| | Salon Health & Body | Navel battle (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-06) |
 | | The cord was cut and clamped, and in the sleepless weeks afterward, as we waited anxiously for her little umbilical stub to wither and fall off -- to give way to her newly formed bellybutton -- I had just one abiding prayer: Please, God, let her be an innie. |
 | | Japanese spiritualist Hogen Fukunaga writes, "The navel is the core of everything about the person." So it logically follows that the unlucky person who ends up with an abnormal version of this most central of body parts is doomed to a life of dubious distinction. |
 | | I would immerse myself in bellybutton literature, plumb the depths of the navel's development, interview the experts, debunk the myths and lay bare the truths, all toward the end goal of ensuring my daughter's rightful place among the world's innies. |
| www.salon.com /health/feature/1999/08/12/bellybuttons (719 words) |