- Babies and bellies.
- They're all involved in this
magical thing called pregnancy.
- None of us are pregnant.
- [Jen] I think.
- I know.
- [Jen] Yeah, I know. (laughs)
- We wanted to know a little bit about what it's like
to go through the world as a pregnant person.
- So we're going to bring in some moms
and we're going to bring in some baby bumps.
- It's Ladylike and we're wearing pregnancy bellies.
(Jazz music)
- We're going to be wearing these simulation
pregnancy bellies for a weekend
that look like we're about six to seven months pregnant.
- I think pregnancy is so cool.
I think being able to grow another human
inside of your body is insane
and I don't think that it's something
I'll ever be able to wrap my head around fully.
- I, in no way, think that this
is going to be like an accurate experience
of what it's actually like to be pregnant.
This is going to be just like a social experiment
to see how the rest of the world reacts to us differently.
- How do people treat you, do you feel more self conscious.
Do people touch your stomach all the time.
Do they?
- [Jen] Do they? - Do they?
- [Jen] Do they, Karen? (laughs)
- Hi, my name is Ellen Crafts and I am a mom
of one daughter who is 21 months old
and I am Kristen's aunt.
- Hi - Hi
- Hi honey.
- Hello, my name is Shanique,
and I have a 14 month old daughter and today
I'm going to be speaking with Chantelle about pregnancies.
- So, pregnancy. - Mm-hmm.
- So much stuff. - Yes.
- So much stuff to talk about.
- All good stuff.
- I'm Kate, I have a baby girl and she's 18 months.
- So what was it like being pregnant in a public space?
- You know, I'm kind of just like a reserved person,
I just want to blend in, I mean,
there's like a lot of attention on me
that I just felt very nervous about all the time.
- So we talked about this before.
- Mm-hmm.
- You didn't like being pregnant.
- You know (laughs) it was really hot.
(laughs)
- I started to show like maybe
in the middle of my second trimester.
I didn't get too many people wanting to touch my stomach
but they were asking questions around, well,
is it a boy or a girl?
- Uh-huh.
- What is that ... you know, what's her name?
And I'm like, you know, we're not really sharing that yet.
- My favorite part, is they love
to tell you gory birth stories
that in some way you're supposed to find helpful
when you're just terrified in general
because as a first time mom,
you haven't gone through any of it.
And then you get these unsolicited stories,
that you're like are you kidding me right now.
- It's almost like people just see you
and they're just like well you are a mobile therapist
for all of my issues.
- As an introvert, being pregnant must be
kind of like four or five months of like hell.
- (laughs)
- Because it's like your obviously always in the public eye.
- Which is kind of funny because once Lynn was born
people would come up and be like this is a gorgeous baby,
I was like, I'm taking all the compliments, yes she is.
- (laughs)
- Every woman is different, so,
my experience will not be your experience.
- Yeah.
- For me, I was just so excited to be a mom
and excited to experience these feelings for the first time
so I embraced every component of my pregnancy.
- Mm-hmm.
- The good and the not so good.
- Okay. - Okay.
- This is going to be my belly.
- (laughs) I love it.
- Now, this is supposed to be a belly
for like a six month pregnant lady.
- You may have to put it on like right underneath the girls.
- Really?
- Oh yeah, so you're just bump-bump.
- Okay. - Yeah.
- So you're just like you are literally just a capital B.
- We'll be back.
- Okay, (laughs) And I'll ask you if I can kiss your belly.
I'm not going to just ...
- (laughs) Wow.
- I hate this.
- How do you feel?
- I hate this.
- So I'm going to try to sit down
like a pregnant lady would.
- (laughs)
- Right, is that right?
- Yup.
- Wow, it's weird having a thing on.
- Does this feel accurate?
- A little bit.
- I've never needed to grow a third boob.
- (laughs)
- So like now that I have one.
- Yeah.
- I don't feel more fulfilled.
- I'm going to go alert my coworkers that I'm now pregnant.
- Great, that's how it happens, just boop.
- And I'm going to go scare my boyfriend
and I'll let you know how it goes.
(techno music)
- Hi everyone!
- You're pregnant!
- Can I touch, does that work if we're friends?
