http://anthrodoula.blogspot.com/2010/05/pregnancy-beliefs-around-world.

html

Apparently, China has a great many odd birth customs. When a Chinese
couple marry and enter their home for the first time, the husband is supposed
to carry the bride over the threshold, just like the international custombut he
also carries her over burning coals to ensure that she can give birth without
any problems. Then when the wife does get pregnant, she traditionally faces a
host of unusual and surprising bans.
She must not gossip. She must not laugh too loudly. She mustnt get angry or
even think bad thoughts. She mustnt look at colors that clash, and she should
only eat light-colored food (to create a light-colored baby, of course). She must
never sit on a crooked mat, else the child may be born deformed.
She must sleep with a knife under her bed, so the sharp object will deter bad
spirits. The house must not undergo any construction during the pregnancy
and the mother can have absolutely no sex.
http://listverse.com/2014/05/03/10-weirdest-birth-customs-from-around-theworld/

#20 Pregnancy superstitions around the world

Are

you

superstitious?

Even though I think of myself as a rational person with a scientific approach to life, I
still cant help following superstitions which I know to be totally ridiculous - I admit
to feeling slightly uncomfortable if I have to walk under a ladder. And during pregnancy
I probably gave in to my superstitions more than normal.
In our culture we seem to be particularly driven by the fear of tempting fate during
pregnancy, for example not bringing the cot or pram into the house before the baby is
actually born.

Would you walk under this ladder?

In the 1950s we would have followed even more; we would have stopped knitting during
pregnancy and we would have avoided hanging up the washing or lifting our arms above
our heads for fear of the umbilical cord getting wrapped around the baby. Nowadays
these old wives tales have mostly disappeared. My theory is that the number and
strength of superstitious beliefs decreases with improved scientific understanding. (Mind
you, few of us knit these days and most of us use a tumble dryer)
In many non-Western cultures there are still an enormous number of superstitions
about what a pregnant woman should or shouldnt do. In the absence of any other
knowledge, superstitions are a way of taking care of themselves and protecting their
babies. In some ways it is similar to us following the advice we receive from our
doctors. (In fact I do think that some dietary advice is the modern equivalent of a
superstition. If something bad happens then you might blame it on that one peanut you
ate, or that extra glass of wine you had once, but in reality it may be nothing more than
a coincidence).
It is not surprising that pregnancy is an area rife for superstition. Its a long old time
between conception and birth (speaking from experience it can seem like an eternity
waiting to know how everything is going to turn out) and our babies grow behind closed
doors.
With Western medicine we do get to peep behind those doors in a manner of speaking;
we see a blue line to confirm our pregnancy, we hear the reassuring woosh-woosh,
woosh-woosh of our babys heartbeat, and with ultrasounds we even get to see inside
maybe two or three times before the baby is born.
But without these tools, women know very little about how their unborn baby is
developing and what's going on behind those closed doors. I am sure this is why so

many superstitions have devoloped. They are a way of explaining the complications and
misfortunes or pregnancy and childbirth.
The huge number of superstitions might suggest that pregnant women live in a very
fearful state trying to keep to all these rules. For some women they provide
reassurance, while other women carry on as normal and these superstitions are more
commonly thought about after birth to provide retrospective explanations for any
problems that occurred. A Maisin woman from Papua New Guinea whose baby is born
with the cord around its neck may then remember having walked through a spiders
web during her pregnancy, rather than spending the whole pregnancy trying to avoid
walking through spider webs.
Here are a few common themes found around the world;

AVOIDING ACTIONS THAT MIGHT SYMBOLISE

A BLOCKAGE OR GETTING STUCK
The Minangkabau of Indonesia have a long list of actions that a woman should or
shouldnt do when pregnant in order to ensure an easy birth including She shouldnt sit
in a door entrance or gateway because then the baby may find it difficult to come out, if
she goes down to the river to bathe she mustnt come back until she is finished, if shes
forgotten something she shouldnt come back to the house for it as this could delay
delivery. Similar superstitions about avoiding sitting in doorways or steps are found in
Malaysia and across Indonesia, while Thai women eat lotus buds which have been
chanted over by a Buddhist monk so that their bodies will open up like a lotus flower
and they will give birth easily, and if someone fells a tree or puts something in the path
of a pregnant Karen woman (Thailand) they must give the woman a chicken in
recompense, otherwise the birth might be obstructed.

