Three Pregnant Dads: Men Wear 33lb ‘Empathy Bellies’ For One Month

Yes, we’ve heard all the stereotypes about pregnant women being moody and irritable. All we have to say to them is, “shut up.” You try carrying around roughly 20 pounds or more of extra weight, with a portion of it squarely on your bladder, and tell us how you feel after a couple hours. How about after a couple days? How about after a month? Spoiler alert – it sucks.

Jason Bramley, Steve Hanson and Jonny Biggins work for The Book of Everyone, a company that creates those personalized books for different family milestones and holidays. What started as an attempt to brainstorm ways to make their book honoring mothers on Mother’s Day better, turned into a dare to empathize with women in a very real way — by discovering a little of what if feels like to be pregnant.They decided they would wear 33lb empathy bellies to really see what a woman deals with in her ninth month of pregnancy. They say on their website:

How could the 3 men (all in their mid 40’s) honour their mums… in a way that will be tough, and meaningful?  What if we became pregnant?  Or as near as possible.  A thought became an idea which turned into an dare, and now there’s no going back.

The men make YouTube videos chronicling their experiences carrying the extra weight around.

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBSClZEGLv4]

I love that he’s walking around pissed off and panting. And that the description under the video starts, “Can’t be bothered writing about this today it’s difficult enough to do all the things I need to do in a day without keeping a blog and telling the world just how difficult it is.”  Okay, so he doesn’t have the hemorrhoids or the need to pee incessantly or the hot flashes or cravings, but 33lbs carried in that awkward way that the pregnancy belly needs to be carried is a good attempt at understanding some of the physical hardships of pregnancy.

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sM9lJq–mSs]

The men will wear the bellies every day for one month, at all times except when showering. They will keep a video and written diary about the experience. When I first saw the headline, I admit I rolled my eyes and thought, “OH GOD.” But the videos have endeared me to their effort. They don’t seem to be taking themselves too seriously, and I don’t think it’s possible to come out of an experience like this without a greater empathy with what women deal with physically at the end of their pregnancies.

(photo: YouTube/3pregnantdads)