Discovering and researching all of the pregnancy myths thought to accurately predict if a future mama is carrying a boy or a girl was my favorite part in creating the Little Fortunes pregnancy game. I’m not going to lie; I’m a bit of a nerd! I really enjoyed doing deep-dives into old medical texts and academic journals to identify the old wives’ tales and pregnancy folklore that made its way into the game.
My love for history and everything baby lore is front and center throughout the game. Each of the 13 tests that predict a baby boy or baby girl featured in Little Fortunes include a timeline that follows the pregnancy myth through history. Pregnancy folklore and old wives’ tale that our moms and grandmas still talk about can often be traced back to ancient Greece and Rome! For example, Greek physician Hippocrates (yes, the Hippocrates of the Hippocratic Oath!) and Greek philosopher Aristotle (yes, that Aristotle!) are often the start of many of the most iconic and famous pregnancy myths we know today.
I also love parenting and mommy and baby blogs! I got really into these websites when my wife was pregnant with our first child, and although the baby tests and preggo games that ultimately made it into Little Fortunes go beyond some of the most popular gender myths you would find on these blogs, they were a great jumping off point into the world of pregnancy folklore. (I’ll do an additional blog entry on some of the websites that were my foray into world of pregnancy wives’ tales.)
To help those of you interested in learning more about the origins surrounding the old ways to predict a baby’s sex, I’ve identified three sources that I found extremely useful. For any of you doing your own pregnancy myth research for a baby shower or baby sprinkle, these books and articles are essential! Inside each Little Fortunes box, I provide a list of all the sources I used when creating the game, so your research does not need to stop here!
“The Prediction of Sex: Folklore and Science” (1959)
By Dr. Thomas Rogers Forbes, PhD (1911 – 1988)
Professor Forbes was an assistant and then associate dean of the Yale University School of Medicine from 1948 to 1969. His academic specialty focused on infertility, but he was also a renown medical historian. His article “The Prediction of Sex: Folklore and Science” published in the journal Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society in 1959 is a TREASURE TROVE of archaic pregnancy myths and old wives’ tales.
A few disclaimers before you dive into this article: first, this is not light reading! The mid-century academic writing in the article is very flowery and can be hard to understand. I’d recommend finding a cozy, quiet spot away from family chaos if you really want to grasp the many, many pregnancy myths that Dr. Forbes writes about.
Second, a lot early “medical” theories about pregnancy are based on a fundamental misunderstanding of female anatomy, which is theorized typically by men. Historical medical language often reflects sexist attitudes that propagate tropes of women inferiority. Dr. Forbes’ article is filled with these old misogynistic ideas. And though he records these problematic perspectives in his article (like as a sixteenth century belief that “the male infant is more excellent and perfect than the female”), Dr. Forbes does very little to challenge these ideas or provide additional context. He simply writes them down and then lets us read them¾often with our jaws dropped because of how offensive they are.
Despite these issues, Dr. Forbes’ article includes some of the most elaborate pregnancy myths (like if pregnant individual hears a raven caw or rooster crow, then their baby is a boy, but hearing an owl hoot, would indicate a girl) that the game would suffer if not included. This article was by far my most used source when creating the game.
“The Distaff Gospels: A First Modern English Edition of Les Évangiles des Quenouilles” (2006)
Translated and Edited by Madeleine Jeay and Kathleen Garay
The publisher’s description of The Distaff Gospels does a great job explaining what you’ll find inside this book! It is a “fascinating fifteenth-century collection of more than 250 popular beliefs, and constitutes a kind of encyclopedia of late medieval women’s wisdom.” Here you’ll find some of the earliest references to pregnancy myths related to food cravings, how the sex of the people a mother may encounter while pregnant indicates the sex of the baby, and the hidden meaning behind a future mama’s dominant foot.
If you’re like me, you may have no idea what a “distaff” is or what is meant by a “distaff gospel.” A distaff was a tool used in early forms of spinning wool fibers into yarn that then becomes fabric for clothing, bedding, and other household goods. In the fifteenth-century, women would get together--with distaffs and spindles in hand--to talk and socialize while spinning. In these settings, the women often voiced their opinions and gave advice on various issues concerning their domestic lives. The advice imparted during these spinning sessions are recorded in this book as fifteenth-century teachings, just like teachings or “gospels” are recorded in the bible and other religious texts.
Although much of the “advice” relayed in this book that I focused on pertained to predicting the sex of future offspring, that is not all you will find! The women featured in this book also impart their wisdom on how to control errant husbands, how to cure common diseases, and ways to deal with evil spirits.
“Old Wives’ Tales: Their History, Remedies and Spells” (1981)
By Mary Chamberlain
Unlike other sources that say a pregnant person craving sweet foods would be carrying a boy, Mary Chamberlain’s book is one of the first places I found to that says the opposite: that a forthcoming mother who longs for sweet foods during pregnancy will have a girl, and yearning for sour foods would be indicative of a boy. Nowadays, this sweet-equals-girl myth seems more prevalent than the older sweet-equals-boy belief, and most mommy blogs and baby shower printouts that list pregnancy old wives’ tales tend to side with Chamberlain.
Chamberlain’s book does a great job in listing tons and tons of old wives’ tales, but what I found to be its real value is how the book gets back to the basics and answers fundamental questions like:
- What is an old wife?
- What are old wives' tales?
- Where do they come from?
Chamberlain’s book explains how the original “old wife” or woman healer filled an important space in often poor communities where doctors were too expensive or unpopular. And although old wives had no formal medical qualifications, that did not mean their skills in tending for the sick or taking care of their community where inferior to the medicine of the time. Instead, they were looked at as experts, being “consulted for their wisdom and experience and skills.” Their status as elderly or middle-aged women legitimized their expertise and the communal care they administered.
Chamberlain’s book pushes against today’s fanciful perception of an “old wife” and of “old wives’ tales,” demonstrating how they are much more than “trivial stories told by old women.” Chamberlain argues that what may seem to us as farfetched “charms and spells” had an important role in the history of domestic medicine. A great read!