Bumpology!

Neat and very petite, big and blooming, pear-shaped, sitting high or swinging low — baby bumps come in all shapes and sizes. Former Strictly star Kristina Rihanoff was recently pictured sporting an enormous bump, far larger than might be expected for her petite 5ft 3in frame.

then there’s Hannah Bagshawe, the wife of Oscar-winning actor eddie Redmayne, who showed a remarkably small, curved stomach just weeks before giving birth to the couple’s first daughter, Iris, last month.

So why do expectant mothers look so very different, even at the same stage in their pregnancy? and what does the shape of their bump mean?

If you believe the old wives’ tales, a neat bump that sits high on the stomach means you’re having a boy, while a low, rounded bump that spreads over the waist and hips is a girl.

But experts say this is nonsense — a bump tells you far more about the woman than the weight or gender of her child.

‘Babies vary in shape and size, but nowhere near as enormously as bumps do,’ explains Sarah Fox, policy adviser at the Royal College of Midwives. ‘the bump of a 10lb baby can look smaller than that of a 6lb baby, depending on the shape of the mother’s body.’

So what exactly can you tell about a woman from her bump?

Using pictures taken during the third trimester (seven to nine months) of their pregnancy, we’ve compiled the ultimate celebrity bump guide . . .