you might want to ask, "Is it

a boy or a girl?" Right? "Is it a boy or a girl?" "Is it" meaning "the baby", right?

And you're probably going to end with something like, "Please give them my best wishes." All

right?

So, I hope that this lesson has helped you to deal with this situation, and I wish you

all the best. If you'd like to do a test on this topic or many other topics in English,

please go to our website, www.engvid.com. Bye for now. Good luck with your English.