“Cute” or “Completely Unhinged?” Making Sense of Pregnancy App Size Comparisons

 

Molly Frizzell

University of Southern California

 

Pregnancy apps offer size comparison features that mobilize metaphor and measurement to help conceptualize prenatal growth and development. This essay offers a theoretical account of how these scalar mechanisms mediate reproductive knowledge, drawing on a thematic analysis of Reddit threads. It argues that while app users critique these mechanisms as “nonsense,” they also rely on them to “make sense” of normative expectations surrounding pregnancy, tied to themes of scientific authority, the self, and affective experience. This study contributes to an emerging literature on the qualitative dimensions of user experiences with pregnancy apps.

 

Keywords: pregnancy apps, mHealth, reproductive health, human development, user experience, scale, Reddit

 

 

On the social platform Reddit, where anonymous users engage in conversational posts (threads) around specific topics (subreddits), an extraordinary number of pregnant people are discussing George Foreman grills. Although unrelated to actual cooking, these conversations do concern metaphorical buns-in-the-oven, or future babies.

 

Metaphor is one of many mechanisms that have historically supported our understanding of pregnancy and prenatal development. Today, pregnancy apps offer size comparison functionalities that mobilize both metaphors and scientific measurements. While I was writing this essay, for example, one friend shared an app screenshot declaring, “Your baby is now the size of a fig.” Such comparisons operationalize scale, understood as “a conceptual device that allows us to make sense of our existence” by supporting our perception of abstract entities (DiCaglio, 2021, p. 7).

 

This essay offers a theoretical account of how scale mediates reproductive knowledge. I first offer a brief overview of both scalar mechanisms that have historically made prenatal entities apparent and their normative implications. I then conduct a thematic analysis of Reddit threads about pregnancy app size comparisons to explore how users seek information about these mechanisms (Braun et al., 2019). My analysis identifies a core, paradoxical theme: These sensemaking mechanisms often make no sense to users. Why, then, do users continue to rely on size comparisons they critique as subjective, inconsistent, and inaccurate? I argue that these scalar devices help users “make sense” of normative expectations surrounding pregnancy tied to themes of scientific authority, the self, and affective experience. This study contributes to an emerging literature on the qualitative aspects of user experiences with pregnancy apps (Alsebayel et al., 2024; Hossain et al., 2025).

 

Making Sense of (Prenatal) Existence

 

Scale is a productive concept for approaching existential debates about life (DiCaglio, 2021). Among the many expressions of life, from the subatomic to the universal, this paper considers the prenatal stage of ontogenesis, or the development of a human organism between conception and maturity (West, 2018).

 

As Carlyle and Callender (2019) argue, understandings of prenatal development are historically situated, with the pregnant body long serving as a metaphor for the hidden. Folkloric myths, like the Christian story of divine creation (genesis), helped explain conception. Meanwhile, quickening, or initial in-utero movements, suggested prenatal presence. Yet, this metaphorical fruit-of-the-womb was seen as either “ripe” for live childbirth or “rotten,” with expelled matter from pregnancy termination sometimes understood as a monstrous or mythical “Other” (Duden, 1999, pp. 17–20). This matter, then, was not always conceptualized as a human entity developing linearly.

 

By the 19th century, however, mechanisms of myth, movement, and metaphor gave way to new techniques of scientific measurement. Duden (1999) credits this to the anatomist Samuel Thomas Soemmerring, who introduced a drawing technique based on precise mathematical projections to depict individual, pre-term fetuses organized in sequential stages of development. While these drawings relied on fetal material outside the womb, 20th-century advancements in medical imaging modalities soon enabled the visualization of interior bodily components (Cartwright, 1995). Ultrasound technology, for example, translated pregnancy matter to the masses through sonographic images that circulated in the media (Petchesky, 1987). Such advancements in anatomical drawing and medical imaging made prenatal entities apparent as emergent human bodies on a standardized developmental trajectory.

