pregnancy

This toddler knew her mum was pregnant way before she did.

Your stomach is bloated, your breasts are tender and you’ve become well-acquainted with the floor next to your loo.

It doesn’t take a genius to realise you might be pregnant.

But rewind a few weeks, before your period went AWOL and before you had an excuse for your excessive crabbiness, to when you had no idea that your recent romp in the hay was something much more special.

Can you imagine your 16-month-old son placing his hands on your belly, giving it a kiss and saying “mummy, baby”? And would you believe him?

The internet is filled with incredible stories like this one. As it turns out, the pregnancy predictions of kids do come true.

Listen: Holly Wainwright and Andrew Daddo discuss whether toddlers can sense their mums are pregnant, on the This Glorious Mess podcast. 

“My daughter’s teacher congratulated me saying my daughter told her I was pregnant with a baby boy. I had no clue I was pregnant at the time and found out about two weeks later. I still haven’t told her the news but she talks about the baby in my belly every day and how she can’t wait to become a big sister. So I would say yes they definitely know!” wrote Tiamumin on a parenting forum.

“Let me start by saying I know how crazy this sounds…. Before we knew we were pregnant our one-and-a-half year old put his foot on my stomach and said ‘baby’. It was really strange, and he had never done it before. We weren’t trying, so we had no clue that I was pregnant. Took a test a week later and BAM!” added Emtaw.

“The week before I found out I was pregnant, I was in the grocery store with my almost 2 year old. She kept lifting the bottom of my shirt and saying “Baby? Baby?” I almost died when I took the test and it came back positive!” wrote Stippyrow.

When you fall pregnant, your hormones start to do their thing before even a home pregnancy test could detect the baby. So is it possible that your child could pick up on these hormones?

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You might think it’s just an old wives tale but there is something to be said for intuition. They say dogs are the first to sense an earthquake and studies even show they can sniff out cancer. So why couldn’t a toddler catch a whiff of a brewing baby?

Or perhaps the answer lies in the unique relationship between a mother and child.

Having not long ago left the warm and nurturing space of your womb, is it really so crazy to think your child would be in tune with your body?

And even more so if your child is still breastfeeding. Surely there would be a perceptible change with all those new pregnancy hormones bubbling away…

But not every mum had such a sweet moment with their child and pregnancy, as one woman pointed out.

“I’ve heard people say that a lot but my five year old had no idea despite my large bump! She knew what a bump meant as her teacher was pregnant too but she just kept patting my tummy and saying ‘have you eaten too much again?’ PMSL. Intuitive…” wrote (not a mum!) Clarehc.

Was your toddler the first to know?

Listen to the full episode of This Glorious Mess here:

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