by Sara McGinnis posted in Pregnancy

I was the kind of pregnant that made people nervous. Somewhere between 35 and 40 weeks along I went from getting sweet smiles from strangers to wide eyes. They seemed genuinely nervous I might explode at any moment.
Luckily, I worked in retail at the time, so naturally many folks felt invited to chat me up about my body.
"Another month"!" I recall one disbelieving woman remarking after asking my due date. "Oh, honey. You're never going to make it."
Gee, thanks for the vote of confidence, lady. Hard to say if that one was better or worse than the occasional, "Are you sure it's not twins"" inquiry. Oof.
What can I say" I wasn't particularly small pre-pregnancy, and at 5 feet, 4 inches with practically no waist to speak of, there wasn't anywhere for my baby to grow but straight out. Curiously though, my childhood best friend had the near opposite pregnancy experience from me. She's a few inches taller than I am, but she's all torso. With each of her three pregnancies, at 40 weeks along she could easily make her way through the world without anyone even batting an eye. In a loose top, she could even pass for not pregnant at all.
These two experiences, along with a general fascination about the amazingness of pregnancy, keep me endlessly intrigued with baby bumps. Here, a look at 21 moms from the BabyCentre UK site showing off their varying full-term bellies.

How wou...