There are so many old wives tales about pregnancy! Some you may have already heard, and others not so much.
Take a look and see all these different stories that have been passed on from generation to generation. Just remember, there is no factual basis for these claims, just old wives tales! 🙂
Popular old wives tales
1. Morning Sickness and Gender
One of the most common old wives tales and pregnancy involved how much you got sick. If you had terrible moring sickness/all day sickness, it meant you were going to have a girl.
If your morning sickness was almost nothing, or very mild, you were going to have a boy.
2. Heartburn and Hair
Another commonly talked about old wives tales in pregnancy is the heartburn. The rumor goes that if you had bad heartburn, your baby would have a lot of hair.
If you had almost no heartburn, your baby would be born with little to no hair.
3. Position of your baby bump and gender
Another tale was that if you carried your baby high, it was a girl. If you carried your baby low, it was a boy.
4. Sweet/Salty Cravings and gender
As you can imagine, most of the old wives tales about pregnancy involved gender. Another one was whether or not you craved sweet foods or salty foods.
Sweet foods meant it was a girl, and salty foods meant boy!
5. Favorite Foods
Another old wives tale that not everyone has heard of is that what you eat while you are pregnant can affect what your baby will like to eat when they are older.
6. Relieving morning sickness
There are so many old wives tales about pregnancy and how to relieve morning sickness. Probably because this is something that so many women experience.
A few suggestions you will hear are ginger, saltine crackers, and eating small meals. Here is my complete list of pregnancy nausea and morning sickness remedies that DO work.
7. Ways to induce labor
If you are in your third trimester, you may have already started looking at ways to naturally induce labor. I get it, I was there too with my first pregnancy.
There are a lot of old wives tales about pregnancy and starting labor.
For instance, you will hear about walking a lot will trigger labor, or walking down a bunch of stairs. Another story is feet rubs can help send you into labor.
Related: Hospital Bag Checklist
8. Dreaming about baby's gender
Another equally common old wives tale is that if you dream about what your baby will be (boy or girl) that is what you are carrying. Or that you will just know what your baby's gender is (mother's intuition).
This one really didn't hold true for me, both dream-wise and mother's intuition-wise.
9. Complexion and gender
Another old wives tale is about your complexion. If you have a lot of acne, it will be a girl.
If your skin has never looked better, boy!
Related: Awesome Pregnancy and Baby Freebies
Old wives tales about baby's gender
Old Wives Tales Baby Boy prediction
- craving salty foods
- more headaches
- dry skin
- look more beautiful
- great complexion
- sleeping on left side
- baby's heart rate is greater than 140
- carrying baby low
Old Wives Tales Baby Girl Prediction
- craving sweet foods
- less headaches
- soft skin
- bad morning sickness/all day sickness
- more acne
- sleeping on right side
- baby's heart rate is less than 140
- carrying baby high
While old wives tales about pregnancy might be fun to read, they really are just myths. Some might work for you and other times not so much.
There are no scientific facts behind these claims, just common stories that have been passed on from pregnant women to pregnant women.
Thanks for stopping by and reading this fun little article. If you enjoyed it, please remember to pin this to one of your favorite pregnancy boards on Pinterest. THANKS!!!
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