hey, anybody wanna help me with my homework?

[hth]

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.)

Comments

[norah.livejournal.com]

AHAHA. Where to START?!

Okay, if you have sex more often, you're more likely to have a girl. And the old standbys abouthow NOT to get pregnant - sex on your period is "safe", and the less believable ones like coke douches and such I've only heard about anecdotally, as in, I heard of them as "myths about pregnancy", not as myths about pregnancy, you get the difference?

Woman on top is more likely to have a boy, carrying high is a boy, swinging a pendant over your palm - if the arc is wide it's a boy, if it's more still it's a girl, I think...

I can ask the IndieMoms (http://kvetch.indiebride.com/index.php?t=thread&sub=1&frm_id=38&start=0&rid=59&S=f42c69a7e50fadd08ae39aa979f9ba0a&SQ=a8303821471224a8cba3b7728cbc2e1f) for you, if you like...

This thread has a few: http://kvetch.indiebride.com/index.php?t=msg&th=10501&start=0&rid=715&S=1f2d4516ceda2c53ec294ecc6f69ce02

You'll also want to collect labor induction myths like sex (though apparently this has some basis in fact as the prostaglandins in sperm can help induce contractions?), alcohol, spicy foods, etc.

[norah.livejournal.com]

Erm, and I'm from California, and the sex more often=girl was my aunt, sex on my period was in HS and I don't remember, but it is fairly accurate with the rhythm method, though it gets treated as a "myth" because not all women have regular cycles, woman on top from the internet, when I was researching ways to influence outcomes :) and carrying high from a novel about asian families, swinging a pendant from the Indiemoms, and labor induction from the million pieces of advice given to a preggo coworker as her due date neared.

[kgoodbuddy.livejournal.com]

My sister was told by a granny woman in the East Tennessee hills that if you want to avoid morning sickness, climb over your husband to get out of bed and he'll be the one that hurls. She never told him, but it actually worked. She finally quit climbing over him when her conscience got the better of her ;-) That was in 1976. Unfortunately, she told my husband about it, and I never got the chance to try it.
All in the name of science, of course....

[caseylane.livejournal.com]

1) If you get a lot of heartburn your baby will have a lot of hair.

2)Boy's are carried in the front while girls are spread out more.

3) And from my Gema, if you get scared by a frog your baby will come out looking like one.

[myalexandria.livejournal.com]

the only thing I remember hearing is that, if your feet swell when you're pregnant, they often don't go back down when the baby's born. So you wind up with feet one size larger and have to get rid of all your old, cute shoes. Tragedy!

I think I heard this from a pregnant friend a few years ago.

[myalexandria.livejournal.com]

whoops, and I live in New York. East coast, anyway.

[maryjane7547.livejournal.com]

I'm from South Carolina. My grandma told me that if you dream about fish then someone you know is pregnant. I've know it forever so she must have told me when I was a little girl. Just the other day at work a girl bought some drano because supposedly by putting some in the toilet and then peeing you can tell the sex. I think it changes colors. I'm not really sure because I'd never heard of it before. Also, people are always saying that if you call somebody ugly while you're pregnant then your baby is going to end up looking like that person. But I think they're mostly joking.

[carol83.livejournal.com]

Dropping in out of the ether because I can't resist contributing to folklore-- hope you don't mind.

I've got a couple that I don't think have been mentioned thus far:

1. Eating "white dirt" (kaolin-rich clay, still sold in some grocery/convenience stores in the South) lessens morning sickness and calms the baby. Also, pregnant women crave it, sometimes to an obsessive degree.

^{This is something that I've personally seen-- at least the consumption of white dirt by pregnant women-- but I've also heard it mentioned in a class on Nutritional Anthropology I took a few years ago. This form of geophagy is particularly prominent among poor Southern women-- particularly black women-- as I understand it. I think it's pretty much local to southern Georgia and Alabama, however, since that's where most of the kaolin deposits are.}

2. Putting a knife or a pair of scissors under the mattress during childbirth will help to cut the pain.

^{Read this somewhere. I want to say it was in a short story by a Southern author, but I might be wrong.}

3. Eating spicy foods will make the baby come early.

^{Grandma's wisdom. She also apparently berated my mother for taking hot showers while she was pregnant with me, saying the heat would cook my brain. It may have.}

4. Women who want to become pregnant should tie a ribbon of the corresponding color for the gender of the hoped-for child (pink for girls, blue for boys) around their wrists during sex. (I've also heard you can put the ribbon under your pillow or mattress.

^{Idle talk that I can't exactly place. Also, I think there's something about putting a wooden spoon under the mattress as well, if you're hoping for a girl. Don't know why, unless it has something to do with cooking being a traditionally feminine domain.}

I grew up in Georgia, around the metro Atlanta area. Hope this helps you out!

[(Anonymous)]

Hi lurker here :D (no LJ)

I've heard 2 about determining sex of the baby.

1. You take a piece of the pregnant women's hair and thread it through their wedding ring or some piece of jewellry that has sentimental value to them. Get them to lay down, then hold the ring over their pregnant belly.... If the ring swings in circles it will be a girl, if side to side a boy. (bit fuzzy on that detail so could be circle-boy, side-girl.. sorry its been awhile.)

Was told this by aunt when I was a teenager and we tried it out over my sister's belly when she was pregnant. (It was right :P)

2. Was told by mum, that you could tell the sex of your child by the position of the child in the womb (where the bump was showing). For example, If the child was being carried high up under the breasts.. it was a girl, If the child was being carried down low around the hips then boy.

This was also during sister's pregnancy.

I am from Qld, Australia :D

Hope that helps.
Danielle
danthebookworm@hotmail.com

[neocatholic3000.livejournal.com]

My brother-in-law (husband's sister's spouse) claims that "rough sex" begets boys. He's told me this repeatedly from engagement on (so the last 2 years or so). The fact that he has 2 young sons and he says this around his wife and kids just increases the "EWWW" factor for me ;)

I'm from Philadelphia, PA, the brother in law is from New Jersey.