The Empathy Belly

Being pregnant, for a man, was pure hell, I thought!  And talk about bondage…..  Carrying a baby to full term is the worst bondage I can think of.

It started out because my wife and I were arguing again about having a baby.  We had been married several years, and I wanted a child, but she didn’t.  I have to say that we were a normal working couple – we both had careers, and were doing quite well, financially

Our life was ideal, except on this one sticking point.  She didn’t want to give up her high-paying job in order to be a mother.  We could easily have afforded it, but she was adamant – she just didn’t want to have a kid!

One day, she rented a movie, and brought it home for us to watch.  It was called ‘Rabbit Test’, starring Billy Crystal.  The premise was implausible – it was about a man who got pregnant, and the process he went through adapting to the idea.  A pleasant enough little film – although completely impossible, I thought.

Two weeks later, she brought home another film rental, called ‘Junior’, which starred Arnold Schwarzenegger, current governor of California, and Danny DeVito.

We watched that, and again, it was a completely implausible plot about a man who got pregnant.

A couple of weeks passed, and she brought home ANOTHER film rental about a man getting pregnant, called ‘A Slightly Pregnant Man’, starring Marcello Mastroianni.

I didn’t realize it then, but she had planted a seed in my mind.  A seed that would grow, until the idea became a reality.

Two weeks later, she brought home ANOTHER tape that she had gotten from a Nurse friend at Planned Parenthood.  This one was a documentary on pregnancy, and preparing for childbirth.  I thought she was finally coming around to my way of thinking about having a baby.

I didn’t connect the tape with her previous rentals about MEN getting pregnant until later.  A brief section of the tape showed a man in an ‘Empathy Belly’.  It was a corset-like garment, that when worn by a man, would simulate pregnancy, so the man could get an idea of what his wife was going through during her pregnancy.  It had what looked like a pillow in front, and internal weights, so he could understand how it felt to be carrying a baby in his abdomen.

The tape was accompanied by a little booklet, titled, “Having Your Baby…..”

I flipped through the pamphlet, looking at it, and it contained much of the same information in the documentary, with addresses where you could write for more information.  A lot of it was available on Internet websites.

We fell into a discussion of having a baby again, and I thought it would just end up as it always had before, with her sulking, and refusing to have sex with me for several days…..  But this time, it had a different tone.

“You’re so hep on me having a baby”, she said, “I’d like to make YOU pregnant, and you be the mother for a change!”

The seed that she had planted began to grow!

In a fit of pique, I blurted out, “Why not?  I’d be a better mother than you would be, anyway!!!”

I shouldn’t have said it.  Or at least, have said it that way!

“Well, let’s see about that!”, she said.

Calming myself down a bit, I said, “What do you have in mind?”

“Well, how about YOU getting pregnant for nine months, and having a baby?, she said.

My mouth dropped open in surprise.  She KNEW that wasn’t possible, I thought!

“Wait….  Hear me out”, she said.  “You saw that ‘Empathy Belly’ on the Planned Parenthood tape, let’s get you one, and you wear it for a while, and see how YOU like being fat and pregnant!”

“What do you mean?”, I stammered.

“I mean,” she replied coolly, “YOU be pregnant for a while, and we’ll see how YOU like it!”

I thought about it for a minute, and said, “But that scene was totally unrealistic! --  The man was supposed to put on that corset, and wear it for three or four hours, to get the feeling, and that was it!”

“No….. I’m talking about wearing it for nine months before you get out of it”, she said.

The thought boggled my mind!

“But it’s all wrong”, I said.

“What?”, she asked.

“Well, for example, the Empathy Belt was designed to give the man the feeling of a pregnant woman who was several months along – near the end of her pregnancy.  That wouldn’t give a true experience.  A woman starts out with a small bump, and it grows larger, and heavier, as the baby is growing to full size before delivery.”