 

As science and technology studies (STS) scholars have theorized, medicalization had important consequences for the mediation of reproductive knowledge, shifting authority from the subjective, embodied experiences of pregnant individuals onto scientific experts (Cartwright, 1995; Clarke, 1998). Representations of isolated fetuses, for example, uphold the gaze of Western medicine, or the notion of a detached, objective vision that constructs the body as an object of knowledge for surveillance and management (Foucault, 2012). Moreover, these representations support imagining prenatal entities as individual, sentient subjects of affection (Hartouni, 1997). At stake, here, are normative expectations of pregnancy with implications for reproductive politics. For example, the belief that pregnant people naturally bond with and thus should protect prenatal entities are established pro-life narratives (Petchesky, 1987).

 

Today, pregnancy apps facilitate the self-monitoring and management of reproduction. Over 50% of pregnant women worldwide are estimated to have used one of the hundreds of (mostly commercial) apps that exist within a broader ecosystem of digital resources spanning Internet websites, social media forums, and mobile health (mHealth) applications (Nissen et al., 2024). These resources facilitate health information-seeking, and past studies suggest that fetal development is of central concern (Conrad, 2024; Sayakhot & Carolan-Olah, 2024). As such, size comparisons illuminating weekly growth and development are popular features. However, scholars emphasize the potential for error as few apps are developed according to rigorous scientific protocols (Hossain et al., 2025). Thus, while pregnancy apps extend medical knowledge, they are also entertainment products (Alsebayel et al., 2024). Indeed, while some draw on scientific measurements, others make folkloric analogies to objects like fruit. That “new” and “old” scalar mechanisms coexist within these apps sparked my curiosity about how, and why, users engage with different size comparisons, and what dimensions of existence these scalar mechanisms make apparent.

 

Pregnancy App Size Comparisons

 

This essay conceptualizes pregnancy app size comparison features as scalar mechanisms and aims to explore how users make sense of these sensemaking devices. As I am interested in this feature across multiple apps, I purposefully sampled conversations about pregnancy app size comparisons on Reddit, a popular site for health information-seeking. A key-word search identified 20 threads dedicated to this topic, published over an 11-year period and organized under the subreddits r/pregnant and r/BabyBumps. I used thematic analysis to compile, code, and analyze over 1,000 posts from these threads (Braun et al., 2019). Although public posts from anonymous users are exempt from IRB review, citing user handles is of ethical concern given the sensitive nature of pregnancy. Ultimately, as all cited quotes concern pregnancy app features (versus, for example, decision making around pregnancy itself), were posted over one year ago, and are indexed on Google search, user handles are included in compliance with the editorial standards of this journal.

 

My initial analysis found that users turned to Reddit to seek information about size comparison features and share their experiences with multiple apps, including What to Expect, Ovia, and The Bump. They also discussed the merits of various scalar objects for conceptualizing prenatal growth, all of which existed on a “normal” perceptual scale of human interaction (DiCaglio, 2021, p. 49). Referenced objects included fruits and vegetables, animals, and consumer products like dolls and grills. Users also discussed apps that offered medically informed measurements. However, a central finding was that critiques drove most conversations. Users expressed bafflement at size comparisons described as arbitrary, inaccurate, and “completely unhinged” (wee_eats, 2024). For some, this was even described as a source of emotional distress, contradicting studies that suggest pregnancy apps decrease stress (Ortiz Juarez-Paz et al., 2023).

 

I wondered if the ostensible function of scale is sense-making (DiCaglio, 2021), then “What’s the point of the size comparison if it makes no sense?!” (AdorableArtichoke1, 2020). With this, I am less interested in offering a typology of scalar practices than in conceptualizing how scale mediates reproductive knowledge. My analysis found that pregnancy app size comparisons helped facilitate the negotiation of reproductive knowledge related to scientific authority, the self, and affective experience, both upholding and challenging normative expectations of pregnancy.

