quick clicks

moms today articles

moms today q&a

message boards

research baby names

prepare a birth plan

content channels

ip channel rss feeds

read birth stories

read parenting stories

recommended books

e-newsletters

safety recalls

ip diaries

ip store

mom of the month

dad of the month

editor's letter

letters to the editor

Belly Buttons After Pregnancy

Mommy, Why Does Yours Look Like That?

By Jenn Director Knudsen

Now, leave it to an experienced pediatrician to explain how your (perhaps) innie became an outie toward the end of pregnancy:

"I liken the whole process to the way it is when you blow up a balloon and push the knot in," says Dr. Jennifer Shu, instructor of pediatrics at Dartmouth Medical School in New Hampshire and co-author of Heading Home with Your Newborn: From Birth to Reality (American Academy of Pediatrics, 2005). "If you blow the balloon up even more, the knot will push out, just like a previously stuck-in belly button."

OK, then, why doesn't your belly button snap back to its previous form after your baby is born?

Turns out that in a small percentage of women, it actually does return to its pre-pregnancy self. You can thank – or blame – genetics for whether or not your navel ever looks the same again after giving birth, Dr. Klapper says.

Some women's DNA predisposes them to an "inherent elasticity" in their skin, Dr. Klapper says. "In all the women I know, they hate women like that," he says.

Hopefully Dr. Shu, a mother herself, doesn't wear bikinis too often in public. "On a personal note, my belly button never changed," she says.

Dr. Shu's co-author, pediatrician and mother Dr. Laura A. Jana, adds that it seems apparent all the stretching involved in nine months of pregnancy will wreak at least a bit of havoc on most women's navels (if not on their bellies, too, in the form of stretch marks).

"I usually use the example of an overstretched rubber band," Dr. Jana says of how she explains mommies' expanding tummies and funny-looking belly buttons to children.

Want to see more?

• Check out our Article Library.
• Talk about it!
• Body Talk: Teaching Your Toddler Body Parts Through Play
• Get Your Body Back! Postpartum Exercises for Mom
• Post-childbirth Abs: You Can Get Them Back!
• Have Baby, Still Exercise: 5 Fitness Solutions
  for the First Year of Life

Post As:
Enter your comment below:
Title
Comment Text
CAPTCHA
Please note that any comments submitted become the property of Disney Family / iParenting and can be edited and posted at our discrection.