The question of how pregnant women manage to avoid toppling over due to their huge bump has finally been answered. Scientists have discovered an elegant piece of evolutionary engineering that allows the female spine to balance the extra load.

There is a difference in the lower backbones and hips between men and women which has developed over millions of years that allows women to carry a foetus while maintaining an upright posture. Women’s lower vertebrae are wedge-shaped and their hip joints are slightly bigger than men’s.

Women’s lower spines have evolved greater flexibility and support than that of a man and as a foetus and placenta can together weigh almost 7 kg (15.4 lb), the extra load then moves the centre of gravity to the front of the hips which forces the women to lean back.

Daniel Lieberman, of Harvard University, said: “Early human women lived very strenuous, active lives and were forced to cope with the discomfort of childbearing while foraging for food and escaping from predators. This evolution helped early women to remain more mobile during pregnancy, which would have been essential to survival.”

It is always a lot of fun to see what the “celebs” are doing for their baby showers. In Los Angeles this week one hundred mums and mums-to-be were treated to a host of gifts from Nicole Richie and her boyfriend Joel Madden.

The celebrity couple, who are expecting their own baby next month, held a shower, gifting $200,000 worth of goods to the women. Richie and Madden gave out the gifts at the LA Free Clinic as part of their Richie Madden Children’s Foundation.

“We grew up in Los Angeles and we want our child to be a part of the community, and to know that there’s a responsibility to help the community” said Madden. Richie told reporters she was thrilled by the reaction of the baby shower. “The looks on their faces were priceless,” she said. “Some of them didn’t even believe us. They thought we were joking.” Madden was also pleased by the turnout. “Sometimes people don’t want to believe that me and Nicole are just a young couple having a baby and we’re really excited,” he said. “We don’t really get to share our lives with people. It’s nice to connect with people on a real level.”

Tomy, is looking for a model Daddy to front its new baby carrier advertising campaign. Do you know of anyone who might be interested? This is a guaranteed once in a lifetime opportunity.

Tomy has teamed up with Prima Baby and is currently looking for a gorgeous new daddy to front its new print advertising campaign.

Winning dads will be the face of the new, stylish carrier range and will be featured in Prima Baby next year. They’ll also win a night for two at a top London hotel, £200 spending money, travel expenses, a Freestyle Premier carrier from the brand new range and a hamper full of gorgeous Tomy baby and toddler toys.

Entering is easy. All you need to do is visit www.tomy.co.uk/daddyidol and download an entry form to send off with recent photos. The only criteria is that dads need to have had a baby between 7th December 2006 and 7th December 2007.

Good luck!

Congratulations to Rachel Ponder from Lincoln who recently received one of our fantastic Ultimate Deluxe Baby Shower Party Packs after entering the baby shower competition in Baby & Beyond Magazine. Well done and we hope you enjoy your prize.

We all know that women like pink and men prefer blue, but we have never really known why. Now it emerges that parents who dress their boys in blue and girls in pink may not just be following tradition but some deep-seated evolutionary instinct. Researchers have found that there could be sound historical reasons why women have developed a heightened appreciation of reds and pinks, while men are drawn to blue. “The explanation might date back to humans’ hunter-gatherer days, when women were the primary gatherers and would have benefited from an ability to home in on ripe, red fruits,” Anya Hurlbert, who led the team of researchers, said. “Culture may exploit and compound this natural female preference.” While blue was liked universally, this preference stood out among men as it was not balanced by a parallel liking for pink, the study found. This, too, could have deep-seated natural roots: water that appears blue is more likely to be clean, and the colour is also an indicator of fine weather. The scientists from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, who were led by Dr Hurlbert and Yazhu Ling, averaged people’s overall preferences. The male favourite was a pale blue while the female favourite was a lilac shade of pink.