The Reality of Old Wives Tales and Other Women's Stories

There are many Old Wives Tales Stories has been passed down from one generation to the next. We know some of them are true while some of others are not true at all, but we love to read about it and try them anyway. Have you ever wonder if your little bundle of joy will be a boy or a girl? When people find out that they will be expecting a baby, one of the most common things that they wonder about is what they sex of the baby will be. In fact it is one of the most asked questions by family, friends and strangers at the grocery store.

Over the years there have been people who use a baby gender predictor to find out if their child was going to be a boy or a girl. These aren't always the most reliable, but the law of averages does make them right sometimes. Many of these fall into the category of old wives tales, and almost every woman hears them at some point during their pregnancy. 

Craving is one of the most popular prediction method or rather what is being craved is said to reveal the sex of the baby. If cravings are for sweet snacks it means a little bundle of pink is on the way while salty and sour snacks suggest a little boy will be arriving. 

Reality - There's no hard evidence that cravings are linked to the gender of your baby. Your craving is nothing to do with your baby’s sex. It varies from pregnancy to pregnancy. Same lady if delivers same sex baby twice, she might have different set of cravings each time. This may lend value to the fable that girls are sugar, spice, and everything nice and boys are the exact opposite. Several women will offer that they had various cravings that dictated to each child yet determining the sex by cravings is less accurate than most other prediction tools and myths.



The next old wives tales story that is well known is a ring test. It is believed that if you tie a ring to a string and hold it over your stomach, if the ring swings in a circular motion it can mean you will be having a girl, if it moves back and forth, it's a boy. 

Reality - The fact of the matter is that if you hang a ring over anyone, it will swing in some fashion depending on the weight of the ring, the air circulation and other factors that do not include a baby's gender.

Chinese nation used a type of birth chart to predict the gender of their children. Many people still use these today as there are types of software that can be downloaded to your computer or even your cellular phone. These have proven to be more accurate than other methods but still have flaws in them. 

Reality - Considering this fashion, a baby's sex will be determined in an astrological fashion and can be as accurate as any other methods. There is not significant data to support any mythical claims as to their true accuracy.

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Interesting. I had terrible heartburn with my second child, and he was definitely my hairiest (although all three had lots of hair, and I had lots of heartburn with all 3).

Pregnancy has also wreaked havoc on my dental health. Although I haven’t lost any teeth, I’m about to spend a ton of time and money on dental care. I don’t think it’s junk food, though – chasing after little ones and finding yourself falling asleep while putting them to bed (or whenever they wake up and you have to help them back to sleep) leaves me forgetting my own dental care. I’m in the middle of flossing and I hear kids yelling, so I stop, and forget to finish. Or I pass out with the kids before I wanted to go to bed, so I don’t get to brush my teeth before bed.

Interesting about the full moon. I *swear* my mood changes and I go a little nuts around the full moon.
My husband will agree. 

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About losing teeth during pregnancy, it’s explained pretty well in “Nutrition and Physical Degeneration”. Preindustrial groups living on a nutritious diet had excellent dental health, despite making no effort at dental hygiene in most cases. Women in these groups didn’t lose teeth when they had children.

It has to do with the fact that pregnancy depletes nutrients from the mother. These preindustrial groups had special nutritious foods they would give to pregnant women and women of childbearing age before pregnancy. They were especially rich in fat-soluble vitamins A and D, minerals and probably other things we haven’t identified. These are the same nutrients that promote dental health by affecting mineral metabolism. Modern Moms shunt their limited nutrients to the child, and become deficient themselves.

Some of these foods were grass-fed, full-fat dairy products (also associated with fertility in recent studies), eggs including fish roe, organ meats like liver and seafood (especially fatty fish). As you can see, there are different ways to get the same nutrients. These groups also got lots of vitamin D from sunlight, or from animal sources if they lived further from the equator in the winter.

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Hairiness & heartburn! Definitely true for me in all 4 pregnancies. But about a month later all my babes lost their prolific hair & were baldies until about age 2, so I guess the effect doesn’t last

Sasquatch – I’m very interested in your comment – do you have a study to cite? I don’t really know (never having researched it) but it seems to me that pre-industrial people a) did have worse teeth & oral health based on how many seemed to be missing teeth and anecdotal evidence in period literature and paintings and b) since pre-industrial people lived significantly shorter lives perhaps they just didn’t have as much time to lose their teeth?

Anyhow, my husband has restless leg syndrome – I’m SO trying the bar of soap thing. Can’t hurt! Thanks Mark & Co.!

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