Innie Or Outie, A Sign Of Fertility?

The bump or button left behind on your daughter’s belly after the umbilical stump falls off could tell you whether you’re destined to be a granny.

A University of Finland researcher says the belly button is more than just the cute thing your tot is showing off when she lifts up her shirt every five minutes. It’s a sign of “mating potential” in fertile women.

And we just though it was there to pop out in the ninth month to tell us when the baby was done cooking!

Aki Sinkkonen at the University of Helsinki published an article this month in the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB) Journal theororising that the shape of the belly button is linked to a woman’s fertility: “I suggest that the symmetry, shape, and position of umbilicus can be used to estimate the reproductive potential of fertile females, including risks of certain genetically and maternally inherited fetal anomalies.”

The belly button is essentially a scar, signifying how the body reacted to the loss of the umbilical cord stump. It seems to serve no other purpose, Sinkkonen says, one of the reasons she’s begun floating her theory (note, a theory, NOT a fact) about innie as fertility signal.

So here’s my big question – if it’s all about a woman’s fertility, why do boys have belly buttons?

Image: GeoParent