Superstitions - To Believe or Not to Believe

For all the fabulous and beautiful pregnant women out there:

Now I am not one for superstitions but being Chinese, you may or may not know that we have TONS of superstitions, I mean tons! Some are quite ridiculous and I choose not to believe them for the sake of my own sanity. Now I don’t want to give you any more things to worry about when carrying a baby is a huge responsibility on its own but what I heard from my mother-in-law was quite interesting. Although they may be superstitions I think it is sooo interesting to hear about other cultures and their beliefs and how some of them cross over to my own culture…

So, my mother-in-law explained to me the following three things you should not do when you are pregnant…according to the Italians:

1. Do not walk over blood (I mean this should be pretty easy to avoid but who knows what rare situation you may run into) – if you do, your baby will be born with a red birthmark on their little cute booty.

2. Do not walk over a wound up hose, rope or any other rope-like item. If it is stretched out then it’s no problem, but as long as it is not looped up. If you do, your baby may have the umbilical cord wrapped around them which is often the case why women need to do a C-section. I know, this is a carry scenario but also quite interesting.

3. Do not walk over fish water…. Yes this might be the weirdest one…. She explained that back in the old days, they would throw the fish on the ground to wash, thus, there would be fish water on the floor. If you do, your baby will be born with scaley like skin – many people do have this, not sure the correct medical term, but dryer skin.

Okay those are the three Italian superstitions for a pregnant woman. I hope this has not scared you but has entertained you a bit and may be nice to just keep in mind for the sake of taking precautions. After hearing this, does this sound like anything you have heard in your culture? Surprisingly enough, my mom confirmed that the Chinese believe in the first two as well! It’s great when cultures have things in common, makes it sound like we are much more similar then we choose to believe and can really relate to each other more. =)

I am definitely the kind of person who loves to be able to relate to someone else and I believe that’s what makes a friendship thrive. Being the minority here in Italy, it’s comforting to hear things that I may have in common with Italians and not feel so … different. =)