Pregnancy and Baby Superstitions Around the World
A newborn can be crossed with silver for luck, protected from too much admiration, considered fortunate for being born with a caul or given a collection of objects to choose from so the family can supposedly get an early look at their future. Even the first tooth can come with its own rule.
These beliefs come from very different places and shouldn’t be treated as one universal set of pregnancy instructions. Some are old folk superstitions. Others sit beside religious beliefs, family customs or traditional ideas about protection. Plenty are no longer taken literally at all, although that doesn’t necessarily stop someone’s grandmother insisting you follow them.
Pregnancy and birth also deserve a little more care than a page about lucky pennies or broken mirrors. Some traditional beliefs have been used to blame mothers when something went wrong, while living religious and cultural practices are sometimes casually labelled “superstition” simply because they’re unfamiliar. The interesting part here is the folklore without pretending every tradition belongs in exactly the same category.
Why do pregnancy and birth attract so much superstition?
Pregnancy combines two things folklore is particularly interested in. Something important is happening, and nobody can see exactly what is happening while they wait.
Before modern scans and medical testing, there were even more unknowns. Families waited to find out whether a pregnancy would continue safely, when the baby would arrive, whether the birth would go well and whether both mother and child would survive it.
That uncertainty encouraged people to look for things they could control. You could avoid a particular action, carry an object, watch for an omen or protect the mother from people and places thought to be dangerous.
Then there was the baby itself. A newborn represented the continuation of the family but was also seen as unusually vulnerable. That helps explain why protection from envy, harmful attention and supernatural forces appears so often in birth folklore.
In Mexico, eclipses have their own pregnancy superstitions
In parts of Mexico, eclipses have long come with particular warnings for pregnant women. Older beliefs said it was better to stay indoors or carry something protective while an eclipse was taking place.
Some versions connected an eclipse with the possibility of a baby being born with a cleft lip, cleft palate or another physical difference. Protective customs could involve carrying or wearing something made of metal, including a safety pin, key or piece of flint.
The belief has surprisingly deep roots. Early accounts of Nahua life describe pregnant women taking precautions during eclipses, while UNAM records the old Mexica practice of carrying flint during an eclipse as a way of protecting the unborn baby.
One traditional explanation connected the belief with the idea of an eclipse as something being bitten or eaten in the sky. That imagery was then extended to the unborn child, although different communities developed their own versions of what should be avoided and how protection worked.
Of course, there’s no evidence whatsoever that an eclipse can cause these birth differences. What’s interesting is how an unusual event in the sky became tied to pregnancy folklore and how some of those precautions continued to be passed down long after the original explanation had faded.
India has its own pregnancy warnings about eclipses
Mexico isn’t the only place where pregnancy folklore has made eclipses worrying.
Studies in different parts of India have recorded families advising pregnant women not to cut things, eat, sleep or go outside while an eclipse is taking place. One version says that cutting something during the eclipse could leave a corresponding mark or physical difference on the baby.
A study of mothers in Bihar found both Hindu and Muslim families describing eclipse restrictions, including avoiding cutting objects and using protective items in the home. Other research has found similar warnings continuing among families in Maharashtra, Karnataka and elsewhere.
Research published by the Royal Society examined these pregnancy beliefs in Bihar and found that people could follow modern medical care while still observing older supernatural precautions at home.
That last part is important. Belief doesn’t always disappear the moment somebody learns there’s no scientific reason for the rule. If the consequence involves your baby, “just in case” can become a powerful argument for doing what older relatives recommend.
Some families have been reluctant to announce a pregnancy too early
Keeping an early pregnancy quiet can have many completely personal reasons, but superstition sometimes adds another one. Telling too many people too soon can expose something precious before it feels properly secure.
Research in rural Maharashtra found women who delayed telling people about a pregnancy because they feared jealousy, black magic or the evil eye. The worry was that unwanted attention could harm the pregnancy before the baby was safely established.
The idea fits into a much wider pattern. Folklore often treats good fortune as being particularly vulnerable while it’s still new. A pregnancy, a new marriage, a healthy baby, a successful business or a beautiful new possession can all attract concern about envy precisely because they’re things other people might notice.
Babies have been considered especially vulnerable to the evil eye
Few beliefs connect pregnancy and babies across as many regions as the evil eye.
The basic fear is that too much admiration, envy or harmful attention can cause misfortune. Babies are obvious targets within that belief because people notice them, praise them and comment on how healthy or beautiful they look.
That’s why a compliment can become unexpectedly complicated. In some families, admiring a baby is followed by a blessing, protective phrase or gesture so the praise doesn’t accidentally become harmful.
Protective objects vary enormously. The British Museum holds a blue-beaded amulet from historic Palestine specifically labelled as something worn by babies against the evil eye. Elsewhere you’ll find red threads, eye-shaped beads, hands, horns, prayers and other forms of protection.
There isn’t one universal evil-eye rule for babies, and these objects come from different Jewish, Muslim, Christian and regional traditions. What they share is the belief that a child receiving lots of attention can also need protection from the attention that isn’t so friendly.
