What's a Belly Button? Your belly button marks the spot where your umbilical (say: um-BIL-ih-kul) cord was once attached. This cord is a soft, bendable tube that carried nutrients — vitamins and minerals — from your mother to you, back when you were in her belly (womb). A belly button is also called a navel.
Bellybutton was first noted by John Bartlett in the 1877 edition of his Dictionary of Americanisms.
"Navel" comes from the Anglo-Saxon word "nafela". The Romans called the belly button the "umbilicus". The Greeks called it the "omphalos".
It is a scar, or mark, that remains where your umbilical cord attached you to your mother before you were born. Your navel is technically named the umbilicus and is commonly called the “belly button.” All humans have them.
Some people don't have a belly button, and the reason for this may be related to surgical history or just an anomaly in how the belly button formed (or didn't, for that matter). Most of the time, if you don't have a belly button, it's related to a surgery or a medical condition you had when you were younger.
Belly buttons are barely a few millimetres deep at a young age. At a young age, belly buttons have an elongated shape. The diameter of the navel varies from fifteen to twenty millimetres. The body weight, pregnancies and abdominal wall hernia can influence the appearance.
The navel is an odd, but powerful, erogenous zone. When someone pokes inside or around a belly button, some people may feel erotic sensations. That's because the navel and genitals have a common tissue origin. For some, the stimulation feels like a tickle—down there.
Most people who have an "outie" fall into one of two categories: either they were born with a tiny umbilical hernia, which is most likely, or had a small infection at the base of the umbilical cord that went unnoticed. This will cause unusual tissue called granulation tissue to form.
Marsupials, such as kangaroos and koalas, who spend most of their early development in their mother's pouch, and egg-laying mammals, such as the platypus and the echidna, have no need for umbilical cords so they never develop a belly button.
Most belly buttons are indented so act as a trap for sweat, dead skin, and dirt. Few people wash the belly button with soap so germs can develop. The most common cause for a belly button smell is poor hygiene. All areas of the body need to be washed regularly to stay clean and healthy.
navel in British English
1. the scar in the centre of the abdomen, usually forming a slight depression, where the umbilical cord was attached.
This part of your abdomen is referred to as the umbilical region. It contains parts of your stomach, small and large intestine, and your pancreas.
When the umbilical cord is not cut, it naturally seals off after about an hour after birth. The umbilical cord and attached placenta will fully detach from the baby anywhere from two to 10 days after the birth.
Almost all placental mammals do, in fact, intervene to sever the umbilical cord of their newborn. The exceptions are marine mammals and camels. Great apes usually bite through the cord in the process of eating the placenta. This combines cleanliness with returning nutrients to the birthing ape.
Reptiles grow inside the egg with an umbilical cord attached to the yolk, just like we are attached to a placenta. They have a belly button as in the entry point for the umbilical cord into the abdomen but not in the form of a scar that we get after birth.
The majority of people have “innies,” the very scientific term for belly buttons that dip inward. Protruding “outies” can be found on approximately 10 percent of the population. They're about as common as left-handedness.
No. Some people claim you can change an outie to an innie – by taping a quarter over it, for example – but it's just not true.
When you're born, the umbilical cord is cut and you have a small piece left called the umbilical stump. One to 2 weeks after birth, this stump falls off and what remains is your belly button. As a result, your belly button is essentially a scar. Whether it's an innie or outie depends on how your skin grows as it heals.
Your belly button is an erogenous zone
Even though the belly button is just a scar, the area has many nerve endings, making it ticklish, sensitive, and — if you're like Madonna — a love button that shoots sex tingles up your spine.
Richardson cautions against touching your belly button with your germy fingers, as it can lead to serious infections.
The opening normally closes just after birth. If the muscles don't join together completely in the midline of the abdominal wall, an umbilical hernia may appear at birth or later in life. In adults, too much abdominal pressure contributes to umbilical hernias.
Note: You can't actually breathe into your back or belly. You can only breathe into your lungs. This exercise involves using the expansion of your lungs within the body to help stimulate sensation and movement in the lower back.
The belly button is where the umbilical cord attaches to the fetus, connecting the developing baby to the placenta. Within the cord, there are blood vessels (the arteries) that carry waste away from the baby and another vessel that supplies the baby with oxygen and other nutrients.
After childbirth, your provider will clamp the cord and then cut it, leaving a stump (umbilicus) behind. Between one to three weeks, the stump dries up and falls off.
A deep hollow belly button typically occurs when the hood of skin casts a shadow on the inside of the button, giving the visual impression of it being quite deep. This shape is also common in people who have some excess belly fat around the abdomen.