For most of us, pregnancy comes with a catalogue of complaints; morning sickness, heartburn, aches and pains. We know it’s worth it, but sometimes the reality of carrying a baby for nine months can be a miserable affair.
So if you had the opportunity to share the pain with your significant other would you take it? And perhaps more to the point, would they want to?
Three British men, Jason Bramley, Steve Hanson and Jonny Biggins have taken up this unprecedented challenge – donning 15kg “empathy bellies” they are discovering some of the challenges that come with the latter stages of pregnancy.
The fake baby bumps simulate pregnancy by putting pressure on the bladder, stomach and lungs. The men, who are all fathers, plan to wear them for an entire month.
Before we start congratulating them on their endeavours, it is important to note that Bramley, Hanson and Biggins are not undertaking this task for altruistic reasons. This experiment is actually an act of self-promotion, as the three men are behind a new book called ‘the book of mums’.
Never the less, the three men, who are keeping video diaries of their ‘pregnancy’ experience are not having an easy time.
They struggle to get a good nights sleep, make constant trips to the bathroom and endure a constant line of questions from strangers whenever they dare to leave the house.
After a particularly rough night, Handson uses his on-line diary to complain: “Not a wink. What an awful night, I just couldn’t get settled. Tried to make a small city out of pillows around my bump. What were at first quite a pleasurable novelty, my boobs, soon became about as welcome as a fart in a spacesuit.
“They were way too warm and hung on my arm, sending it to sleep, and waking me at the same time. Any advice on how to get a good night sleep with a bump would be very welcome.”
Similarly, Bramley, uses his video diary to complain about the aches and pains caused by his “baby bump and rock-hard boobs.”
“I’ve just woken up with considerable aches and pains,” he said before squeezing his pretend breasts.
“These guys are as hard as rocks. I must have rolled over in my sleep and I feel like I’ve been hit by a mallet.”
So would you put your partner though this misery? “Hell yeah!” says Sydney mum Anne.
“He thinks it must be easy because I had 5 kids. He would be crying within minutes. He can’t have a cold without acting like it’s pneumonia,” she explains.
Elise, who recently gave birth to her second baby, says that she would love to see her husband experience a taste of pregnancy so that he could understand what she went through.
“I’d like him to know what it’s like so that when he says ‘I’m so tired etc…’ he could understand just how tired I was, and yet I still managed to cook, clean, iron and look after a toddler. I don’t think my husband would fair very well at all,” she notes.
Of course, not all mums want their partners to experience pregnancy to see them suffer. Tracey says that she would have liked her husband to experience the physical connection of carrying a baby.
“I started bonding with my baby as soon as I found out I was pregnant. I would love my partner to know what it’s like to feel that connection,” she explains.
However some mums don’t think that this experiment goes far enough. As mother of two, Libby asserts: “I’d like to see them experience labour too!”
