Is There Any Truth to Old Wives Tales, Myths and Superstitions About Conceiving ?

There's a lot of excitement that surrounds pregnancy. The parents to be are probably the most excited, of course, but others, whether they are close to the new mom to be, or not, will also share in the excitement. And with excitement, comes advice.

Advice comes in all forms, but with pregnancy, the advice usually comes in the form of a tale. Tales are great, but it can sometimes be hard for a new mom to decipher between the facts from fiction, or rather, old wives tales from medical truths. Some tales are harmless, like, if you crave meat, cheese, and salty foods, it's likely you will have a boy. Or if you have heartburn throughout your pregnancy, you will give birth to a baby with a full head of hair. Others can boarder on not so safe, like telling a pregnant mom that she shouldn't take a bath. Or telling her not to stretch because the baby could get tangled in the umbilical cord. Baths are okay for pregnant woman up until the water breaks. And stretching is also a perfectly fine activity.

I used to get a kick out of the harmless tales because most of them were kind of fun. I remember having a lot of heartburn with both of my children. I could get heartburn from drinking a glass of water! So, needless to say, I found it comical when people would tell me that the baby would have a full head of hair. I knew both of my children would, and they did. Could this tale have some truth to it after all? Well, the outcome may have come to be, but I don't think their full head of hair had anything to do with heartburn.

You see, my whole family is blessed with a lot of locks, and genetically, we haven't had one baby born without hair in our family for several generations. The men in our family, with one exception, have been blessed to keep their hair throughout life, as well. The exception is my father and he claims that his little bit of hair loss is due to my mother.

Heartburn stems from the baby taking up space in your stomach, as well as, pressing on it. You are bound to be a little uncomfortable when that happens, but for me, it may have been more so since I have a very small frame to begin with. So, needless to say, I'm thinking this tale is better left for the Mother Goose story book.

Food craving is another fun tale because everyone seems to have an opinion about this. My mother used to tell me when I was pregnant with my first child that I was going to have a boy because I was nauseous whenever I made coffee. I also craved a ton of meat, cheese, and salty foods with that pregnancy, but it turned out that I had a girl. And to this day, she still loves macaroni and cheese, McDonald's cheeseburgers, and pizza bites. Now, my daughter can be a bit of a tomboy, but she is still all girl when she wants to be, so that particular tale had little truth to it in my book.

There's another old wives tale about gracefulness. If you are graceful throughout your pregnancy, then you will have a girl, but if you are clumsy, you'll have a boy. This tale is one that I didn't find very amusing because I had actually fallen during both of my pregnancies. It wasn't anything very serious, thank goodness, but I did sprain my right ankle for both. I had to stay off of it for a week with both pregnancies which injured my pride along with the ankle. In both cases, that experience did not produce a boy for either pregnancy. So there was no truth to that tale for me. And as a word of caution to all of you tale tellers, you might be better off not saying this one, because any danger-prone person may just take it to heart, or worse, they might think it's connected to the "brake a leg" phrase.

Some of the best wives tales I came across were in the form of a game to find out the sex of the baby. I have a lot of interesting people in my family, and they can bring great character to any party, but the best entertainment came from certain games that they all liked to play.

One of those games was tea leaf readings. I remember going to my brother's engagement party and his soon to be mother in law read my leaves. She was able to tell me that I would have a girl because there was a chair, an egg, and a crescent in my cup. I was a bit amazed at the reading because I surely didn't see anything except a dishwasher in my cup's future. The game was fun and she was right, but I wouldn't place all my eggs in a dirty cup's basket-- pardon the tea reading pun here.

Another game that I played while pregnant with my first was with a needle and string. It was a game that my Grandmother learned when she was pregnant and she wanted to play it with me. I had never heard of it before but I was up to some fun. I had always loved the games from my Grandmother's generation because they were simplistic and it brought me a sense of closeness with her that I've always cherished.

The needle is attached to a string of thread and is placed over the pregnant woman's stomach. If the needle goes into a circular motion, the woman will have a girl. If the needle moves side to side, it will be a boy. The needle moved in a circular motion that day, and I did have a girl, but I really can't tell you if there's any validity to this wives tale. Pendulums or make-shift ones like a needle and thread can cause a lot of controversy. People argue as to whether or not the one holding the pendulum is moving it on his/her own, and yet some others argue that one's energy moves it. If you give into listening to the controversy, I can predict one thing for you, you will most definitely get a headache and that's no fun for a pregnant woman, so just have fun with the game.

Another entertaining game was having my tarot cards read by a good friend of mine. She explained that when tarot cards turn up a lot of feminine cards, like cups or the High Priestess, the sex is determined to be female. If the reading produces swords or the High Priest, you will more than less likely have a boy. You can use a tarot deck for this, or you can also use a regular set of playing cards. With playing cards, you would need to look for hearts for a girl and clubs for a boy. My reading contained a ton of cups and the High Priestess, so I guess it was in the cards that I'd have a girl. Although, I just can't help but wonder what would have happened in the reading if I had an ace up my sleeve.

Through it all, I liked listening to a lot the different tales and had fun with the games. They were great for me because while I listened, I got a chance to forget for a little while that my ankles were bloated and my skin was itchy. This made me enjoy my pregnancy a lot more. Sure, sometimes the tale was silly or made no sense and in those cases, I did what most expectant moms do... I smiled a lot and said, "Oh that's nice."

When the doctor told me from looking at the ultrasound that I was going to have a girl, I didn't tell her that I already knew because it was in the cards or the tea. I merely sat there in pure amazement of the magic of a machine. The games were cute-- don't get me wrong, but I welcomed a professional opinion to tell me what the gender of my baby was. So while tales are nice to listen to, they won't help you with solid, medical advice. And to me, that's more comforting than curling up with a good tale.