Pregnant woman sparks debate after crying over gender reveal of second child

Mother went viral for her disappointed reaction to having another daughter

A pregnant mother has sparked a debate after she was filmed sobbing when her gender reveal did not go to plan.

In a viral video on TikTok, Michigan-based mother Autumn Freeman shared with her followers her reaction to her “gender reveal” after she and her husband Andy popped a balloon only to have pink streamers come out instead of blue like they wanted.

She stitched footage from both her first and second gender reveals, contrasting the different emotional reactions in both clips. Freeman wrote: “Trigger warning, one of these videos displays gender disappointment.”

In the first video from 2021, Freeman can be seen laughing and joyfully jumping into her husband’s arms as they realised they were having a daughter when they saw pink confetti emerge from the balloon they just popped. She exclaimed at the time: “Oh my God, I’m so excited!”

However, in the second clip, the couple learned that their daughter Violet, two, would be getting a little sister rather than a brother as they’d hoped. To their disappointment, the confetti this time around was once again pink rather than blue.

“I’m actually sad,” she admitted to her husband who drew her into a hug before she began to sob. “I wanted a boy.”

Before Freeman walked away, he told her: “It’s okay. She’ll be just as beautiful as the rest.”

The video now has over 494,000 likes and 11 million views on the platform, with many viewers heartbroken by Freeman saying that she was “sad” that her next child would be a girl.

“My smile faded so fast,” one user admitted. Someone else noted: “This is so sad, and that poor kid.”

“Oh no !!! A healthy baby girl!!” one person mocked.

Others remarked that the mother shouldn’t have posted the video online given that everything lasts forever on the internet. In the future, the daughter could easily stumble upon the video and find out that her mother initially didn’t want her.

“Your kids are gonna see this when you’re older [you know],” one person warned.

“She can show this to her therapist in 20 [years],” someone wrote, while another added: “Can’t wait til she sees how excited you were.”

“The FBI couldn’t make me publicly post this video... like ouch dude,” one viewer wrote.

In an interview with People, Freeman clarified that her initial disappointment faded away shortly after she and her husband filmed their reactions to the gender reveal in October of last year. She revealed that she had been hoping for a baby boy since it was going to be their last child.

“In my perfect world I’d have one boy and one girl,” Freeman explained to the outlet. “I actually wanted a boy with Violet, but it was my first one and I was just excited either way…Then with this one, we know it’s our last baby.”

“I think I was bummed out for maybe a week, and then it went away,” she added. “I just told myself the universe is giving me what I need and what I can handle… I’m just meant to be a girl mom.”

On the backlash she’s received from her “gender disappointment” video, she said that she anticipated the reaction, but ultimately stood by posting it.

“There’s a bunch of haters in my comments that are like: ‘You don’t even love this baby. You don’t deserve this baby,’” she said. “That’s not the case at all. It had nothing to do with how I feel about the baby or how much I love it or how much it’s going to be loved. It was just a brief moment, and now it’s gone. I’m ready for my girl.”

Freeman not only shares daughter Violet with her husband, but she’s also a stepmother to his two children from a previous relationship - Lily, 12, and Grant, eight.

The Independent has contacted Freeman for comment.