By Tim Collins For Mailonline and Victoria Allen Science Correspondent For The Daily Mail
Published: 16:33 BST, 13 June 2019 | Updated: 02:03 BST, 14 June 2019
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Pregnant women don't suffer from 'baby brain', they are in fact hyper-alert and vigilant to anything that might hurt their unborn child.
In the last three months of pregnancy women subconsciously form a larger 'protective bubble' around their bump, wishing people to keep an estimated 26 inches (66cm) away.
Researchers at Anglia Ruskin University say this may be because pregnant women are more aware of danger to their unborn baby.
Pregnant women may need to be given more personal space by other people. While we generally prefer other people to stand an arm's length away, very pregnant women need twice as much distance, a study suggests (stock image)
But their changing body could also make them less aware of how much space they take up, so strangers feel closer.
The scientists worked out pregnant women's personal space by playing them an approaching 'whooshing' sound over two loudspeakers.
When women thought the sound was too close, they reacted more quickly to a metal 'tapper' which gently touched them.
This experiment in 20 non-pregnant women estimates a regular person's personal space at around an arm's length, or 12 inches (30cm) to 16 inches (40cm).
But that jumped to around 26 inches, or around two-thirds of a metre, for a different group of 20 women who were eight
