I recently dug out something called the Tummy Tub, lent to me by a friend who swore by it.

The trouble with friends swearing by their parenting tools is that thepressure is on…to find that sleeping bag, or this car mirror, or those leather slippers, as totally essential and life-changing as they did.

Counterintuitive though this humble-looking baby bathtub is, it’s a brilliant piece of design that uses a baby’s natural body positioning instincts. Quite simply, the Tummy Tub lets your baby take a bath in what she thinks is your womb, folded into the fetal position.

It’s a total win/win – no tears, no struggling and lots of photo opportunities as she sits in her semi-transparent bucket happy as Larry. We called her our Science Experiment because that’s what she looked like.

Another bonus? Much less space-consuming than a regular baby bath, and doubles as a bucket for clean diapers or toys, when not in use.

I intend to force one into the hands of my next pregnant friend at her baby shower. I guarantee it’ll sit in a cupboard for the first couple of weeks of her baby’s life and she’ll look at it and through the sleep deprived haze she’ll think: ‘I suppose I ought to give that weird looking bucket a try sometime’. I'll bet she'll be as surprised and relieved as we were!