Last Tuesday, I found myself tearing down an escalator during rush hour at London’s Oxford Circus Tube station, which, at eight months pregnant, was possibly not my most sensible idea.

But hell hath no fury like an expectant mother insulted.

Because the target of my sprint was a well-dressed, grey-haired, fiftysomething businessman who had just pushed me in the back as I was walking down some steps and called me a ‘stupid f***ing cow’ who needed to ‘hurry up and get off your phone’.

I finally caught up with him, breathless, and, in front of about 40 fellow passengers, stopped him in his tracks with a polite tap on the shoulder.

I began calmly, explaining that it’s really not the ‘done’ thing to shove a pregnant woman and that, however much I might want to walk as fast as him, when you’re eight months pregnant, it’s physically impossible.

Former magazine editor Natasha Pearlman is currently heavily pregnant with her second child

Natasha Pearlman argues people are becoming less considerate of pregnant women - especially men (file image)

Also, I was holding my mobile in order to use it for contactless payment to get me through the Tube barriers.

Did he apologise? No. He shrugged, started up with another insult and, I’m embarrassed to say, I found myself shouting expletives after his rapidly retreating form.

His behaviour may have been extreme but, over the past eight months — and particularly in the past few weeks — I’ve been genuinely horrified at the way pregnant women are treated in the UK.

This month, blogger Anna Whitehouse took part in an experiment, commissioned by skincare brand Mama Mio, to highlight how few people on public transport were willing to give up their seat for a heavily pregnant woman.

Only four in ten passengers offered without being asked, while another study of 2,000 commuters revealed just six in ten were prepared to give up their seats, full stop.

One of the benefits women have accomplished through feminism is the ability to be treated equally, despite the fact that we’re growing a human inside of us. I hate the idea my physical ‘condition’ could ever be perceived as a hindrance.

Journalist Natasha has worked throughout her pregnancies, but faced a struggle on the commute, she says

A recent study revealed that only six in ten commuters were prepared to give up their seats (file photo)

I’ve been lucky enough to have had two relatively uncomplicated pregnancies and, throughout both, I’ve exercised and worked pretty much non-stop. Truthfully, I’ve never really been that fussed — unless I’ve been exhausted — about getting a seat on public transport.

Certainly, up until about six-and-a-half months gone, I quite enjoyed standing up on the Tube if I wasn’t going far and, this time round, I didn’t even bother to pick up a ‘Baby On Board’ badge until I was about 20 weeks gone. It never bothered me to ask for a seat if I needed one, either.

However, much as I would like to deny it, there does come a stage at which biology intervenes — and other people’s common courtesy should kick in. While my brain is functioning just as well as it did pre-pregnancy, thank you very much, there are some realities I can’t ignore.

Are pregnant women entitled to first-class seats on trains? Depending on the train firm, women more than 20 weeks pregnant can get a complimentary first-class seat when standard class is full Advertisement

I’m lugging around 2 st of extra weight around my middle, I get breathless because I’ve got a baby squashing my lungs and my previous five-minute walk home from the station now takes at least double that. Surely, my now not inconsiderable bump and elephantine gait (it’s as annoying to me as I’m sure it is to others) should garner at least some sympathy or understanding.

But apparently not. Only last month, my husband, daughter and I set off for our early summer holiday on the Eurostar. I had no objection to waiting in an enormous queue at London’s St Pancras just to get through the ticket barrier. And I wasn’t too fussed about the long queue for security.

After about 45 minutes of standing without a break, though, I needed the ladies’ room. So, on seeing the 20-minute passport queue that stood before me and the loos, I politely asked a British Eurostar steward if we could possibly join the slightly faster business-class line in order to get through as quickly as possible.

He looked me up and down and replied with a flat, rude ‘no’.

Of course, I don’t expect any special treatment, but since when did we become so uncompassionate and, frankly, so suspicious of one another?

The soon-to-be mother-of-two says she's been 'genuinely horrified' by the way pregnant women are treated in the UK

Despite being eight months pregnant, Natasha, seen with her daughter Rose, told how she was shoved by a man as she made her way to the platform at Oxford Circus Tube station

It was put into stark relief on my holiday in France, where people were so kind and polite to me that I was often too embarrassed to accept what was being offered.

I was practically dragged to the front of a long queue to buy groceries because no one wanted me to stand up for too long, the woman behind the cafe counter on our TGV train to Bordeaux insisted that she serve me first so I didn’t have to wait on a bumpy train and, in the markets, people offered me free food.

At the airport on the way home, the French woman behind the counter came round to the front to lift my suitcase on to the luggage belt, so I wouldn’t have to do it myself. I hadn’t even thought to ask for help.

And, since I’ve been back, it has only highlighted to me how quick we are in Britain not to treat expectant mothers that well.

Is this the flipside of equality? That people — especially men —have lost sight of what it is to be thoughtful or considerate?

Or is it simply a symptom of a pressured pace of life that means commuters are too stressed to remember their manners?

This is not about equality or feminism. There are some things in life that are simply respectful of others. For example, whether you’re a man or a woman, holding a door open for someone is polite, not an affront to one’s gender.

Similarly, giving a slow-moving, pregnant woman the benefit of the doubt — or a seat — is just common courtesy.