Your pregnancy bump

For the first weeks of pregnancy, no-one can tell by looking at you the amazing changes taking place inside. But soon your tummy expands, and before you know it you’ve got a proper bump, like a sign that tells the world ‘I’m pregnant!’ It can be a strange experience, walking around with this obvious advertisement of your condition.

People look at you differently, doing a double take when they clock your tummy, and reactions can vary from expressions of horror to squeals of delight. How you feel about your bump can change from day to day, too, from pride and excitement on one day to despair about feeling fat and frumpy the next. 

Here we take a look at exactly what’s going on inside your bump, and how to make sure you feel proud and happy as you bloom and grow!


It’s what inside that counts…

Your bump isn’t just baby – Community Midwife Yvonne Faulkner explains what else is inside your ever-expanding tummy:

• Baby ‘The average baby weighs around 7lb 3oz at birth, so by the end of your pregnancy you’re carrying half a stone of extra person around with you!’

• Placenta ‘This provides your baby with all his oxygen and nutritional needs while he’s inside you.’

• Amniotic fluid – ‘Your baby floats in a fluid-filled sac which protects him from bumps and keeps him at the right temperature.’

• Umbilical cord ‘This links your baby and the placenta, taking all the good stuff to him, and the bad stuff away.’


All bellies great and small!

There are as many shapes and sizes of bump as there are bodies, and it’s impossible to predict whether you’ll get a neat pop star belly or a mini-mountain.

While it’s true that the size of your baby is related to your own birth weight, your partner’s genes are an influence too, and the size of your bump is also affected by the size of the placenta, how much weight you gain, the strength of your tummy muscles, and the amount of amniotic fluid you produce.


All change

When your bump starts to show varies a lot. Some women find their tummy swells as early as six or seven weeks. ‘This can be caused by hormonal changes – like the bloating that some women experience around their period,’ says Yvonne Faulkner.

‘Extra fluid in your body can give you a ‘pot belly’, and if you’re constipated your tummy can feel hard and swollen.’ At around 12 weeks your uterus is big enough to rise out of your pelvis, creating the beginnings of a real bump.

At this stage your tummy muscles can influence how big you look. ‘If you have very strong abdominal muscles, they’ll hold your uterus neatly inside you so your bump isn’t very noticeable,’ says Yvonne. 

Once your bump does start to show, it can look and feel different from day to day, too. ‘When your baby is tiny, there’s lots of space to move around. Some days he can be poking out in front, and on others hiding inside, so your bump goes in and out accordingly,’ explains Yvonne.

As your stomach begins to get squashed around inside you, how much you’ve eaten or drunk can make a difference, too, - so you might look four months pregnant in the morning, and seven months after lunch! ‘Later in pregnancy, from around 28 weeks, your baby’s head can start to go down into your pelvis,’ says Yvonne, ‘and particularly if you’ve had a baby before, it can pop in and out, making your bump look bigger or smaller, higher or lower.’

‘I find that my clothes makes an enormous difference to how pregnant I look. If I wear black, I never get offered a seat on the tube, but in light colours I get people asking me when it’s due every five minutes!’ Emma, 28 weeks pregnant


Lets go round again

You may find that your bump looks quite different with each pregnancy. You can produce very different amounts of amniotic fluid for each baby, second and subsequent babies tend to be heavier than firstborns, and the placenta can be a different size each time, too.

Your tummy will probably expand more quickly with second and subsequent pregnancies than it did the first time, as the skin and muscle have already been stretched out once before.

This doesn’t mean that you’ll end up bigger each time, but it may mean that your bump expands more in the early stages, so that you’re noticeably pregnant much earlier than first time around.

‘I put on exactly the same amount of weight in both my pregnancies, but while everyone told me now neat I looked the first time, the second time I was always getting comments about looking huge.

I was very obviously pregnant from about nine weeks, but it all evened out at the end and I didn’t get any bigger than the first time.’ Charlotte, mum to Olivia, two, and Otis, four months


On the surface

It’s not just inside your bump that all the action is taking place - there are big changes on the outside, too:

Stretch marks The jury’s out on whether you can prevent these purplish-red marks, although you can try rubbing in creams and oils - they certainly feel lovely on stretched skin. If you do get them, they’ll fade within a few months to silvery lines that are much less noticeable.

Hair ‘A hairy tummy isn’t unusual,’ says Yvonne,  ‘and is due to hormonal changes. The hair will gradually fade as your hormone levels go back to normal soon after the birth.’

Linea negra  ‘Some women get a brown lline down the middle of their bumps  because hormonal changes cause your body to produce more melanin,’ explains Yvonne.

Belly button Depending on whether you’re an ‘inny’ or an ‘outy’ your tummy button will either flatten out or pop outwards. It will pop back in again as soon as your tummy deflates after the birth.

Unwelcome attention

Some people can’t keep their hands to themselves, and you may find your tummy is like a magnet for pats from friends and even complete strangers. If you don’t like it, you don’t have to put up with it – a pained expression, pulling away or saying ‘ouch!’ usually get the message across!

But try and remember that most of the attention is well-meant. People are genuinely excited about the amazing thing that’s happening in your body, and want to share their enthusiasm – even if they don’t always express it in the most appropriate way.

You’lll also find that people are keen to comment on your body shape. In everyday life you’d be shocked if someone announced ‘Goodness, aren’t you looking plump today!’ But when you’re pregnant, hardly a day passes without someone telling you how huge you look, or how tiny, or how you haven’t put any weight on your bum at all.

People are amazed by the incredible changes happening to your body, and if they don’t see you often, it can be a shock to see how you different you look to your usual familiar self! It’s best to laugh it off. For persistent offenders, asking a friend or your partner to chip in with ‘I think she looks wonderful’ should help them realise their comments are hurtful.

One possibility is that other women are bringing their own hang-ups about weight and body-image to the table. Friends who’ve had babies and felt unhappy about their shape may envy the way you look, or the fact that you’re relaxed about your body, while those who haven’t taken the plunge yet will be worrying about how their own bodies will change when the time comes.

‘I’m usually happy with my body, and proud of my shape during pregnancy. But sometimes I’d be reduced to tears by people’s comments. This time around I’ve learned to ignore it – I get ‘you’re tiny!’ and ‘you’re huge!’ in the same day, so it’s meaningless. I never comment on pregnant friends’ size – I just tell them they look lovely, blooming and healthy.’ Maire, mum to Niamh, three, and seven months pregnant

Boy bump or girl bump?

Plenty of people believe the old wives’ tale that you can tell the sex of your baby from the shape of your bump. ‘All out the front’ means a boy, as does a low-slung bump, while ‘all round the sides’ or a high bump means a girl. So is there any truth in the idea? Midwife Yvonne Faulkner doesn’t think so!

‘When babies are born, there’s only one difference between the boys and the girls, and it’s the obvious one!’ she says. ‘If your bump looks different with each pregnancy, you’ve probably gained more or less weight or the baby is lying differently.

It may well be a different sex, but there are only two kinds of baby, and more shapes and sizes of bump than you could count!

Reader panellist Julie Cottier says: ‘I love my bump in clothes but am not so keen on it naked because of the stretch marks. I seem to be drafting quite a road map on my tummy!’