AVOIDANCE OF ECLIPSES
In Latin America it is said that the sun and the moon, particularly when eclipsed, can
deform an unborn child. In Guatemala expectant mothers shouldnt go outside at
midday when the sun is at its highest, nor should they look at an eclipsed moon, or
point at a rainbow as doing any of these could cause abnormalities in the baby.
The Tarahumara, one of the largest indigenous groups of Mexico, believe that
deformities such as cleft lip or club foot are caused by the expectant mother looking at
an eclipsed sun or moon their explanation being that the sun or moon is annoyed at
being eclipsed, and eats part of the foetus in revenge. InMalaysia pregnant women
supposedly lived in fear of a lunar eclipse which brings unnamed terrors in its wake,
and in Thailand women believed that if they saw an eclipse the child might be born
with a squint or to have a misshapen mouth resembling the eclipsed sun or moon.

PREGNANT WOMEN SHOULD CONTROL THEIR

EMOTIONS, REMAINING CALM AND GENTLE
AT ALL TIMES

This superstition may actually be medically beneficial as research supports the idea that
a mothers emotions can affect the babys environment, and that in particular stress
and trauma increase the mothers heart rate as well as affecting blood flow to the
placenta and hormone production, all of which can negatively affect foetal functioning.
An expectant Balinese woman should behave with a pure heart at all times, a
pregnantGuatemalan is required to avoid all strong negative emotions such as anger,
fright or sadness and to maintain an emotional equilibrium to avoid a miscarriage,
a Beng woman (West Africa) is told that her actions during pregnancy will affect her
babys character so that if she is good her baby will be good, but if she steals
something, then her baby will be become a thief. InEgypt this ideal is advantageous to
women as the general belief is that the mothers emotional state affects the babys
comfort in her womb, and that if she is unhappy she may suffer a miscarriage and so
husbands are expected to treat their wives especially well during pregnancy.
In Thailand it is believed that every sound, sight, touch, taste, smell, thought and
action experienced by the mother will have some reaction on the child so she takes
every opportunity to associate herself with objects and people which have a positive
effect on the child and with words and actions which imply success giving birth.

PREGNANT WOMEN SHOULD NOT LOOK AT

UGLY
OR
DEFORMED
PEOPLE
OR
ANIMALS AND THEY SHOULD AVOID ILLNESS
OR
DEATH,
INSTEAD
THEY
SHOULD
SURROUND THEMSELVES BY BEAUTY AND
LIFE
Akan expectant mothers from Ghana must avoid looking at blood, monkeys, other ugly
animals and even ugly carvings, and along with Jamaican and Beng mothers must
avoid seeing a human or animal corpse, and many North American Indian mothers
were meant to avoid seeing any ugly or dead animals. A Nigerian mother is
encouraged to avoid places where people fight and quarrel so that her baby is peaceloving, and no ugly or wicked person should walk behind a pregnant women. A
pregnant Saami (Lapland) woman is not meant to see anything ugly or be startled, and
no one is supposed to even talk about deformed children, childbirth or reindeer calving
in her presence.
http://pregnancyandchildbirtharoundtheworld.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/20pregnancy-superstitions.html

Philippine Beliefs on Pregnancy

Ron Siojo

FOLLOW
The Philippines is a country of many superstitions and beliefs. These was handed down from ancient
forefathers and still practice as of today. These notions are part of the Philippine culture, for one derives
their beliefs from the influence of what their traditions, customs and culture have prescribed to explicate
certain phenomena or just simply to put a scare to people. Some of these superstitions are practiced
mainly because Filipinos believe there is nothing to lose if they abide with these beliefs.
PHILIPPINE BELIEFS ON PREGNANCY
Philippine beliefs and superstitions throughout the various regions and countryside in the country have
acquired in numbers. And even at urban abodes, where advance lifestyles and inhibited technology still
talks about these customs. These beliefs have been handed down from ancestors aiming to prevent
danger from happening or to make a person abstain from doing something in particular.
These notions are part of the Philippine culture, for one derives their beliefs from the influence of what
their traditions, customs and culture have prescribed to explicate certain phenomena or just simply to put
a scare to people. Some of these superstitions are practiced mainly because Filipinos believe there is
nothing to lose if they abide with these beliefs.
I was inspired to write about superstitions and beliefs about pregnancy after reading the article Food
Cravings and other Strange Changes in Pregnancy (and Why?), written by Bethany Marsh. The article
was well-composed and detailed the condition of a woman as being pregnant. The cravings, weight gain,
getting sick, the psychological burden and of course the hormones were all explained very well.
The following are some of the different Philippine beliefs on pregnancy.
It is a common saying here in the Philippines, that when a woman is pregnant her one foot is confine to a
hospital while the other foot is bound six-feet below the ground. This is an emphasis to the dangers of
giving birth where the life of the mother and the baby is at stake.
At the first symptom of pregnancy, morning sickness is upfront, and the cravings start. This sound
strange but this is very true here. Have you ever seen an infant who profusely salivate? It is believed that
when an expectant mother asks for a certain food but was denied; her child will salivate abundantly and
will be prone to vomiting.

