Slippery Slope

So, this exists:

Which is cute and everything, especially because it is, as a celebration of the temporary, ephemeral.  It can be profoundly lovely to be big and pregnant, and that loveliness can be enjoyed in many artistic ways.  Unfortunately, not all can we washed off after use.  Because, you see, the next logical step after washable tummy art is this: 

And what in the hell do you do with that afterward?  It's big, it's awkward, and it's plaster, which collects dust like no one's business.  I can't wait until Niecy Nash finds one of these on Clean House and gives us viewers at home a manly, whorishly made-up arched eyebrow in disapproval.  This takes the celebration of fertility to an impractical and self-indulgent new level.  And, unfortunately, the impulse behind this albatross is fundamentally similar to the motivation for this:

And that, my friends, is a teddy bear made out of dried and stitched human placenta.  Now, before you get all culturally relativist on me and start spouting patchouli-scented undergraduate nonsense about cultures in which placentas are revered, planted, and even eaten, may I just say this:  GROSS.  Gross, gross, gross.  Gross.  It's irrefutable, so save your self-righteous breath for your American Spirits and/or bong.

So, please pregnant women, think long and hard before you paint that belly.  It's a slippery slope from body paint to placenta pals, and the world is horrific enough without afterbirth buddies.  Let your baby be the souvenir of your birth if you aren't lucky enough to have long-lasting pregnancy weight gain and postpartum stretchmarks.  Your child should be reminder enough.