The Belly Mapping® Method eBook
$19.95
The Belly Mapping® Method book invites you to explore your baby’s position in the later months of pregnancy through gentle touch, playful activities, and mindful awareness. You’ll learn how to bond with your baby while gaining insight into how their movements and positioning can influence your birth experience.
Description
Rooted in the Spinning Babies® approach, this beautifully illustrated guide is designed for parents and professionals alike. Inside, you’ll find step-by-step practices, creative games, and joyful insights that make pregnancy more engaging and birth preparation more approachable. The Belly Mapping® Method book is an invitation to celebrate your baby, nurture connection, and bring more awareness and ease to your journey.
What You’ll Learn
The Belly Mapping® Method book shows you how playful awareness and gentle touch can bring you closer to your baby while preparing for birth. Inside, you’ll find illustrations, activities, and insights covering:
- Understanding Baby’s Position
Learn how to feel for your baby’s movements and discover what they reveal about position in the womb. - Prenatal Bonding
Explore joyful activities, from touch to games, that deepen your connection with your baby. - Body Balancing and Awareness
Discover how posture, daily habits, and gentle movements can support comfort and ease in birth. - Creative Practices
Enjoy activities like belly painting, music, and mindful conversation that celebrate pregnancy and encourage connection. - Preparing for Birth
See how your baby’s position influences labor and gain awareness that supports physiological birth.
Want to dive deeper into Belly Mapping®? Spinning Babies® Certified Parent Educators are licensed to teach the Belly Mapping® Method in person. Find a Certified Parent Educator near you here.
Additional information
| What is The Belly Mapping® Method? | The Belly Mapping® Method is a three-step process for you to gently feel your belly and discover how your baby is lying inside your womb. |
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| When can I start The Belly Mapping® Method? | You can begin anytime in the third trimester (after 28 weeks), though some parents begin in the second trimester. The further along you are, the easier it is to feel details of your baby. |
| Is it safe for me and my baby? | Yes. Gentle touch using the pads of your fingers is safe and often enjoyable for your baby. Avoid poking or pressing hard. If you feel pain, stop and adjust your pressure. |
| Is The Belly Mapping® Method accurate? | The Belly Mapping® Method helps parents estimate their baby’s position, but it is not a diagnosis. Accuracy can vary based on gestation, fluid levels, baby’s size, and other factors. Repeating the process can improve accuracy. |
| How is The Belly Mapping® Method different from an ultrasound? | Ultrasound provides a two-dimensional image, while Belly Mapping® allows you to feel your baby’s three-dimensional form. Though it may not always be as precise as ultrasound, Belly Mapping® offers sensory connection, bonding, and playful interaction. Many parents find their estimations are later validated by ultrasound. |
| What will I actually feel? | What you feel depends on your body and your baby. Common examples include: |
| Do I need to be lying down? | Yes. Belly Mapping® works best when you are reclining or lying down with your belly relaxed. For comfort, recline on pillows with a thick pillow under your knees. |
| What if I can’t figure it out? | It’s normal to feel a little challenged or confused at first. Your baby may be behind the placenta or turned to the side. Try again another time, ask your provider for guidance, or repeat the steps with a helper. |
| Why does baby’s position matter for birth? | The way a baby enters the pelvis can make labor smoother or more challenging. Knowing your baby’s position helps you and your providers choose birth positions and comfort measures that support labor progress. |
| Can baby’s position change at any time before or during labor? | Yes. Positions can change, even during labor. The Belly Mapping® Method empowers parents to recognize changes and understand how position may affect labor. |
| Can The Belly Mapping® Method help if my baby is breech? | Yes. It can help you recognize a breech position earlier, giving you time to explore body-balancing activities and discuss options with your provider. |
| How does The Belly Mapping® Method support bonding? | The Belly Mapping® Method encourages touch, imagination, and playful connection. Many parents enjoy drawing or painting their baby’s position on their belly as a joyful keepsake. |
Jona B, Parent (store manager) –
“I loved my belly mapping experience. It allowed me to show my family members where the baby was lying and they loved that also. It was so special to see her image drawn on my belly to depict the movements I was feeling.”
Jackie B, Parent (store manager) –
“Our prenatal belly mapping session with Jessica at MamaShakti Prenatal was such a special experience! My husband and I loved learning how to connect with our baby in such a hands-on way, and it became a beautiful bonding moment for our little family. Jessica guided us with so much care and knowledge, and we even got to take some adorable commemorative photos that we’ll treasure forever. Highly recommend this to any expecting parents!”
LargerCircle on GoodReads, Parent (store manager) –
“This is a beautifully useful book. Although I was already familiar with Gail Tully’s work and her excellent website – http://www.spinningbabies.com – this book’s visuals helped me better understand the details of understanding a baby’s position inside its mother. I intend to take this book with me to … doula clients.”
Julie-Anne Mauno, Canada, Parent (store manager) –
“One of the most amazing experiences, really allowed me to adapt my movements and lifestyle and approach to the birth process to facilitate an easier birth.”
LoneStarGrl on Amazon, Parent (store manager) –
“I am 31 weeks and have enjoyed using this book to track my baby’s movements. I suspected that my baby was head down after using the techniques in this book. To double check my suspicion, I asked my obgyn and he … concluded the baby was indeed head down.”
Rahman on Amazon, Parent (store manager) –
“I loved using this book to learn more about what is happening with my baby and belly. Great resources for birth workers and moms-to-be.”
MB on Amazon, Parent (store manager) –
“Really fun and informative! Been bringing this into my appointments with my midwife to talk about baby’s position since 28 weeks and it has been a fun way to feel connected to what’s going on in utero. My midwife actually recommended this book to me when I started asking questions about how to tell the baby’s position.”