The most common food cravings here are green mangoes or raw mangoes, the sour the better
withbagoong - a paste made from fish or small shrimps that are salted and fermented for several weeks.
See picture below.

Green Mangoes and bagoong

Image Source: http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7173/6770581121_5d3582d90b.jpg
Naglilihi, a Filipino word which describes the symptoms of early pregnancy, strange or too much liking or
hate on food cravings or even a person, animals or even places. If a pregnant woman craves to eat too
much balut - a fertilized duck embryo that's boiled alive and eaten in the shell her child will becomes
hairy.

"Balut"
Image Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a6/BALUT.jpg/200px-BALUT.jpg
If a kid sees another hairy kid, he may say that, Pinaglihi ka sa balut meaning your mother
ate balutwhen she was pregnant. There are instances that when one kid have a face that resembles like a
monkey, all his/her playmates will tease him, Pinaglihi ka sa unggoy meaning her mother had a great
liking on monkeys when she was pregnant or a kid with a wide spread legs like a frog, the same will be
claim.
This is the reason why pregnant mothers are not allowed to go near to people, animals or things with
unpleasant look cause it is believe that the baby will inherits its figure.
A pregnant mother must finish all the food on her plate so that when she delivers all will come out.

Old folks submerged a comb in coconut milk to make the mothers breast abundant with milk.
Partaking food with an expectant mother will result to sleepiness, drowsy or even sick.
Visitors are not allowed to stand-by or sit at threshold of the house by a pregnant woman will result to
difficult delivery or long labor. Same as the windows and doors must be kept wide open for an easy
delivery of the infant.
Pregnant mother are not allowed to cry for they will suffer hard delivery and the infant will turn to a
crybaby.
An expectant mother is forbidden to eat shellfish which are slippery and the baby might be expelling out of
the womb.
Pregnant woman are not allowed to view an eclipse, so that when the baby is born, it will not have the
habit of winking the eyes incessantly.
The Philippine contains innumerable superstitions and beliefs on different factors such as health, on
death, wedding, body marks and pregnancy. These are just a few.
Thanks Bethany Marsh.

https://philippines-events-culture.knoji.com/philippine-beliefs-on-pregnancy/

Traditional culture in the Philippines puts a very high value on the family -- and motherhood in particular.
The birth of a baby is not just a private affair for one couple or family; it is a culturally significant event to
be celebrated by the whole community. In the Philippines, pregnancy, birth and the time period after is
surrounded by a wide variety of beliefs, traditional practices and rituals that involve both mother and
infant.

Birthing Beliefs in the Philippines

by Amy Wilde, Demand Media

Pregnancy
According to Filipino beliefs, how a pregnant woman acts, the things that happen to her and
even what she thinks can all have a major impact on her growing baby. Pregnant Filipino
women have a long list of recommendations, warnings and taboos that restrict their
behavior until they give birth. For example, a pregnant woman's food cravings must be
fulfilled promptly or she may suffer a miscarriage. A pregnant women should not wear
anything around her neck or the baby may get strangled by his umbilical cord. A pregnant

woman should also avoid looking at anything ugly, scary or blemished, because that could
cause the baby to be born disfigured.

