Womb Art

Women love to celebrate their pregnancies. Used to be, we'd just throw baby showers for one another. Nowadays, the first pictures in our babies' photo albums are from sonograms. I have a favorite photographer who has taken my family's pictures through the years. On her walls are a variety of elegant photos of pregnant women. I assume copies of these photographs hang somewhere in these women's homes--although I'm not certain where I'd put one. I can't see placing one over the mantle in my family room.

An article in Time details how moms-to-be are memorializing their pregnancy in a new way: making a plaster cast of their pregnant bellies. Companies sell "belly-casting kits for making plaster memories, which many women decorate, hang in nurseries and consider heirlooms," according to the article. I was intrigued by photographs of brightly painted belly-casts--a blue one with a white and red star, as well as a bright pink one covered with multicolored flowers.
I found a Web site for Proud Body Pregnancy Art , which had a variety of photos of belly-casts, as well as painted bellies and henna art. This was all new to me.

Belly casts with hands.
Asian themes.
Animals and insects. (???)
Holidays.
Abstract.
Writings and Sayings.

So, I'm curious: Anybody out there the proud momma-owner of a belly-cast? If so, I'd love to post a photo on my blog!!





**Book Giveaway this week! Visit InSeasonMom to learn more about the contest--a chance to win a copy of my book Baby Changes Everything: Embracing and Preparing for Motherhood after 35.**