This isn't your traditional charity item.
For their 2014 calendar, Inner Birth, a Wisconsin midwife practice decided to put dads in the spotlight, er birthing tub.
The idea -- using men to recreate priceless pregnancy and birth scenes -- actually started out as a joke, midwife Kimberly McGuinness-Rook told HuffPost via e-mail. But after talking about it and brainstorming, she and her colleagues realized they were onto something. "All of the dads we work with are such supportive partners and passionate fathers. There wasn't a doubt in my mind that we couldn't get enough volunteers to pull this off," she says.
When his wife approached him to model, Aaron Richmond was was a little apprehensive. But only for a second. He wanted to help raise awareness about home birth and infant mortality, he told HuffPost. As the self-described "bald one, in the birthing tub," he says that the whole process enabled him to relate to his wife's pregnancy experience.
"Seeing myself with a huge belly was bizarre and reminded me of how my wife must have felt being in a body she didn't feel was her own," he said. "The moms are the real heroes."
Inner Birth's calendar was shot by photographer Katie Hall and self-published, using Lulu. Ten percent of the profits will be donated to Greater Racine Collaborative for Healthy Birth Outcomes, an organization devoted to reducing the African American infant mortality rate in Racine, WI.
Looks like walking a mile in someone else's' shoes -- or belly -- does go a long way, and this time, it was relatively painless.
The calendar is available for purchase at LuLu.com
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