Is this the question that we should just stop asking? Ever.

So, when are you due?

Jane Earnshaw says she was clearly overweight when a stranger in a takeaway shop asked her when she was due. She was patiently waiting for her fish and chips meal when she saw a group of young women excitedly pointing to her belly before one asked her the question. She told the Daily Mail that she was mortified.

I was simply fat and had been for as long as I could remember. All I wanted to do was run home crying but to avoid a scene I waited to be served. When I got to the counter the manager said ‘Your usual, plus a meat pie for the road?’ I simply nodded, suddenly realising just how I’d got myself into this position.

Instead of confessing that she wasn’t pregnant, Jane pretended to be six months pregnant and excitedly discussed her due date with the women before slinking off home. Understandably, she’d completely lost her appetite. She says the incident was the wake up call she needed and went on to lose 31 kilos and claim back her health. Good on her.

But the, "When are you due?" question isn't just asked of overweight women. It's happened to most women at one time or another.

It has happened to me and it has happened to a super-skinny friend of mine who wore a fitted dress on a day when she was suffering from a bit of bloating. Strangers and acquaintances, in an attempt to make conversation, ask when we are due and after the initial shock wears off, we have to laughingly inform them that we aren't in fact pregnant and then try to hold back the tears until we can escape to the nearest bathroom, or home to hide under the covers.

Etiquette expert Debby Mayne says we need to stop talking to women about pregnancy unless they invite it. She says, go for a safer approach. "You're better off not even mentioning pregnancy. Simply ask how the person is doing, and if she's pregnant and wants to share her news, she will," she explained to About.com.

Sounds sensible, but is policing what we can and can't talk about just making our already stretched social-lives harder?

So someone thinks we're pregnant when we're not? Why can't we just laugh it off? Hmmm...

Have you ever mistakenly been asked if you are pregnant? Have you ever mistakenly thought someone was pregnant and asked when they are due?

Check out these proudly pregnant women. There's no mistaking that they're expecting:

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