Popular Beliefs and Superstitions by Newbell Niles Puckett

Using the bellys size to determine the babys sex is only one of the many beliefs. With experience, they make observations and come up with conclusions about many different aspects of pregnancy. These statements are most likely all based off of observation, so to some degree, they have truth in them.Īll mothers share the common lore of childbirth. This demonstrates that many beliefs are held about determining a babys sex and that both of them could be both true and false. The same contradicting statements are documented for female babies as well.

It states, if a pregnant woman carries her baby high, it will be a boy, but then it also states that if a woman carries her baby low during pregnancy, it will be a boy. These conflicting beliefs were collected from women living in Ohio. This belief is recorded in Popular Beliefs and Superstitions: A Compendium of American Folklore which is a compilation of Newbell Niles Pucketts folklore collection. It even comes from strangers that talk to you because you are pregnant when you are out in public. When someone becomes pregnant, she starts hearing about all these stories from other people who have already had kids. People would not bring this topic up unless they are talking about a pregnant woman. Patti says that it is a pretty universal conception amongst mothers. Her stomach was very round and did not appear very low. When Patti started showing four years ago when she was twenty six, people started examining the size of her belly and would tell her that she was going to have a boy. My sister, Patti, heard this first from my other older sister, Jennifer, who already had a baby girl.

When you are pregnant, they say that if you carry low and look like a watermelon, its going to be a girl, but if you carry high and round like a ball, its going to be a boy.

Popular Beliefs and Superstitions by Newbell Niles Puckett