- It's very weird when someone is like
can I touch but they're just already touching.
- Yeah.
- It's feeling conscious like, hey, can I touch?
- Kind of feels good, I have a lot of gas right now.
- Okay (laughs).
- So, it's a really warm day outside
and I was just sitting outside
chatting with a friend and it's hot.
There's like sweat in between me and the belly.
- It's me and my pregnancy belly
and I'm going to go to the grocery store
to see how this works.
- How's it feeling?
- It's heavy.
- Yeah, you look cute though.
- That's what everyone keeps saying.
It's really annoying because I feel like
without this, I'm just like fat.
But with like an extra 30 pounds,
it's like oh you're adorable.
- That's annoying though.
- Yeah. - That's irritating.
- I'm walking back from Trader Joe's now with my groceries
and one thing I did not expect when I was in there,
was there was this guy who was young
like a fairly attractive looking young guy
and he was making the strongest eye contact with me
and was like circling back multiple times to look at me.
I don't even think that someone has checked me out
that aggressively when I haven't been pregnant.
- Last minute decided to go out for a coworker's birthday.
And, so this is Freddy's dress that I'm borrowing.
And these are my own Birkenstocks
and so together we have a Friday night out on the town.
- [Camera Operator] You have Freddy
and then you have Chantie.
- Mm-hmm.
- I just bumped Brian with this
and he got mad because it was cold.
Geez, this looks insanely real.
(dance music)
- Okay so I'm leaving the bar right now
and I'm about to drive home
and there are a couple things I noticed in the bar
normally since I'm smaller,
I'm always getting like tousled and jostled to the side.
But wearing my belly, I never once even got remotely bumped.
People were like very, very lightly
grazing my back to get around me.
That is something that has never
happened to me in my entire life.
I'm sure there were people doing double takes
but I only caught one which was a girl
and so she saw me from across the way
and she goes ...
And then she like looked away.
- All right, time to put on my belly.
So I left my car at work yesterday
and I'm about to go pick it up in a Lyft as a pregnant lady.
- Well seat belts are pretty pointless.
I kind of just feel like I'm going
to slip out the bottom baby and all.
- This Lyft driver, I got in the car
and his eyes went immediately to my belly.
Just like immediately to my belly.
And then he did not say a word to me the entire trip.
- We just left brunch, a lot happened.
When you look this visibly pregnant
you are so aware of everything you're doing.
It's like your body feels so big
that it's like you can't help but think
about what other people are thinking about.
I think the weirdest thing that happened
was a gentleman came in off the street
who wasn't eating at the restaurant
and grabbed me by the arm
and like asked me something I didn't quite hear
and then the restaurant staff quickly hustled
in to get him away from me very, very fast.
I don't know how people actually go through life like this.
I mean, I'm really excited to take this off.
- All right, I'm about to go shopping right now
in a big old grocery store and so here we are.
Let's see if I can cut some lines.
- I wonder what my life would've been like
if I'd had a kid by now.
Probably would have had to have seen Cars 3.
- Now I'm going to drive my car to my dance classes.
I typically take S Factor classes on the weekend.
For people who don't know me,
walking into a pole dancing studio
when you're pregnant is funny.
- So, the store was very, very crowded.
There was a lot of people which normally results
in a lot of cart jostling.
But this time, people were moving their carts aside for me
telling other people get out of the way
and I went through without any problem whatsoever.
I had a clear path.
There was also behind me in line was a kid screaming
at his mom and kicking his mom.
And I was like, oh my god.
- Wearing a pregnancy belly over a weekend was weird.
I could feel people's eyes on me more.
My response is I felt a little bit more judged.
- This tiny, small, little slice,
I was like wow, I'm glad that I'm not pregnant right now.
Excited to be that in the future, but not right now.
- If you see someone who's visibly pregnant in public
just be cool, don't stare at them.
If they need a seat, offer them a seat.
But like, you know, just keep your eyes to your self.
They see you, because I definitely saw
all the people who were looking at me.
- I think now going forward after this experiment
I'm probably going to be a little more conscientious
of like how I look at pregnant women.
- I got the tiniest experience with it,
but I definitely think that I have a lot
more appreciation for people that are carrying children
with them every day for so long.
That's a lot.