Birth
There are many Filipino cultural beliefs that apply to the birth of the baby as well. Guests at
the birth standing too near the door could create complications in labor. A laboring women
should place squash leaves on her abdomen and hold onto hard objects to lessen labor
pains. Coconut water can also lessen labor pain. The mother should avoid touching others
while in labor or her pain may be transferred to them. It is common for many people to
attend the birth, particularly female family members.

http://classroom.synonym.com/birthing-beliefs-philippines-9141.html

WAKWAK AND PREGNANCY

Filipinos are a funny lot (dont get me wrong, I am one).
The Philippines, accordingly, is the only nation in the Southeast Asian region (I guess in the whole of
Asia) whose citizens are predominantly Catholic. Yet, even with this fact, many Filipinos especially
the older people never forget their pagan roots and are thus extremely superstitious people.
If you are pregnant and live with your mom, expect a whole bunch of warnings for almost everything
that you do. This happens more often if you live with your grandmother or your aunts. Or sometimes
when you have a slightly lesser educated neighborhood friend who happens to be of same age with
you but just had a baby three years ahead of you. Or if you have nosey neighbors. Or if you live in
the province (but even so if you are a confessed city girl).
Aside from the superstitions, there are also those causes that I believe had no connection to their
said effect.
Among the things my mom warned me about:
1) Do not sit with your hips (or your legs) too wide apart. It will apparently make your
babys head big. Sheesh. Those things were exactly what Lamaze (introduced by the mother, by
the way, but unfortunately no classes here in Cebu and not many in the entire Philippines) and
pregnancy yoga taught. You had to keep exercising the muscles and the cervix area and keep it as
wide as possible to help for a fast and easy delivery.

2) Put garlic on your windows to ward offwhatever there was to ward

off. Filipinos are often big believers of the wakwak, manananggal and other similar
supernatural beings. Im not (although I wouldnt want to be given proof that they actually exist,
either). But then, who was I to disappoint my mom? Each time I entered the room, it smelled like
garlic and I think I reeked of one too if I spent a considerable amount of time inside. *Sigh*. The
downside of being a good daughter.
3) Drape a black cloth over your tummy at night to keep awaywhatever there
was to keep away. Pretty similar with item two but this was told to me by my friend in the
neighborhood. Apparently, the wakwaks and other supernatural beings disguised as cats keep at the
roof of a pregnant womans room. Never experienced that though. I think these wakwaks and
manananggals hate the city lights.
4) Bathe in oil (baby oil, I hope) when going to sleep to prevent panuhot (gas
and flatulence). I still could not connect the cause and effect here. All the scientific and medical
literature Ive read tell me that certain foods cause gas. Swallowing air (so sleeping in front of the
electric fan may not be such a good idea) and not burping them out would eventually lead to gas
buildup though but the oil to prevent/treat it? Im not so sure. Does the oil give off a protective shield
against air? Hmm but my partner uses the oil to massage my back (extremely painful as your belly
grows) and my legs (to make sure blood circulation is perfect and prevent edema) though.
5) Do not allow a visitor stay by the door of your house when you are
pregnant. Because apparently it will make labor and delivery very difficult for you. Haha. Enough
said. That was funny enough. I. Cant. Even.
6) Do not let your child sit on your shoulder while his/her teeth are still
growing. This is not, of course, applicable to a pregnant woman but to one who has already given
birth. Apparently, the babys teeth will grow crooked or something. Im not sure about the effects and
I dont really care because obviously, the cause and effect do not meet at any point, no matter where
I start the line.
Hmmm I could no longer remember other unsolicited advice that had been given to me. All
througout my pregnancy, I have usually made my decisions based on scientific literature. Anything
science says is not good but said to be quite okay based on gut and experience is still not good
for me. Even now as I try to raise my infant daughter.
PS. I was planning to share the link of this post on Facebook and Id thought about how my mother
might react if she reads this. Well, shes pretty much aware that I dont believe in superstitions so I

guess its just fine. And, if you believe in these things then by all means, continue doing so. Yes,
nothing will be taken away from you if you do.
PPS. There was also this issue on getting the belly massaged during pregnancy because it was
apparently a norm in our country. Thank goodness I didnt have go through it mostly because I was
scared something might happen to the baby. I read about it and the literature said that babies will
tend to position themselves correctly as full term approaches. There will still be cases
where optimal fetal positioning (OFP) will be needed (or CS) such as if the baby is in a)
breech or b) transverse positions. Baby was in (c) position, thank goodness.