Wives Tales Essay

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For hundreds of years people of all different cultures have attempted to decipher the various mysteries of the human body during pregnancy and birth. As a result, often old wives’ tales were shared during pregnancy and birth as a way of people attempting to share authority and wisdom with those less experienced. However, many of the wives’ tales surrounding pregnancy and birth originated many years ago to simply explain the unexplainable or occurrences that weren’t normal. In addition, besides wives tales surrounding the explanations of the incidence of cleft lips or birthmarks, there are old wives’ tales for predicting the sex of the baby as well. In the end, despite advances in science, various aspects of pregnancy and childbirth still remain …show more content…
During the process of asking people about wives tales I got an overwhelming amount of responses. The responses that I received can in fact be broken down into three categories, including the welfare of the baby, abnormalities, and determining the …show more content…
Starting with the wives tales that are surrounding the well-being of the baby there was quite a few. The first was that pregnant women should not take baths because the baby can drown. This old wives tale more than likely originated when pregnant women would take too warm of baths, creating problems for the baby especially in the first trimester. A second wives tale surrounding the well-being of the baby is that holding your hands above your head can hurt the baby. I personally believe that this wives tale originated out of fear. Before medical advancements it was not possible to see whether the umbilical cord was wrapped around the baby. If a baby was born with the umbilical cord wrapped around its neck, the mother assumed that how she moved played a role. However, babies being born with an umbilical cord wrapped around their neck is fairly common and happens when during the early movements of the baby in utero, not anything to do with the mother’s movements. Another wives tale surrounding the well-being of the baby is that you have to drink a lot of water or your baby will get dirty. This particular wives tale more than likely came from midwives/doctors attempting to get pregnant women to drink because staying hydrated is good for both the

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