 

Scientific Authority

 

Users lamented the lack of scientific accuracy in these size comparisons, suggesting that objective standards for prenatal development do and should exist. A recurring emphasis on measurement upheld expectations that pregnancy should follow a standardized developmental trajectory (Duden, 1999). Users attempted to understand how measurements orienting us to fetal representations were calculated (DiCaglio, 2021), speculating about factors (e.g., width, height, and length) included or omitted in these calculations and critiquing metaphorical objects as hard-to-measure. One user, for example, questioned how apps calculated comparisons to floppy disks: “Like, width-wise? Corner-to-corner? 1/4″ thick?” (GerundQueen, 2024).

 

The conversations about imprecise measurements also entailed critiques of authority. Nebulous app creators, interpreted as technological if not explicitly scientific experts, were the most frequent subjects of critique. Users described creators as disconnected from reality and expressed incredulity about whether they had ever encountered the objects they invoked. They also challenged logics of standardization, highlighting that both natural and built objects vary in size while emphasizing the challenges of reconciling different scales. As one user questioned, “How could a baby be the size of a milkshake, football, water bottle and a carrot at the same time . . .?” ([deleted], 2023). Interestingly, allusions to Soemmerring’s anatomical drawing techniques (Duden, 1999) emerged in suggestions that “someone just printed out a bunch of pictures of fruit and arranged them in order of size” (Sea_Juice_285, 2022).

 

These critiques also served to advance alternative, subjective knowledge claims, often garnered through the lived experiences of users. One Redditor, for example, referenced work in a produce warehouse to legitimate claims about the size variability of fruits and vegetables. Users also circulated informal knowledge; for instance, sharing insights about when apps updated their weekly comparisons to explain measurement discrepancies across apps. Recipients of this information expressed appreciation and even called for new knowledge authorities in sense-making terms, suggesting “maybe we can all create an app that makes sense” (jaayyne, 2022).

 

The Self

 

As feminist STS theorists have argued, technologies that isolate fetal forms simultaneously construct the pregnant self as fully responsible for pregnancy while displacing expectant parents from representations of fetal development (Hartouni, 1997; Petchesky, 1987). Across the sample, users negotiated tensions concerning the role and position of the self—as popularly conceptualized—during pregnancy.

 

Here, conversations about the many scalar mechanisms used to monitor fetal development suggested a displacement of self-knowledge (i.e., looking to the apps for information) in pursuit of effective pregnancy self-management. Users described installing multiple apps on their phones and cross-referencing scales across apps and other digital resources. Some integrated nondigital resources into their management practices, including measuring tape, stickers, and pregnancy planners. This finding aligns with previous studies detailing how app users seek to verify information through sometimes ineffective comparative evaluation strategies (Conrad, 2024). Such strategies also support the idea of pregnancy as a standardized, rather than personally unique, experience.

 

However, size comparisons also reinscribed understandings of the self by enabling users to express their identities. Profession, age, and gender were all factors that informed scale selection. While self-identified zookeepers and veterinarians expressed preferences for animal size comparisons, for example, Millennials celebrated scalar objects that elicited “80s and 90s nostalgia” (sneakybrownnoser, 2024). Other objects, including eagles’ talons and baseballs, were interpreted as masculine on apps targeted toward expectant fathers. The ability to choose scalar objects relevant to one’s identity helped align user self-perceptions with mechanisms of scale across these apps, while bringing expectant parents back “in” to the frame.

 

Affective Experiences

 

Scale selection was also an affective process, with users favoring cute, funny scalar objects and avoiding odd, disturbing ones. These preferred and eschewed objects reflect normative expectations of pregnancy as a time of positive affect and prenatal bonding, particularly for women (Hartouni, 1997). Yet, affect theorists have suggested that positive and negative affects, like excitement and fear, exist on common spectrums (Tomkins, 2008). My analysis found that app size comparisons fostered adult social bonding (more so than prenatal bonding) that helped users negotiate tensions between these affective poles.

 

On one hand, users perceived these scalar mechanisms as fun and entertaining, upholding associations between pregnancy and positive affect. Growth updates served a ritualistic function, as users expressed excitement about the new objects of comparison released weekly. These scalar objects also supported bonding around shared due dates. One thread with an image of “my little George Foreman Grill” at week 35 generated responses like, “Mine too! Little Georgie” and “Celebrating all the George Foreman grills this week!” (PrestigiousHedgehog8, 2024).

