By the way, in the past they often tried to determine the gender of the child by the shape of the belly. It was believed that a round belly foreshadows a girl, and an elongated, oblong, “sharp” belly portends a boy. However, these predictions did not always come true, since the shape and size of the abdomen do not depend at all on the gender of the child.
• In large, tall women, the belly may be small and not very noticeable until advanced stages of pregnancy, but in thin, petite women (especially with a narrow pelvis or a large baby), the belly appears very large.
• The state of the muscle tone of the anterior abdominal wall and uterus has a significant influence on the shape of the abdomen. During your first pregnancy and good muscle tone, your stomach may look more “toned” than with subsequent pregnancies. In addition, with repeated pregnancies, as a result of reduced muscle tone of the anterior abdominal wall, the child does not occupy its final position until the last month of pregnancy. Because of this, the shape of the abdomen can also be “stretched”.
• If a woman is expecting twins, her belly will be larger than with a singleton pregnancy.
• And often the belly can be large simply because a woman stops restricting herself in nutrition and eats “for two.”
• If the child grows quickly or is large, then the mother’s belly may grow faster and be larger.
• Babies are positioned differently in the uterus. With some types of presentation, the belly will be less noticeable, with others it will begin to grow earlier and will appear larger.