Bondage with one in the oven…
From the inbox:

Hi Monk, firstly thank you for your fantastic site and especially your videos. We are yet to purchase any rope from you, because just as I was going to...we fell pregnant. Which is GREAT but I'm getting sick of abstaining from my favorite, rope play.

Any chance you know which bits are safe etc?

Thanks for any help you can give us...

First off, congratulations, the whole “kid thing” scares the bejesus out of me, so you are a far braver soul than I am for undertaking such a daunting task. Now onto your question; I’ve had the opportunity once, a long time ago to do bondage on a pregnant woman. This was pretty early in my (and this blog’s) career so the ties were more decorative. You can see a shot here. I must admit that I find pregnant woman insanely beautiful, recently a friend showed up at a party proudly displaying her swollen, third trimester tummy and I was all but transfixed by it. I’m almost embarrassed to admit that I sheepishly asked to touch her tummy like a shy schoolboy getting his first kiss.

But I digress.

Not having enough direct experience to answer your question I polled the various kinky moms I know as well as a photographer friend, Jim Duvall, who in addition to being a very respected bondage instructor and community mentor has also done a lot of work with pregnant women and rope. So here is the skinny, as it were, as reported to me.

Pregnant women start producing a chemical called Relaxin. This allows the pelvis to expand to let the baby out. It also lets their other joints get really flexy. You can often do things with a pregnant woman’s knees hips shoulders and elbows you could never do before. That said, flexibility in the torso is restricted (for obvious reasons) and pressure against the abdomen should be avoided.

Also, later in pregnancy, any ropes around the breasts need to be looser than usual, because the glands around the area are swollen and she might be sore (in a not nice way) afterwards. As on put it, “Beware of milk. Boobs are huge and sore. And they squirt milk.”

Oh and, Bondage or SM that takes a person into stressed condition such as fight or flight should be avoided as it can influence the pregnancy SM is not a good way to induce labor.

So there ya go, I would say stick to limb ties. Keep pressure away from the abdomen, watch the tightness on the chest harness and watch out for squirting milk (or watch for it if that is your thing). Oh and as for suspension, I’d say no. My friends gave me a mixed result. Some did it (clear up to the end of the second trimester) and said that it was hard but ok. Others said “no way in hell”.