 

Yet, such bonding was occasionally a product of negative affect, as users described commiserating with friends, family, and loved ones over the absurdity of certain size comparisons. Such “hate-bonding” was especially salient between expectant couples. As one user described, “My husband gets so mad every week . . . I understand his frustrations . . .!” (FrighteninglyBasic, 2022). Here, the difference in active (gets so mad) and relatively passive voice (I understand his frustrations) aligns with idealizations of motherhood as selfless and caring (Hartouni, 1997). Thus, it is significant that users expressed devious delight at actively provoking negative emotional reactions; for example, “I love to tell my husband what the new size comparison is in the app because it makes him hilariously annoyed” (chicaem29, 2020).

 

With this, I propose that size comparisons enable pregnant people to experience negative affect—thereby subverting normative, gendered expectations—from a position of positive affect, which mitigates this subversion (e.g., hilariously annoyed). This was evident in facetious statements, like “I just envisioned a fire extinguisher coming out of my vagina. Ouch” ([deleted], 2014), which alluded to real fears, like the physical pain of childbirth. Finding humor in app size comparisons not only offered users a lighthearted distraction from the physical and emotional demands of gestation, but also enabled them to navigate negative feelings surrounding pregnancy (including, perhaps, concerns about their partners’ emotional engagement) within the confines of established affective expectations.

 

Conclusion

 

Scale, for DiCaglio (2021), “is a means of orienting yourself both to experience and to the being of things” (p. 8). I suggest that the scalar affordances of pregnancy apps not only orient us to the existence and evolution of prenatal “beings” but also—perhaps more importantly—mediate knowledge about “being pregnant.” This thematic analysis found that discussions of pregnancy app size comparisons on Reddit served as an entry point for users to negotiate normative reproductive knowledge and navigate tensions around ideas of scientific authority, the self, and affective experience. Debates about the optimal scalar mechanism for making sense of prenatal development, however, remain unresolved. Future studies might consider the strategic approach of one couple, who “excitedly announce each week that she’s the size of a rock [and] can never be wrong . . .” (DogtorDogtor, 2020).

 

 

References

 

AdorableArtichoke1. (2020). Even the small fruit comparisons (which should be more straightforward) are useless . . . ‘your baby is the size of a strawberry.’ [Comment on the online forum post Has anyone at Ovia ever seen any vegetables or . . . objects before?]. Reddit. https://www.reddit.com/r/pregnant/comments/nn4ie7/has_anyone_at_ovia_ever_seen_any_vegetables_or/

 

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[deleted]. (2023). Hell the differences between the options on What to Expect are ridiculous. How could baby be the size of a . . . [Comment on the online forum post Anyone else notice some serious size estimate discrepancies between apps?]. Reddit. https://www.reddit.com/r/pregnant/comments/179a3ev/anyone_else_notice_some_serious_size_estimate/

 

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Sea_Juice_285. (2022). I think someone just printed out a bunch of pictures of fruit and arranged them in order of size without . . . [Comment on the online forum post Unhinged baby size comparisons]. Reddit. https://www.reddit.com/r/pregnant/comments/12881mg/unhinged_baby_size_comparisons

 

sneakybrownnoser. (2024). Do you ever change from fruit on the what to expect app?! I loooveee the 80s & 90s nostalgia items . . . [Comment on the online forum post Week 23 fruit size—Who has ever seen an 11.4″ grapefruit?]. Reddit. https://www.reddit.com/r/BabyBumps/comments/1ekv1dh/week_23_fruit_size_who_has_ever_seen_an_114/

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wee_eats. (2024). Some are completely unhinged. I used to send them to my husband all the time—There was one where . . . [Comment on the online forum post 2 apps with 2 different comparisons]. Reddit. https://www.reddit.com/r/BabyBumps/comments/1e7whi3/2_apps_with_2_different_comparisons/

 

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Copyright © 2026 (Molly Frizzell, [email protected]). Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial No Derivatives (by-nc-nd). Available at https://ijoc.org.

https://doi.org/10.65476/axz52890