Pregnant and Proud
By: MICHAEL COUSINEAU
Union Leader Staff - (Featured on
http://www.newhampshire.com)
From body casts of bulging bellies to
form-fitting maternity wear, women are
embracing pregnancy
CONCORD — "Can you give baby a
kiss?”
Hillary Pincoske tried to coax her son,
Quinton, to give her exposed pregnant belly
a smooch for the camera.
The 16-month-old boy, clad in bib
overalls, stood on a wooden stool and grew
fidgety. But before mom finished her fourth
wardrobe change, Quinton finally provided
the Kodak moment for mommy.
“It’s a very special time you don’t ever
want to forget,” the 32-year-old Concord
mother said during her formal photo shoot.
“I’m very proud of my pregnant belly.”
A growing number of women are celebrating
their pregnancies, capturing the moment in
photos or making a mold of their bulging
stomachs.
One company out in California, Good
Fortunes, even peddles cookies and
chocolates featuring your baby’s sonogram
photo on edible paper.
Once upon a time, women kept their
pregnancies well-covered.
But times, they are a changing.
Last week, Veronda Mourning of Hooksett
spent nearly an hour getting a cast made of
her pregnant belly.
“I find it refreshing, so you don’t have
to hide it and you can be proud of it and
you can show it off,” said the 31-year-old
mother-to-be. She and her husband, Judd, are
expecting their first child, a boy, Jaxon,
on May 4.
Mourning, who owns the Jazzercise in
Manchester, plans to put the cast in the
nursery, perhaps getting it painted.
“Women are proud of their bodies,” said
Cheryl Newell, owner of The Aching Back
Massage Therapy & Whole Health Center in
Bedford.
Not just attitudes but fashion also has
changed, with form-fitting maternity wear
becoming commonplace.
It’s not big tents that they used to
wear,” said Newell, who used a kit last week
to make Mourning’s cast.
Newell sells the deluxe kits for $35, or
$70 if she makes the cast. An hour massage
with the cast-making runs $120.
The molding kit calls for cutting the
casting material into strips and dipping the
strips into warm water to activate them.
Several layers are applied to the woman’s
pregnant belly before the material hardens
within minutes.
Up until about two months ago, the
casting kits were the work of a Manchester
company, Glamourbelly. Heidi Jones, the
company’s owner, recently moved her
home-based business from Manchester’s
Brunelle Avenue to Queen Creek, Ariz.
Glamourbelly markets the kits for a woman
to make a mold that can include her pregnant
stomach as well as chest and shoulders.
“Society seems to be celebrating
pregnancy more these days,” Jones said.
“I think a big thing is men’s attitudes
are changing toward pregnancy and they’re
getting more involved,” she said.
“Thirty percent of the people who order
from us are men buying gifts for their
wives,” she said. “It’s such a great bonding
experience between mother and father and
celebrating the joy of a new baby.”
Jones sells about 100 kits a week and has
a retail presence in about 20 states,
including Newell’s business in Bedford.
“Women are becoming more open about
things like that,” said Pam Ayala, a
photographer at J.C. Penney at Pheasant Lane
Mall in Nashua.
Ayala says she photographs a pregnant
woman about once a week, many joined by
husbands or children.
Vikki McGarrell, a certified nurse
midwife, has delivered about 1,500 babies
over 23 years. She’s also noticed changes in
recent years.
Pregnant women are wearing low-slung
maternity pants and more form-fitting
clothing, she said.
“Instead of wearing big sacks, they’re
really showing off their bellies and
embracing the change of their body rather
than covering that up,” said McGarrell, who
works for Partners for Women’s Health, a
private OB/GYN practice in Exeter.
She attributes this at least partly to
women feeling more confident about
themselves.
Nylora Bruleigh has seen her Concord
photography business take off as more women
take a snapshot of their pregnancy.
“It’s definitely a trend,” said Bruleigh,
who also made a belly cast while pregnant
with daughter Sydney.
Three years ago, she would photograph two
pregnant women a month. “Now, I’m probably
doing five or six a week,” she said.
She sees more older moms and women who
found it difficult to conceive.
“They want to track everything they’re
going through because it may be the only
time they’re going through it,” said
Bruleigh, who photographed Pincoske and her
son.
Women roll the dice the longer they wait
for their photo shoots.
“I’ve had women come in the day before
they had the baby,” Bruleigh said. And a few
that have missed out.
“I had one dad call from the hospital.
‘I’m sorry. We have to cancel because she’s
in labor,’” recalled Bruleigh. The baby
arrived three weeks early.
