Tips for Pregnant Ladies on Riding Muni

Riding the bus with its stop-and-go and potpourri of smells is just another day on Muni, unless you’re nauseated as hell from the get-go, which is what rider S. Rock was dealing with in the first trimester of her pregnancy. But she’s got a little tip for you.

If I thought Muni was uncomfortable, smelly and just generally unpleasant while I wasn’t pregnant, I had no idea what I was in for once I was pregnant.

My first trimester was hell. Every morning I’d dread the N-Judah ride that awaited me. I would say that 3 out of the 5 days of my commute the train was packed or slow, which meant that I could not make it to the office on time to use the bathroom. I began resorting to carrying a compostable bag to throw up in after jumping off at a stop that wasn’t mine or shamefully doing my business crouched on the side of my seat into the bag. The funny part was, no one even glanced remotely in my direction as I heaved into a small garbage bag (which was nice).

I think this might violate an etiquette or two in the bus etiquette handbook, but it beats getting sick all over the floors (or worse, on a poor stranger’s shoes). So, pregnant ladies, hungover partiers, sufferers of motion sickness — start carrying a sick bag with you. At least on Muni, it is much appreciated.

2 comments

  • Ugh. And yes. When I was pregnant, I didn’t throw up but I was super queasy — and riding the 44, which does this huge slalom up O’Shaughnessy. It made for some very uncomfortable rides. And, because I wasn’t visibly pregnant, people glared at me for sitting down. :-/

  • Sara

    The plastic bag is kind of genius, I don’t know why I didn’t think of it. I ran off the bus to puke in the bushes a few times when I was pregnant, and almost every night I would throw up the minute I got off the bus. I felt kind of bad for the owner of the laundromat at my stop, she must have wondered why she always had to clean up puke from the sidewalk in the morning.

    The worst thing, though, was that I had a weird symptom that made me salivate and drool a lot, so I had to carry a little spit bottle with me everywhere I went. Try explaining to a Muni fare inspector why that little bottle in your hand isn’t really a “drink,” and no, you really don’t want to examine it closely, sir…

    You SO didn’t want to sit next to me while I was pregnant.

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