“Exactly!  You’re right”, she said.  “But I can make you a custom-made corset that will simulate the same thing.  It can start out small, and get bigger and bigger, as your ‘pregnancy’ continues!  We could use weights in the belt to simulate a growing baby.”

“But I couldn’t live like that”, I said.  “I’d have to quit my job.  I couldn’t be seen like that!”

“Women have to do the same thing”, she replied.

“But I’d have to buy bigger clothes”, I protested.

“Women have to do the same thing”, she repeated.

“But I couldn’t work…  I’d have to stay home all the time…..”

“Women have to do the same thing”, she repeated again.

She was shooting down all my arguments with an ultimate truth.  ---  I didn’t know what to say!

Finally, I said, “But I could get out of the corset any time I wanted. – Like when you were at work.”

“No you couldn’t”, she said.  “I’d make it so it could be locked on you, and I’d have the only key.  Once you’re pregnant, you’re in it for the full term!”

I paused to consider that…..

“I could buy you a few dresses…..”, she said.

“Oh, no you don’t!”, I said.  “You won’t get me to wear any dresses!”

“You’d have to”, she said, “In order to get the full experience.  Particularly when your ‘breasts’ start to fill out!”

“What do you mean, ‘breasts’???”

“Well,” she started to explain, “as a pregnancy progresses, a woman’s breasts enlarge, preparing to provide milk for the new baby.  To do the job right, you’d have to wear a bra, and we could weight it down, just like the belly corset, to simulate that growth, too.”

“But that would make me look queer!”, I protested.

“Not necessarily”, she said.  “Not if you stayed at home.  I could style your hair, and you could wear lipstick, and anyone who caught a glimpse of you would just think you were another pregnant woman.”

“I don’t like the idea”, I said.

“Come on”, she said.  “Who is it that wants to add a baby to our marriage?”

“I know”, I said.  “But you know I can’t have a REAL baby!”

“Well”, she said.  “We could arrange to adopt one at the end of your ‘pregnancy’, and you could be the mother, and I could be the father!”

The idea started to appeal to me!!!

“And we could get along on just my salary”, she added.

We really could.  She was making more than I was already, and had better job prospects than me, too.  The idea started to gel in my mind.  It really was possible.  There might be difficulties, but it really WAS possible!

“You want me to be pregnant, like the men in those movies you rented, don’t you?” I asked.

“Yes, my lovely!  If you really want a child, I’ll give you one – but you’ll have to carry it!”, she said.

“What about after we adopt a baby?” I asked.

“You’ll continue to be the stay-at-home mother”, she said.  “You’ll have to stay at home, do the housework, and take care of the baby.  I’ll support us.”

My head was swimming with the ramifications.

“Would you still love me, and take care of me?”, I asked.

“Of course I would”, she assured me….. “But you’ll have to do the 2 am feedings!  I’ll have to get my sleep if I’m going to work and take care of you.”

When we went to bed that night, we had the best sex we’d had in a long time.

Two weeks later, when I got home from work, she showed me the Empathy Corset she’d made for me.  As she fitted it around my body and locked it in place, she said, “Congratulations, honey!  You’re pregnant!”

She started me out with a two-pound bag of sugar in the pocket on the front of my Empathy Corset.

“That’ll do for the first week”, she said.  “Next week, you get to carry three pounds!”

I looked down and saw the first signs of my pregnancy bump.  I’ll have to get some bigger pants, I thought!

“I want you to start taking these pills every night”, she said, handing me a bottle of pink pills. …..  “They’re pregnancy simulators.  They’re harmless, but will give you a queasy, upset stomach in the morning when you wake up, just like a woman.  But after you throw up, you’ll be okay for the rest of the day.”

“And from now on”, she continued, “when we have sex, you’ll always be on the bottom!”

The next day, after I threw up, I tendered my resignation at work, and bought my first maternity dress.

As we lay in bed that night, after I took my pink pill, she wondered aloud, “How would you feel about having twins?”

 

08.05.08