On a recent afternoon, Pincoske switched
off tops and pants, posing with her son for
some shots and alone for others.
During one series, Quinton’s feet curled
around his mother’s belly, which carries a
girl, to be named Alina Paige.
After taking 214 shots, Bruleigh set up a
computerized slide show to let Pincoske
narrow the field of photo choices.
“They’re very tasteful,” said Pincoske,
whose husband, Josh, is an assistant
basketball coach at Colby-Sawyer College in
New London.
Bruleigh will even erase those unwanted
stretch marks through the magic of
Photoshop.
A popular package is a frame of nine
4-by-4 inch photos for $340. Makes it a lot
easier to decide, too. About 90 percent of
photos chosen are in black and white.
Wallet photos are available, but not
widely popular.
“It’s not something they give out to
their friends,” Bruleigh said.
People typically hang the framed
photographs in the nursery.
Jones, the kit seller, said some
expectant mothers invite their friends over
and make the cast during a baby shower.
Mourning wanted her belly cast to
remember her pregnant stretch.
“I couldn’t have been that big — and I
was,” Mourning said.
Order your
Glamourbelly Kit for yourself or for the
next shower you attend from EMomShop.com at
http://www.emomshop.com/bg0010.htm
Working
From Home - Have you got what it takes?
By Lucy Cole-Radice
Have you got the YOU
factor to work from home?
Making the decision to
move away from traditional forms of
employment to work from home and take sole
responsibility for personal income is one
that more and more people are choosing for
various reasons.
This article will help
you determine whether or not such a business
option is for you.
With the emergence of
network marketing as a viable home based
business option to counter traditional
business, it is little wonder that many
believe they are qualified for success that
network marketing systems offer.
Currently, network
marketing annual sales are nearing $20
billion in the US alone with approximately 8
million people distributing such products.
According to Mark and Renee Yarnell in their
book Your First Year In Network Marketing
“95% of those who survive 10 years in
network marketing become wealthy beyond
their wildest expectations.” Becoming a
successful distributor, which can lead to
such rewards, is not merely a process of
just signing up. Sadly, many quit in their
first year.
Working from home is a
business decision that can literally change
your life if you are prepared to do what it
takes to survive in such an industry.
The beauty of your own
network marketing distributorship is that
although you are in business for yourself,
you are never in business by yourself. The
mentoring systems set in place by all
successful network marketing companies
ensures that everyone is supported
throughout the training process and during
the life of their business.
It is however, important
to understand that it is up to the
individual to take responsibility for their
own training and skill levels not their
mentor. The faster you train yourself and
achieve the necessary skills the faster the
growth of your business.
Based on this premise,
there are many who believe that success is
about luck. In this business, success is not
only what you wish for but rather what you
work for.
Before you make a
decision to become involved in your own home
business, there are a number of qualities or
YOU factors that have been identified as
keys to success in the network marketing
industry.
1. Adaptable to
Change – do you welcome change in your
life?
2. Life Long Learner – are you open
to learning new skills?
3. Good Communicator – do you enjoy
communicating with people?
4. Loyalty – are you able to commit
to the company’s products and regular
trainings?
5. Realistic Goal Setter – do you
understand that building a successful
business takes time (years)?
6. Perseverance – are you able to
remain consistent and persistent at working
to build your business?
7. Leadership – do you enjoy
helping others to succeed?
8. Accepts Personal Growth – are you
prepared to take on personal development?
9. Team Player – do you understand
that success in network marketing is a team
approach?
10. Self Sufficient – are you
willing to continually invest money back
into your business?
11. Independent/ Self Starter – are
you able to follow instructions and work at
tasks on your own without supervision?
12. Problem Solver – are you able
to ask questions to clarify areas of your
business that you don’t understand?
13. Time Manager – are you able to
appropriate the amount of time to your
business that is commensurate with your
commitment eg. full or part time?
14. Self Belief/Motivation – when
your business confidence is low (which there
will be times) are you able to take stock
and move forward rather than quit?
If you feel that you have
qualified yourself for the above keys to
success then working from home based
business in the network marketing industry
might be the vehicle for the financial
and/or time rewards experienced by many who
have made the decision to take control of
their future and ride it all the way to the
top.
Lucy Cole-Radice is
currently operating her own successful
affiliate internet based 60 Minute Money
Home business from home. She is a business
mentor to others who wish to run their own
home-based business. For information on your
own 60 Minute Money Home business go to
http://success-at-home.org/?refid=FF1-567878297
