Neat and very petite, big and blooming, pear-shaped, sitting high or swinging low — baby bumps come in all shapes and sizes.
Former Strictly star Kristina Rihanoff was recently pictured sporting an enormous bump, far larger than might be expected for her petite 5ft 3in frame.
Then there’s Hannah Bagshawe, the wife of Oscar-winning actor Eddie Redmayne, who showed a remarkably small, curved stomach just weeks before giving birth to the couple’s first daughter, Iris, last month.
So why do expectant mothers look so very different, even at the same stage in their pregnancy? And what does the shape of their bump mean?
If you believe the old wives’ tales, a neat bump that sits high on the stomach means you’re having a boy, while a low, rounded bump that spreads over the waist and hips is a girl.
But experts say this is nonsense – a bump tells you far more about the woman than the weight or gender of her child.
‘Babies vary in shape and size, but nowhere near as enormously as bumps do,’ explains Sarah Fox, policy adviser at the Royal College of Midwives. ‘The bump of a 10lb baby can look smaller than that of a 6lb baby, depending on the shape of the mother’s body.’
So what exactly can you tell about a woman from her bump?
Using pictures taken during the third trimester (seven to nine months) of their pregnancy, we’ve compiled the ultimate celebrity bump guide.
Short women often appear to have larger, more protruding bumps than taller women, as slight Strictly star Kristina Rihanoff, 38, whose baby is due in under a month, shows.
This isn’t due to the size of her unborn child, though muscly partner Ben Cohen is unlikely to have fathered a tiny baby, but rather the length of her torso.
A short torso means there is less room for the uterus to grow upwards between the pelvis and the ribs, so it has no option but to expand outwards as the baby grows. In a woman with a longer torso, the uterus stays narrow and the bump looks smaller.
‘There is simply less room for the bump to grow if you are short in stature,’ explains Clare Byam-Cook, a midwife and breast-feeding expert.
‘It seems to hang out more and show earlier in the pregnancy. Shorter women carry the weight around their hips and bottom, while taller women carry their baby more to the front,’ she adds.
Being noticeably over- or under-weight can have a bearing. If her BMI is less than 18.5 or over 30, a pregnant woman is at risk of complications such as high blood pressure.
Actress Emily Blunt, 33, remained remarkably slender during her pregnancy this year, appearing to gain very little weight at all when carrying daughter Violet.
Experts say her slight frame may account for her very neat, self-contained bump, shown here at seven months in April.
‘Celebrities are subject to such close scrutiny that many continue to control their diet and watch their weight when they’re pregnant,’ says Clare.
Even when they are close to giving birth, their limbs and bottom will still appear slim.
‘Some women gorge on food, putting on lots of weight around their thighs and middles,’ says Clare. ‘As they get physically bigger, so does their bump, which can contain a lot of fat.’
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