Pregnancy can be a trying time: you can’t tell whether you’re nauseous or hungry, your body is working at close to the sustainable limit of human endurance, your organs are rearranging to make space for a growing alien.

There are myriad indignities: nosebleeds, swelling feet, back pain and, if you’re unlucky, ceaseless vomiting that goes “full Tarantino”.

That’s all without having to contend with a sudden onslaught of luminous pregnant influencers, surfaced by omniscient algorithms, who lovingly massage various creams into their gravid bellies. Targeted advertising for pregnancy-specific skincare begins to stalk you around the internet, offering products with asinine names: “mummy’s tummy”, “bump love”, “belly butter”.

“There’s a lot to think about when you’re expecting – but stretch marks don’t have to be one of them,” proclaims the advertising copy for a “deluxe set” of organic belly products (RRP $75).

For $68, another Australian skincare brand sells a “firming oil” that contains as its primary ingredient sunflower oil, of frying pan fame – not exactly the cooking expectant mothers might have in mind.

Such pregnancy lotions variously claim to prevent stretch marks, boost skin elasticity, reduce redness and soften skin –........

© The Guardian