"Mommy Tummy" lets men feel pregnant

The best way for men to truly understand the sensations of being pregnant is not hearing sensational describing for hours but experiencing it just in two minutes. "Mommy Tummy" suit, an invention by Japanese researchers, makes it possible for guys to feel what it feels like to carry a child. The suit, displayed at Vancouver's SIGGRAPH 2011 interactive technology conference, simulates nine months of weight gain, breast enlargement and baby kicking, allowing men to feel the physical sensations of pregnancy. According to Live Science reports, the suit resembles a flak jacket, which carries three bladders, one in the belly and two in the chest. Water is quickly filled into the bladders to mimic the effect that pregnancy has on a female body. The bladder with water stimulates in the belly the growth of babies and the bladders with water in the chest stimulate breasts filling with milk. Mechanical devices are equipped in the belly against the stomach to stimulate the sensation of a kicking baby. Takayuki Kosaka, the leading designer of the suit, says he hopes the suit will be used in hospitals and pregnancy classes to increase men’s “visceral empathy towards their partners.” Live Science reports that the suit is not perfect and the future versions will carry a remote unit that attaches to pregnant moms so that the fathers-to-be can feel baby kicks at the same time their partners do.