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SIERRA VISTA — Denise Callahan is an artist. Her medium is plaster. Her subject is the pregnant belly.
Callahan has created keepsake belly casts for about 40 pregnant women in two years. She travels all over Cochise County and sometimes to Phoenix or Tucson to do castings at the women’s homes, so they can be comfortable.
She calls her business Beautiful Bellies.
Most of her business comes by word-of-mouth, which is how Roxette Campbell heard about her service. Campbell had a casting done Friday and is expected to deliver her baby June 27.
  
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Callahan placed strips of plaster on Campbell’s body, from her collarbone to the bottom of her belly, and repeated the process to make sure the final cast will be sturdy.
She dipped each strip into water tinted with blue dye — Campbell’s choice of color, since she is pregnant with a boy.
“It’s good to do it on a hot day,” Campbell said. “It feels good.”
Aurelio Pedrego, Campbell’s fiance, said he had never seen anything like it before. Although the fathers don’t always come to see the belly casting, Callahan said she likes when they share in the experience.
Callahan had never seen a casting until about five years ago, when her mother-in-law did one of her while she was pregnant with her son.
Her son died a few weeks after birth, and the casting now hangs in her living room covered with colorful stars, crescents and other shapes. It reminds her of her son and is the reason she began doing belly castings for other women, she said.
It’s a keepsake that lasts a lifetime, she said, although creating the cast takes her no more than 20 minutes.
“It’s really quick. It’s just a matter of getting the right spots,” she said.
After allowing it to set for about 10 minutes, she removes the cast. She’ll let it dry for another day before decorating the cast.
Pedrego and Campbell said they plan to hang the cast in their baby’s room. After getting some ideas from some of Callahan’s other castings, Campbell decided she wants a turtle painted on hers.
Callahan will decorate the casts for the women with their choice.
“It’s their casting, so it’s their ideas,” she said.
The castings cost between about $60 to $75, Callahan said, depending on decorations. She’s painted pictures on them, including frogs, baseballs and mitts, and butterflies. Other casts have been covered with messages and signatures to the babies and family at baby showers, or include the baby’s birth date, birth weight, handprints and footprints.
She also records the number of weeks and days each woman was pregnant when the cast was taken, along with the date the cast was taken.
Callahan, who is also a trained midwife and doula, also answers any questions she can for her clients about pregnancy and birth during the casting.
“I want to help them have the best birth as possible,” she said.
Campbell asks her about her experiences, and Callahan described what she did and gave her advice and ideas on having a more natural birth. She shows her how she relieves pain in hips and gives her pamphlets on breast-feeding.
In addition to the casts, Callahan makes miniature replicas of the casts, does pregnancy photography and would like to create baby shower parties.
“Pregnant women, to me, are beautiful. They hold another being inside them and it’s amazing,” she said.
There aren’t enough resources for pregnant women in Cochise County, and Callahan said she tries to do as much as she can for pregnant women.
“It’s my passion,” she said.
Someday she would like to a gallery featuring some of her castings and information for pregnant women.
She’d also like to do a casting for a woman pregnant with twins.
“I’ve never gotten to do a twin belly yet,” she said.
Pictures are great, but a belly casting is something more personal, she said.
“It’s a memory you can keep for a long time.”
REPORTER Laura Ory can be reached at 515-4683 or by e-mail at laura.ory@svherald.com.
