Will the inny turn outy?

Most people ignore their tummy buttons for most of the time.

The little spot on your stomach serves no purpose other than to remind you that you were once born to your mother. Indeed, apart from occasionally gathering fluff, provoking a ticklish response when touched or showcasing a piercing [proud supermodel flat stomachs only], your one-time fetal life support system goes unnoticed by you and those around you. At least it does until you become pregnant.

Mrs B and I have become fascinated by her umbilicus (thank you Wikipedia) over recent days as her ever-growing bump looks to be attempting to push her 'inny'...out.

Now, having had a lifelong inny Mrs B is a little concerned about the prospect of having an outy. How will this change things? Will the outy revert to an inny once Baby B arrives? Or, once outted, does your inny stay an outy forever? These are important questions.

We've sureptitiously studied other pregnant ladies' navels and it seems that it's a 50/50 inny/outy split - at least as far as we can tell from staring at random, clothed bumps. So surely not all innied mums can become outies?

Close examination of Mrs B reveals a shrinking tummy button, one that's becoming more of a tummy slit than a button in fact, and our feelings are that, with two and a half months to go, the growing baby will do his or her best to upset the tummy button apple cart.

It's important to point out that we are not saying that an inny is in any way better than an outy, the worry on Mrs B's part - not being one to openly embrace change very often - is that her post-baby tummy will look different to her pre-baby tummy (accepting of course the obvious differences that follow pregnancy).

However, it seems that we're not alone. Indeed, there are a huge numer of messageboards and forums out there debating this very subject... just like this one.

So, ladies and gentlemen, place your bets now. Will Mrs B's inny become an outy before the arrival of Baby B?

Watch this space to find out.