The evil eye appears in African pregnancy beliefs too
Concerns about harmful attention aren’t limited to the Mediterranean or South Asia.
Research with women in Ghana has recorded pregnancy beliefs involving both evil spirits and the evil eye. In one study, some women said they avoided eating or drinking in public because another person’s gaze could cause harm.
A study of women in Ghana documented these beliefs alongside Christian prayer and other forms of spiritual protection during pregnancy. The researchers were careful to distinguish between religion, family practice and older traditional beliefs rather than pretending everyone followed the same rules.
That distinction matters here too. Ghana contains many ethnic groups, religions and local traditions. A belief recorded from one group of women shouldn’t become “what Africans believe about pregnancy.” It tells us what those particular women described.
Pregnancy protection could become something you wore or carried
Long before anyone could check how a pregnancy was progressing with modern technology, protective objects gave families something physical to hold onto.
Medieval European women used prayer scrolls, amulets, stones and other objects during pregnancy and labour. Some were unquestionably religious. Others sat in a much blurrier area where prayer, folk medicine and protective magic overlapped.
The Wellcome Collection’s Expecting exhibition explores these beliefs through a medieval English birth scroll made around 1500. The scroll contained prayers and sacred images and could be used in the hope of protecting someone during childbirth.
Other objects had more obviously magical reputations. Stones could supposedly prevent miscarriage or help a difficult birth, while written amulets might be tied around the body.
It’s difficult to force all of this into neat modern categories. A woman using a prayer scroll might have understood it as religion rather than superstition. Someone else could use a sacred object in a way that church authorities themselves considered superstitious. The boundaries weren’t always any clearer then than they are now.
In Ireland, being born with a caul could make you extraordinarily lucky
Some babies arrived with their lucky object already attached.
A caul is a piece of the amniotic membrane that can occasionally remain over part of a baby’s head or face at birth. It’s harmless in itself, but folklore gave it an enormous reputation.
Irish records repeatedly describe a child born with a caul as lucky. One County Wexford account says the child would have a fortunate life and become wealthy. Other collections give the caul a much more specific power. The person born with one supposedly could not drown.
The National Folklore Collection records families keeping a baby’s caul because of its supposed protective power. One account even says a mother kept her child’s caul inside her prayer book.
The protection became valuable beyond the family. Sailors and fishermen could buy cauls because possessing one was supposed to protect them from drowning. Historical advertisements show them being offered for surprisingly large sums of money.
That gives the caul an unusual journey through folklore. Something associated with the circumstances of one baby’s birth eventually became a lucky charm another adult might carry across the ocean.
The connection with sailors also overlaps with the beliefs covered in Superstitions at Sea.
A little silver could give a newborn a lucky start
Another old British and Irish tradition puts money straight into the baby’s hand.
Crossing a baby’s palm with silver is supposed to wish the child prosperity and good fortune. Irish birth folklore records silver being placed in a newborn’s hand, while similar traditions survived in Britain through christening gifts and silver coins.
The Royal Mint Museum describes giving silver to a newborn as a traditional good-luck custom. It also records a related tradition in Trinidad and Tobago, where visitors can place money in a new baby’s hand to wish them luck for the future.
The symbolism is straightforward enough. If you want the child never to be without money, start them off with some before they’re old enough to know what money is.
It’s the same idea behind several of the beliefs in Money Superstitions and Lucky Money Beliefs. An object representing prosperity is given the additional job of attracting more of it.
Irish folklore had rules for the cradle too
Preparing for a baby usually involves buying everything long before the baby arrives. Older Irish superstition could make that slightly more complicated.
Records from County Kildare and Limerick describe it as unlucky to buy a new cradle for the baby. One collection simply lists the warning beside other birth beliefs involving cauls, silver and sneezing.
There isn’t enough evidence to give one confident origin for the warning. It fits a much wider reluctance found in pregnancy folklore to prepare too openly for a happy outcome before it has safely happened.
You can see the same uncomfortable logic behind not announcing a pregnancy early. Too much preparation can feel like tempting fate, as though acting certain about the future might give the future an opportunity to prove you wrong.
A baby’s sneeze could require an immediate blessing
Even something as ordinary as a sneeze could attract protective attention.
The same Irish birth collection says that if a baby sneezes, someone should immediately say “God bless him” or “God bless her.” The familiar habit of blessing a sneeze is much wider than Ireland, but newborn folklore can make the response feel particularly important.
Older explanations for blessing sneezes range from fears about illness to ideas about souls and harmful spirits. There isn’t one proven origin that accounts for every version.
With a baby, though, the protective instinct is easy to understand. A tiny involuntary noise becomes one more opportunity to say something intended to keep the child safe.
The first person to spot a baby’s tooth might owe them a present
Babies collect “firsts” very quickly, and folklore loves turning first events into signs.
An Irish belief recorded in County Offaly says the first person to notice a baby’s first tooth should give the child a present. The same collection gives teeth several other meanings, including the belief that being born with a tooth could be lucky.
