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Belly mapping: how is your baby laying?

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Gail Tully, author of The Belly Mapping Workbook and SpinningBabies.com has a brilliant approach to figuring out just how your baby is lying inside your womb.

Says Gail, "Belly mapping is a fun and great way for you to bond with your unborn baby and provide gentle stimulation, as well as a process for identifying your baby’s position in the last three months of your pregnancy. Belly mapping can also alert you as to how your baby’s position could affect your labour and delivery, especially if your baby is lying in a posterior position – his back against your back."

Mothers often know more about their baby’s position than they think, says Gail. "In the last month of pregnancy, most women can tell if their baby is head down and on what side of their body the baby’s back is laying." 

She encourages mothers to take some time out to get to know their baby’s habits. You are more likely to notice more details of baby’s movements when you:

  • adopt a semi-sitting position,
  • release your tension,
  • breathe deeply and slowly into your abdomen and
  • have well-oiled hands, so that it is easier to feel your baby’s bits.

Gail does warn, however, that you may find it difficult to do if you have a firm tone in your abdomen, or a lot of amniotic fluid. Also if your placenta has attached to the front of the uterus, it may be difficult for you to feel your baby’s body parts.

To do belly mapping, Gail teaches a method of imagining drawing a circle around your belly and dividing it into 4 quarters. Feel every quarter separately and make notes on a piece of paper – hard and soft bumps and bulges, hard and soft kicks.  

She details and demonstrates the belly-mapping method on her website, www.spinningbabies.com. The sooner you start, the more in touch you will be with your unborn baby.

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