Now that my dear daughter-in-law is pregnant, the old wives’ tales have started flying.
I heard her say the other day she is a little worried that her baby will be born bald as a cue ball because she hasn’t had any indigestion.
I’d never heard that old wives’ tale, but apparently, it’s a big one. For the record, I had two boys with quite a bit of hair, and I don’t remember ever having heartburn when I was pregnant.
However, in researching this a little bit for my column, I was shocked to find that a 2006 study by researchers at Johns Hopkins did find a correlation.
It has to do with high levels of hormones that also influence fetal hair growth. Of 28 women who had moderate or severe heartburn, 23 had babies with average or above-average amounts of hair.
I know the tales about telling the sex of the baby by tying a pencil to a string and holding it over the mother’s belly. If the pencil goes up and down, the baby is one sex; if the pencil goes in a circle, the baby is the other. I’ve also heard of this same trick being done with the woman’s wedding ring.
As I write this, my daughter-in-law is two days away from finding out by having an ultrasound whether they’re having a girl or a boy. I’m going to bet that is a lot more accurate than a pencil. At the last ultrasound, the baby was flipping and flopping around, so the doctor couldn’t tell — for sure.
A woman I know who does ultrasounds said that in her experience, the more active a baby is in the womb, the more likely it will be a boy. I’ve also heard that if the baby’s heart rate is higher than 140 beats per minute, it’s a girl.
People also like to say if a woman is carrying the baby “high,” it’s a girl. I went to a parenting website, and an obstetrician said most first-time babies are carried high because the mothers’ muscles are still strong. Later babies are lower babies, usually, it said.
And, like the article said, people have a 50-50 chance of being right.
Some other old wives’ tales I read (OK, are there any new wives’ tales?) included not eating strawberries if you’re pregnant because the baby will have a strawberry birth mark, and for pregnant women not to look at a mouse because the baby will have a hairy birthmark. That is just gross, and how many women stare at mice?
Cravings are supposed to mean things, too — like it’s what the baby “needs.” My daughter-in-law went through a phase where she actually craved the stereotypical pickles, although she did not pair them with ice cream. At one point, Popsicles were the only thing that sounded good to her.
Again, according to the experts, hormones cause cravings, but they don’t mean anything is amiss — unless a woman is craving clay, paint chips or laundry detergent. These bizarre cravings are called pica and may mean a woman has an iron deficiency.
I can tell you from experience that if you crave biscuits and gravy, you will have to use livestock scales to weigh in at the doctor’s office.
I was still calling it “baby weight” when my younger son was 5.
The advice will keep coming, and then May, and the baby will be here before we know it. I’ll be a grandmother/Mimi/TMama or something.
Of course, I know when the baby will be born — we’ll just see when the full moon is.
And she can put a knife under the bed to cut the pain.
And we’ll love our baby, bald or not.
Senior writer Tammy Keith can be reached at (501) 327-0370 or tkeith@arkansasonline.com.