Belly Casts for Pregnancy

In 1986 an artist by the name of Francine Krause made the first belly cast when she was pregnant with her first child. While she originally intended on making a cast for every month of her pregnancy, she ended up producing five. When her friends became pregnant they asked Krause to help them make belly casts for pregnancy.

Everyone loved it so much that she began doing one-on-one sessions, workshops, and eventually made do-it-yourself kits which can be purchased online for around $65.00. A lot of her customers are men who wish to share the experience of pregnancy with their partners.

Belly cast for pregnancy kits come with complete detailed and easy to use instructions and they normally include plaster impregnated gauze, unpetroleum jelly, one jar of Gesso, a bristle brush to apply the Gesso, and illustrated instructions. Some other names for a belly cast for pregnancy are belly mask, belly imprint, prenatal cast, and pregnant plaster cast.

A belly cast for pregnancy is a mold, or series of molds, of a pregnant female belly and/or, breasts, arms, hands, feet, and thighs, made out of plaster to commemorate the event with a lasting keepsake in 3D form that can be displayed in the open, on a wall, or show-cased on a table or a shelf instead of the flat 2D form found in photographs.

It is best to have the belly cast for pregnancy done between the seventh and ninth months of pregnancy as that is when the woman's pregnant belly is in its largest form. Belly casts are made by applying Vaseline or a similar lubricant over the area of skin that is to be set in the mold.

Strips of gauze that have been dipped in wet plaster are then layered over the lubricated area covering the shape of the pregnant woman. It takes about thirty minutes for the plaster to set in so make sure the pregnant woman is sitting in a comfortable place and position.

When the belly cast for pregnancy has set in, it can be gently removed from the pregnant form and left to dry for anywhere from twenty-four to forty-eight hours. After it has dried, a product by the name of Gesso should be applied to keep the belly cast from deteriorating from moisture.

Gesso is a powdered form of the mineral calcium-carbonate used in art. Gesso can also be used as a paint-primer for the belly cast for pregnancy. It can be painted, applied with designs, made into a mosaic, or left plain.

No special skills or great artistic talent is needed for this. Just use the imagination and make the belly cast for pregnancy more personal to make it more of your own.

As far as safety precautions go, most plaster is safe to apply to the skin, just be sure to do any painting and/or embellishing after the cast is made so that any chemicals can't seep into the skin and harm the mother or the baby.