The present rule is much friendlier than some older teething omens, which could predict everything from longevity to future misfortune depending on how early a child’s teeth appeared.
Apparently being the observant relative who notices the tooth first comes with responsibilities.
A child’s first birthday can supposedly reveal their future in China
You don’t always need to wait until a child grows up to find out what they’re going to do with their life. Chinese tradition has offered a considerably faster method.
During zhuazhou, objects are placed in front of a child around their first birthday and everyone watches to see what they pick up. The choice is traditionally interpreted as a clue to the child’s future interests, abilities or career.
A brush or book can suggest scholarship. Money or an abacus can point towards wealth or business. Other objects receive their own meanings depending on the family and the period.
The ceremony survives even in families that don’t expect the baby’s career to be decided by whichever object happens to look most chewable. The prediction can become part of the fun while the celebration itself carries the older tradition forward.
Korean first birthdays can ask the same question
Korea has a closely related first-birthday tradition known as doljabi.
Objects are placed in front of the child and the first one chosen is used to predict something about their future. Thread can represent long life, money suggests wealth and books or writing materials can point towards scholarship.
The National Museum of Korea shows the custom in paintings of Joseon-era first birthday celebrations. Its description explains that objects on the birthday table were used both to wish the child good fortune and to foretell future qualities from the baby’s choice.
The historical examples also reveal older expectations about gender. Boys and girls could be offered different objects based on the careers and domestic roles people expected them to have. Modern families can obviously change the selection completely.
That gives these first-birthday predictions an interesting second life. The basic idea of letting the baby “choose” a future can survive even after families stop accepting the social rules that once decided which futures were available.
Not every unusual birth tradition is a superstition
This distinction matters particularly with pregnancy and babies because birth is surrounded by religious ceremonies, ancestral traditions and cultural practices all over the world.
For example, Māori traditions surrounding pregnancy, birth and the placenta have deep connections with whakapapa, whenua and relationships with ancestral land. After birth, the whenua or placenta can traditionally be buried in land connected with the child’s family.
Te Papa explains the cultural meaning of returning the whenua to the land. Calling that a “New Zealand baby superstition” would badly misrepresent what the practice means.
The same caution applies elsewhere. A religious naming ceremony isn’t automatically superstition. Neither is a baptism, blessing, prayer, confinement period or traditional method of welcoming a child into a family.
The line is clearer when an action supposedly predicts an unrelated future event or prevents a supernatural consequence. A caul making someone immune to drowning, an eclipse supposedly changing the baby’s body or a first birthday object predicting a career all fit far more comfortably within folk belief.
Why are babies so often protected from admiration?
It can seem strange that telling someone their baby is beautiful could ever be treated as dangerous, but the fear makes more sense inside older ideas about envy.
A healthy baby was something precious, and historically it was also something families knew could be lost. Drawing too much attention to good fortune could therefore feel risky.
The evil-eye belief gives that anxiety a supernatural explanation. Praise draws attention, attention can become envy and envy can cause harm. Once that chain of reasoning is accepted, a protective phrase, charm or blessing after a compliment feels like a sensible precaution.
The same pattern appears around weddings, new homes, livestock, successful businesses and valuable possessions. Babies just happen to be one of the things people are most likely to admire out loud.
Why does folklore care so much about a baby’s firsts?
The first tooth, first birthday, first object chosen and even the circumstances of the birth can all become predictions because beginnings are unusually easy to turn into signs.
If a child is born with something unusual, folklore can treat that difference as evidence that their life will be unusual too. A caul becomes proof of future luck. Being born on a particular day can acquire its own meaning. The first object grabbed at a birthday celebration becomes a miniature version of the adult they might eventually become.
We’ve seen that same logic elsewhere on the site. New Year superstitions give enormous importance to the first visitor and first events of the year because the beginning is imagined as setting the pattern for everything that follows.
With a child, the temptation is even stronger. Nobody knows who this tiny person will grow into yet, so almost anything unusual can be turned into an early clue.
Do pregnancy and baby superstitions actually predict anything?
There’s no evidence that an eclipse determines how a baby will be born, that a caul prevents someone from drowning or that the first object grabbed at a birthday celebration reveals a future career.
What these beliefs reveal much more clearly is how people have dealt with uncertainty around pregnancy and children. When the outcome matters enormously and you can’t completely control it, even a small ritual can feel worth keeping.
They also show how quickly family habits become folklore. A grandmother tells you not to buy the cradle yet. Someone puts silver in the baby’s hand. A relative insists on adding a blessing after a compliment. Years later you can find yourself repeating the same rule even when you’re not completely sure you believe it.
Pregnancy and babies give people plenty to worry about and even more to hope for. Superstition has always been very good at finding somewhere to live between those two things.
You can find more beliefs involving protection, luck and strange warnings in What Is the Evil Eye?, Weird Superstitions From Around the World and the wider Superstitions and Omens collection.