Association for Prenatal and Perinatal Psychology and Health (APPPAH) (store manager) –
“Belly Mapping® Method invites parents into a deep connection with their unborn baby. This book reaffirms that parents and babies are active participants together in their experience of pregnancy and birth—an important cornerstone of prenatal and perinatal psychology.”
Ibu Robin Lim, Midwife, grandmother, Activist for reproductive justice and Peace on Earth (store manager) –
“I wish every person expecting a baby could enjoy Gail Tully’s Belly Mapping® Method book, because I imagine a world of possibilities…. Wouldn’t our planet be more wonderful if all pregnant and birthing mothers felt safe and respected? Gail Tully helps us attain such a world by guiding mothers to achieve their most blessed birth experience. Gail shares her simple wisdom empowering MothersBabies&Families as they navigate towards better birth outcomes. Her book is extraordinary, and I found it fun. My granddaughter is soon to be married, and when she embarks upon the journey into motherhood, I’ll be giving her a copy of this wonderful book. May all pregnancies and births be blessed.” Love, Ibu Robin Lim
Carrie Contey, PhD author of CALMS: A Guide to Soothing Your Baby (store manager) –
“What a gem of a book! The Belly Mapping® Method is a delightful invitation to get to know your baby before birth. What I love most is how it turns curiosity and gentle touch into real bonding—building trust, joy, and connection while your baby is still inside. This method offers a simple, sweet way to feel more confident and more in love as you prepare to meet your tiniest new One.”
Robin Elise Weiss, BA, CLC, ICCE-CPE, CD(DONA), LCCE, FACCE, and About.com Guide to Pregnancy/Birth (store manager) –
“…A wonderfully intimate way for a mother to help connect with her baby in the womb as well as have a sense of baby’s position. The information in this slim volume will make a world of difference in your comfort for pregnancy and birth.”
Debra Pascali-Bonaro, DONA International Doula Trainer, LCCE, director of Orgasmic Birth: The Best-Kept Secret and co-author of Orgasmic Birth: Your Guide to a Safe, Satisfying and Pleasurable Birth Experience. (store manager) –
“The Belly Mapping® Method is essential reading for all pregnant women and their partners. Gail Tully opens our eyes to the intimate mother-baby connection and how posture and positions can help mothers and babies have easier labors and births. Full of insights and exercises to enhance your connection and prepare you and your baby for an optimal, safe, and satisfying birth experience. As a doula trainer, I highly recommend Belly Mapping® to all birth Professionals.
Debbie Young, DC(DONA), PCD(DONA), LCCE, Baby (store manager) –
“Hooray for women getting to know their own bodies and their babies inside! The Belly Mapping® Method is a wonderful read for moms and dads, midwives, doctors, doulas, nurses, and childbirth educators. It gives solid ideas and directions that all readers can use to better understand and explain what is happening inside that wonderfully mysterious place we call the womb. The tips for helping the baby get into the best position for birth are invaluable! I am so glad Gail covers so many situations and gives concrete, easy-to-understand directions for all involved….A wonderful addition to any processional’s library, and it is so user-friendly that a family can save it as a keepsake to track the journey of their pregnancy.”
Penny Simkin, PT author of The Birth Partner: A Complete Guide to Childbirth for Dads, Doulas and All Other Labor Companions and co-author of The Labor Progress Handbook and Pregnancy, Childbirth and the Newborn. (store manager) –
“Gail Tully combines unique gifts of clinical expertise, experience, creativity, sensitivity, intuition, original thinking, and wisdom to solve the mysteries of the baby’s position in utero. She shows pregnant women and their caregivers a variety of clues that reveal the baby position and how to put them all together to create a picture of the baby inside. She also suggests many ways for a pregnant or laboring woman to create favorable conditions for her baby to find its way into and through her pelvis and be born. Gail’s work deserves the attention and study of the scientific community, since fetal position is a major determinant of labor progress and mode of birth, and there is very little reliable information on way to identify and improve fetal position.”
Phyllis Klaus, PsyD (store manager) –
“Gail, thank you so much. You are so sensitive, and the whole situation of being able to tune into the baby and helping the mother tune into that sensitivity. It [Belly Mapping® Method] makes a connection that] extends at every level. So, it’s a very beautiful process, and I want to say that at many other levels, this kind of connection is helping the mother [connect to her baby].
I was talking to a doula not too long ago… and the mother was a young mother, and she felt very disengaged from her newborn, who was in the neonatal unit. She didn’t often visit; she was very disconnected.
And this particular doula could draw and she would sit every day in the neonatal unit drawing a little picture of that woman’s baby in the bassinet , the incubator situation. And she would draw the baby in a simple way. And one day the mother came and saw the drawing of the baby. And all of a sudden she fell in love with her baby, [from] somebody else seeing her baby in a different way.
The drawing that you’re doing from an earlier time can also touch a lot of people that might not be feeling connected. I think that’s the deeper message, as well as physiologically, it can be very helpful.”
Phyllis Klaus, PsyD (store manager) –
“Belly Mapping® is a beautiful way to bridge the gap between medical care and emotional connection. By encouraging parents to get curious, to listen, and to creatively engage with their baby in the womb, we honor both the science and the spirit of pregnancy. This integrated approach nurtures the whole family, before and beyond birth.”
Sylvia Muda, Fysiotherapiemuda.nl The Netherlands (SpBCPE) (store manager) –
“…an incredibly valuable piece of work … highly interesting for expectant parents as well as for healthcare providers involved in prenatal care.”