Post Punk Kitchen Forum

This past Sunday I was visiting my mom and I she asked me how I was feeling. I told her that I actually had a morning of nausea free energy so I vacuumed. She told me something I found very strange. The conversation kind of went like this:

Mom: Oh, you're not allowed to vacuum. You need to stop after the third month.
Me: Really?? Why?
Mom: Because of the umbilical cord.
Me: Huh?
Mom: Yes. The movement of vacuuming can cause the umbilical cord to get tangled up.
Me: What?!
Mom: Yes, and you're not allowed to reach up over your head anymore either for the same reason.
Me: !!!!!?????

So of course I ran to the internet fearing that I'd have to spend the next 7 months with my arms down at my sides in a house covered with cat fur. But I found nothing. She finally agreed that it must be an old wives' tale. What unusual tales did you hear when you were pregnant?

If I were pregnant and had a partner around I would totally tell them that.

They say the same thing about knitting!

Totally. I still don't change the cat litter and my baby is 13 months!

And no sex during pregnancy or the baby will be born with a little dent on his or her head and everyone will know.

haha this actually came from a male acquaintance who was raised by all women who practice Santeria:

"Don't eat squash of ANY KIND because it causes the placenta to rot immediately."

um yeah no.

My acupuncturist told me that in Chinese medicine pregnant women aren't supposed to lift anything above shoulder height. She certainly wasn't recommending that, though.



Me either! My husband had no idea that I could clean the litter box again after giving birth... so I just never told him otherwise. :)

Baby girls are more active on the inside, baby boys are more active once they get out.
Lots of heartburn means you'll have a baby with lots of hair--my mom verifies this because she had heartburn when she was pregnant with me, and I was born with a lot of hair.
Also random things about the baby's heart rate being able to predict their sex.

Lots of heartburn here, almost no hair.

I've got a few! Don't dye your hair, don't clean the litter box (my inlaws are veterinarians and to get the toxo-whatyoumacallit the cat has to play with dead things, so zero chance with indoor only cats), oh and predicting the sex based on how low or high baby carries in your belly.

My mom told me the hair/heartburn thing too!

How are you supposed to wash your hair, then?! I have heard this a lot, too-do not lift your arms over your head, thinh.
Another one-if the woman had the idea to have the baby, it will be a girl. If it was the man's choice, it will be a boy.

Oh ha, I forgot about the heartburn/hair thing. I had no heartburn and a baby with hair.

The "boy belly"/"girl belly" thing drove me crazy! Every random person on the street wanted to evaluate my belly and tell me my baby's sex (of course, they called it the gender). Seriously every single person who did this told me I was having a boy, and here I am with a girl!

The heart rate/sex of baby thing is a myth. Studies have been done, there's no correlation.

Other wisdom from my mom:
"I couldn't nurse because my boobs are kind of small, but you should have NO PROBLEM with those things."
Because bigger boobs hold more milk?

I love my mom, and she is generally one of the smartest people I know, but I don't know where she comes up with some of this stuff.

well, at least here, it's pretty generally adviced by doctors that you don't dye your hair with toxic hair dye (containing ammonium - is that the right word?), because it's really toxic and unhealthy. but it's the same with very perfumed, hardcore cleaning supplies etc.

My doctor told me not to change the litter box (a job I don't mind having my husband do) and I thought it was common not to dye your hair at least in the first trimester.

yeah, my midwives told me both times not to clean the litter boxes. i really think the risks are quite low if you have indoor cats, especially if you've had them for a while before you got pregnant, and if you follow basic hygiene protocols. hell, my cats are dirty little buggers anyway, and there is litter tracked around the house on a regular basis. even if i never ever change the litter, i'm still getting exposed to their fecal matter, since they most assuredly do NOT follow basic hygiene protocols when it comes to pooping.

however, i stop changing the litter shortly after getting pregnant cause it makes me want to puke, and i'm happy enough to pass the chore on to my partner.

Ha! I had no boobs and nursed for 4+ years, my mom has a huge rack and hardly nursed. My mom told me to eat broccoli so my baby didn't get a hare lip!

I totally got the "You are having a boy because you're carrying SO low"-thing, except my next pregnancy, I carried ridiculously high and still had a boy.

Im bouncing this thread back up because I came across another old wives tale that seems to apply to me today and im wondering what other peoples’ experiences are carrying girl vs boy.
Ive been sick the entire 4.5 months ive been pregnant. You name it, ive had it. morning sickness (though not the puking variety thank god, only did that twice), severe acid reflux, back pain, exhaustion, constipation to the point of what i would call severe discomfort, pregnancy congestion, now I have a cold/the flu, I just generally feel like shiitake and have for 4.5 months. Ive never felt so run down in my life. I also have barely gained any weight, probably because everything I eat makes me feel queasy.
So I told a bunch of people I work with today I am pregnant and that it’s a girl and there seems to be a conscensus that though it’s an old wives tale that a lot of times you are more sick when you have a girl. One of the other girls in accounting has a girl and a boy and when she was pregnant with the boy she had a super easy peasy pregnancy. No issues. For the girl she was sick for 9 months and lost 20 lbs early on. People seem to know other people with a similar experience (and of course we all know people who were fine carrying a girl.)
Just curious if anyone else had this experience.
i know its just an old wives tale but it's always interesting when these things apply to you.

on another note my acupuncturist told me the Chinese medicine old wives tale is that if your pulse is stronger on your left side its a boy and if it's strong on your right its a girl.
ive seen her twice during my pregnancy and teh first time i had a boy pulse and the second time i had a girl pulse :-P

I felt fine while I was pregnant, and I had a girl. It makes me so sad that sexism starts in the womb. I was also told that being pregnant with a girl makes you ugly (the baby "steals your beauty"). I'm sorry you're having such a crappy time, LP! I hope you feel better soon.

I got very little sympathy from my sister while I was pregnant because I was having a boy and we "All know" that pregnancies with boys are so much easier then with girls...in retrospect my pregnancy really was pretty easy - but it is never nice to say something like that to pregnant woman!

According to "Origins" by Annie Paul there may be some truth to it, though. I can't seem to copy and paste from it so here's a screen shot:

My MIL, who is Filipina, told me the opposite. When I was pregnant with DD she told me I was lucky because I was still pretty. I didn't ask again when I was pregnant with my son. :)

i had a pregnancy that made me so ill that i lost a significant amount of weight, but i didn't carry to term so don't know what the sex was.
when i became pregnant with twin girls, i was amazed, because i never even had any nausea or anything. who knows.

i don't know, but i agree with moooo- it's too bad the sexist crepe starts this early.
@lisa- hang in there, every time you post about your trials in this pregnancy i remember what a nightmare that was- i was vomiting constantly, endlessly, it was horrible. Hope your situation changes pronto!!