Overall, my experience wearing the empathy belly definitely wasn’t as bad as I

expected it to be. My first impression of this assignment was that it was going to be
really exhausting. I thought I was going to have a lot of back pain, and I thought that it
was going to be a lot harder to move around. Towards the beginning of the day, I felt
okay, but towards the end I started to feel tired, but overall, it was a good experience.
As I was wearing the belly, I began to notice physical changes it was giving my
body. Towards the end of the day, I started to feel the most exhausted. I felt the most
(minor) pain in my stomach, because of the balls digging into my ribs. At times, it was
difficult to find a comfortable position to sit, without them hurting my stomach. I thought
my back was going to hurt a lot more, but I actually didn’t feel any sort of back pain. All
in all, the side effects of wearing the belly were not that bad at all. I know that if I was
actually pregnant, the pain would be worse. I only had to experience one day of being
pregnant, so I didn’t experience any of the side effects like throwing up, swelling, mood
swings, back problems, etc. I think it is very important that women consider their
physical health before getting pregnant, because not only are you putting yourself at
risk, but you're also putting the baby at risk.
I didn’t have a lot of trouble doing the assigned tasks. The only thing that was
difficult was getting up after laying on my side. I didn’t have any problems doing any of
the other tasks. If I was actually pregnant, doing these assignments would be a-lot
harder.
Throughout the day, I didn’t really experience any noticeable emotional changes.
I was more tired than usual, so that would have made a difference on my overall mood.
I didn’t have a lot of energy leftover at the end of the day, and I was definitely ready to
take it off. If I was actually pregnant, I know that I would probably feel major emotional
changes, because the hormones in my body are actually changing. With the belly on, it
only affects you physically, it doesn’t mess with your hormones.
Overall, I didn’t get any reactions from anybody, because they knew that it was
just for a class project. If I was actually pregnant as a teenager, I probably would get
looks, because people would know it wasn’t fake.