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old wives tales covered many aspects of
life, a woman's pregnancy and the baby's
birth being one popular area! Many of
these probably due to help the child's
health. Large families were common in the
past due to the illnesses or accidents
that could easily claim a child. It would
not been a rarity for a woman to give
birth to eight children but only one or
two live into adulthood. So large
families were not out of love for children
or lack of birth control but to beat the
odds and hope that one child survived to
tended to your needs when you were
older.
This thought, of having many children,
naturally helps explain why a man would be
particular in his choice of a mate.
Cringe as we females may in today's time,
in another time period a woman took it as
a compliment when described as having good
hips for childbearing purposes. A man
would also seek out a healthy woman, for
if she was healthy before pregnancy then
she would likely be healthy during
pregnancy and childbirth. Many of today's
women watch their weight and so did our
ancestors but in a different way and
reasons.
Now before you go "pshaw, that was a long,
long time ago," I have to point out that
it was not all that long ago. I would not
be here now if my father's mother had not
been thought to be able to have a child or
two. Call it chauvanistic. Decree it
asinine. That does not change the past or
the fact that my grandfather wanted a
child and thought my grandmother's healthy
appearance and hips would help him have
that dream come true.
One tradition of the past changed in many
areas. Nowadays, women do not marry until
in their 20's and some wait longer before
marrying. In some countries, there are
laws that govern marrying age. Yet it was
not that long ago that a woman would be
married as young as 13 years in age or
been regarded an old maid, in some areas,
by the time she was only 18.
This was not due to the man wanting a
child bride, but for child bearing
reasons. Along with health, which we
already discussed, was if the woman could
produce children. Unknowingly, our
ancestors stumbled upon a scientific
thought about women . . . They just
awkwardly carried it out.
A woman only produces so many eggs, around
40, in her lifetime for a man's sperm
hopefully fertilize. The older the woman,
the fewer eggs remaining. So when a young
girl started menustrating, she became
potential marriage material. The left
over residue that exists in today's
society of that old thought is when a
daughter starts her monthly cycles, we say
that she has become a woman or a "little
lady."
one method of spacing out children was by
prolonging nursing. It was thought that a
woman would not produce eggs, only earlier
ancestors did not know about the eggs
themself but based this on the fact that
the woman may not menustrate, had lesser
chances of becoming pregnant. Partially
true but also partially untrue at the same
time. Modern science has revealed that
there is a time period affter childbirth
that a woman is likely to get pregnant but
that nursing does not wholly prevent
pregnancy from occuring.
Another old wives tale was that a woman
could expect to lose a tooth for each
child born. Today's hygiene and dietary
thoughts help to forestall this possible
dental problem. Yet even today, it is
known that pregnancy does affect and
weakens women's teeth and so this old
wives tale is not mere child's play but
truth.
The famed "eating for two" likely stems
back to the healthy woman image and
perhaps felt to help produce a robust
sized babe. Today we know that birth
weight of a child is not affected by the
pregnant woman's overall weight gain. She
can gain 35 pounds, today's recommended
average weight gain, or 100 pounds and
still have a 7 pound baby due to
hereditary playing a larger role on the
child's birth size.
One peculiar superstitious thought was
that a pregnant woman should not look at a
hare. This chance meeting could have the
child risk being born with a deformity.
Yes, it is not a pun but hair lip was felt
to be one of the deformities that could
result. The elephant man's grossly
deformed body had originally been
diagnosed to been a result of his mother
being frightened by an elephant at a zoo
during her pregnancy; hence his
nickname.
These are just a few of the pregnancy
superstitions and old wives tales.
