Betty Plotnick ([info]bettyp) wrote,
@ 2005-11-09 18:09:00
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hey, anybody wanna help me with my homework?
I'm collecting folklore about pregnancy for a class project. Don't worry! You don't have to be pregnant for this.

I'm interested in any superstitions or customs or whatnot you've ever heard surrounding pregnancy: how to increase your chances of getting or not getting pregnant, how you can tell what sex your baby is going to be, etc. What does heavy vs. light morning sickness mean, carrying high vs. carrying low -- really, anything that someone once told you (folklore being technically defined basically as "that stuff that someone once told you") surrounding pregnancy.

The only info I need along with it is a) where you're from and b) if you can remember who told you this and under what circumstances. (In childhood, when you were pregnant, at a baby shower?)

No obligation to buy! I won't continue to bug you or anything; this is sheerly a collection project, not a series of interviews or anything complicated like that. Please and thank you! (Commenting to this post would be best, but you can e-mail me if you need to for some reason.)

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[info]miella
2005-11-09 11:25 pm UTC (link)
The only thing I can remember offhand is either reading or hearing someone say (I can't remember which) that the sex of the baby will be determined by which partner wants it the most. If the woman, then it'll be a boy, and if the man, it'll be a girl.

I'm from the US. Did you need state, too, or what?

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[info]ukcalico
2005-11-09 11:32 pm UTC (link)
In the "what gender will your baby be" category:

More orgasms = more likely to be a boy.

*shrug*

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[info]buddleia
2005-11-09 11:34 pm UTC (link)
Huh. Ok, I'm English and my mum, who had a lot of Irish catholic influence, used to suspend a pendulum (ideally, the weight should be a wedding ring, but we're all bastards on my side of the family) over the woman's bump. If the weight eventually settled to swing back and forth, the baby was to be a boy, if in a circle, a girl. Oh, and she said carrying high is supposed to mean a boy. This comes up every time someone we know is around and pregnant, because she always gets out the pendulum and there's a little fascinated female chatter and exchange.
I was told by my sister, after taking the morning-after pill, that if you didn't feel sick while it worked, then you had actually been pregnant and were therefore guilty of abortion.
Heavy morning sickness (canvassed by my mother and a couple of female family friends during the pregnancies of my sister, my aunt and my best friend) was supposed to mean that the baby was going to be very strong and healthy. It was a trade-off of some kind, I think. No morning sickness in the first three months was something to worry about.
That's all I got.

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[info]cjmarlowe
2005-11-09 11:41 pm UTC (link)
I'm from Canada (of Irish Catholic ancestry) and I'm familiar through my family -- though more two generations back than my mother's generation -- with the pendulum test as well.

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[info]jae_w
2005-11-10 05:08 am UTC (link)
I'm from New Jersey (of Irish Catholic descent as well), and we had the pendulum test too, but you were supposed to thread a needle and use the needle as the weight. Also, if you carry high from the start and/or start showing early, it's a boy. All of these courtesy of my maternal grandmother.

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[info]ramblinround
2005-11-10 12:46 am UTC (link)
How to get pregnant: "just relax," go on vacation, file for adoption.

Sex of the baby: carrying high = boy, carrying low = girl.

You can't get pregnant while breastfeeding (although you can).

Bad morning sickness means the baby is healthy.

And I am from Georgia, but I've lived all over and I don't remember where I heard most of this.

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Brazilian folklore
(Anonymous)
2005-11-10 12:47 am UTC (link)
Here in Brazil the oldwives say that a woman who wants to get pregnant has a better chance if she sits on a married couples´ bed where a young baby has pissed on. Yech.
That´s what they say.
Elisa from Rio de Janeiro

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[info]withdiamonds
2005-11-10 12:56 am UTC (link)
My mother-in-law, who is from northern Indiana, told me that carrying high means a boy, low means a girl.

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[info]viggorlijah
2005-11-10 02:37 am UTC (link)
In Singapore, there's the whole heaty/cooling foods especially for pregnant women - you're supposed to avoid pineapple, durian and I can't remember the rest. I've always heard that since I was a kid. Also the time when your mother and m-i-l inflict double-boiled herbal soups on you. Oh, and Muoi has a bunch of special Vietnamese dishes that are for pregnant or postnatal women in their village - very spicy and marinated meat dishes. We have the one month party, no shower tradition. When the baby's born, you wait a month and then invite people over. The month before that is confinement when you're supposed to not shower (just washcloths lukewarm water) and eat special foods and rest - no wind! and then you invite people over and give out red-dyed eggs. But these are customs, not so much superstitions.

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[info]tingler
2005-11-10 03:54 am UTC (link)
Carry high=boy, carry low=girl. Heard this from simply everyone with first pregnancy (though best friend who was pregnant at the same time carried so low she could barely walk and I carried so high I could barely breathe and we both had boys).

Many people touted the pendulum test. Supposed to swing in a circle if girl, back and forth for a boy.

Was also told spicy foods could bring on labor.

Also, paternal grandmother apparently really believed that cats could "suck a baby's breath". Never believed that but did get kind of freaked when the cat kept getting up in baby #1's crib and up in his face. Figured he was just smelling the milk but 3 a.m. is not the most rational of times. (after i nearly killed him throwing him out that last time, he stayed out, but he obviously *adored* the baby and would play and play and play with him when he was on a blanket on the floor.)(And the baby would giggle so! Really just too adorable)

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[info]the_star_fish
2005-11-10 05:04 am UTC (link)
I had a lot of heartburn when I was pregnant, and several people told me it meant the baby would have a lot of hair. Which he did, interestingly enough ... for about a week. Then it all fell out, and slowly grew in again.

::shrug::

I'm from Western Massachusetts, by the way.

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[info]tingler
2005-11-10 06:56 am UTC (link)
Carry high=boy, carry low=girl. Heard this from simply everyone with first pregnancy (though best friend who was pregnant at the same time carried so low she could barely walk and I carried so high I could barely breathe and we both had boys).

Many people touted the pendulum test. Supposed to swing in a circle if girl, back and forth for a boy.

Was also told spicy foods could bring on labor.

Also, paternal grandmother apparently really believed that cats could "suck a baby's breath". Never believed that but did get kind of freaked when the cat kept getting up in baby #1's crib and up in his face. Figured he was just smelling the milk but 3 a.m. is not the most rational of times. (after i nearly killed him throwing him out that last time, he stayed out, but he obviously *adored* the baby and would play and play and play with him when he was on a blanket on the floor.)(And the baby would giggle so! Really just too adorable)

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[info]emmuzka
2005-11-10 09:19 am UTC (link)
It was probably a good thing that you freaked about the cat. Here in Finland, a small baby died because he got a scratch from a cat living in the wild. A week later he died on blood poisoning.

And oh yeah, addition to the original question, while pregnant, a woman should not handle cats or their feces (kitty litter) Supposedly you can get toximoplastosis from it while pregnant, but in reality, the chances for it are so minuscule that it's just to way for the ladies to avoid changing the litter for 9 months!

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[info]emmuzka
2005-11-10 09:12 am UTC (link)
Here in Finland:

- If the mother gets a "happy trail" of darker hair to the line from her groin to her belly button, it's a boy.

- Way to induce labour: Seksi, sauna ja siivoaminen (= sex, sauna and cleaning)

- You are supposed to breastfeed. Breastfeed breastfeed breastfeed. Not doing so could result problems for a lifetime. It's a taboo to say that one didn't like it or intentionally stopped it before the child was 18 moths old.

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