Maternity shirts are so cool, even men want to wear them.

Pregnancy used to be a nine-month break from style. Thankfully, fashion designers have applied their talents to the maternity market more than ever in recent years. Some high profile celebrity pregnancies helped make it cool to have a baby bump. And now, even men are getting in on the act.

When Boston writer Darren Garnick wore“The Empathy Belly,” to share the experience his pregnant wife was going through, he decided to go the extra step and wear a novelty maternity shirt as well. He chose one with a simple question mark design from PregnantByDesign.com



There are more than 1,000 design options to choose from at the site, but Darren thought the question mark was most appropriate. The reason being, he wanted people to question the motivation behind his decision to go through 24 hours as a ‘pregnant man’.

The experience was certainly an eye-opener – and even a bladder opener, with the belly’s weight making him need to go to make frequent trips to the bathroom. Just like with a real pregnancy!

Print-on-demand (POD) suppliers are starting to add maternity shirts to their range, making the possibilities endless. As well as question marks, if there is something you want to say or show on a maternity shirt, chances are it’s already available. If not, many of the designers that collaborate with the POD printers will be happy to customise something for you.

And dads don’t really have to pull on a maternity shirt to get involved. Normal men’s shirts with pregnancy-related designs can be found at Materni-Tee.com Whether he wants to announce a pregnancy or celebrate being a new dad, dads and dads-to-be can find plenty of shirts designed just for them, without needing to wear women’s clothes (unless they want to!)

To see how this ‘pregnant man’ coped for a whole 24 hours, look up Darren’s pregnancy journal at bostonherald.com/blogs/workingStiff