Having A Baby: Now--And Then

Mariah Carey just showed off her bump in a time-honored celebrity fashion by posing nude for the cover of this weeks Life & Style.Remember, the first celeb who decided the world needed to see her in all her pregnant glory was Demi Moore, when she posed nude and covered with body paint for a sensationalat the time-- Vanity Fair cover.

In a way, I think showing off and celebrating pregnancy is part of our new passion for babies.It seems like you just have to have one. That is, if you are, or want to be, a star. In the past couple of months, there has been a rare cover of the celeb weeklies that has not had some actress with her baby or, thanks to the frequency of IVFs, her twins on the cover.

I had my babies at a very different time.It was when some people were seriously promoting zero population growth and writing books about how much better it was not to be a mother. Nobody then showed off her pregnant state in stretchy pants or a maternity bikini, let alone totally starkers. I had my babies when mini-skirts reigned, and my prim maternity dresses looked rather like pillow cases. It was also when mothers-to-be were encouraged to gain as little weight as possible. I think I gained only twenty pounds and my first son weighed scarcely five pounds. He might be considered a preemie these days.