Tech experts at a Japanese university have created a suit that allows men to experience the discomfort and unusual physical sensations of being pregnant, reports the Daily Mail.
Lead researcher Takayuki Kosaka’s ‘Mommy Tummy’ pregnancy suit simulates nine months of weight gain, breast enlargement, baby kicking and balance changes in just over two minutes.
Designed at the Kanagawa Institute of Technology, the suit resembles a flak jacket with inflatable pouches at the breasts and belly.
A pouch in the belly fills with water, simulating the growth and average weight of Japanese babies. Similar pouches in the chest expand to simulate breasts filling with milk.
A series of mechanisms provide the sensation of a kicking baby, and sensors will cease the kicking mechanism if they detect the belly being stroked.
During lab tests, Kosaka found that 80 per cent of mothers said it was a fair approximation of being pregnant, right down to the weight distribution.
Kosaka and his team plan to use the suits in hospitals and community center pregnancy classes to help men empathize more with their partners.
"It’s hard to tell in two minutes if someone becomes more empathetic, but we have gotten a lot of comments about how users are glad that they’re dudes," Live Science quoted Robert Songer, an associate lecturer at KAIT and a researcher on the Mommy Tummy project.
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