Let's preface this by saying we think pregnant women are beautiful. We think pregnant Mariah Carey is beautiful. We even think naked, pregnant Mariah Carey is beautiful. But there is something about her recent cover shots that just gives us the willies and we're not alone. Fashion and photo editors, stylists and designers have been emailing us to say they too are a little creeped out by the pics.

But what is it that so unnerves us? The naked pregnancy shot has become commonplace, practically a right of passage. The big, expecting belly has nothing to do with that unsettled feeling the shots give us.

"I think it's the art direction. The black background is so morbid, and she's not smiling. Then the white text is so shocking and in-your-face. It looks gross -- if you're going to do a naked pregnancy pic, you've got to give it some lightness," speculates Fashionista editrix Lauren Sherman of the Life & Style and OK! covers.

Maybe it was the pose?

"I honestly don't get it. I think it could have come out artistically better if Nick Cannon had taken the picture on his iPhone," says Megan O'Brien, founder of MegsMakeup.com. "What is that pose she's doing? It not only unnatural but painful looking. I feel like she's going to start dancing a pregnant vogue."

O'Brien also worries the increasingly tacky pregnancy shot will catch on, especially in light of OK!'s nude family shoot, where hubby Nick Cannon is standing behind his bride, cupping her breasts.