Needle And Thread During Pregnancy
Title: Needle and Thread during Pregnancy
General Information about Item:
- Country where Item is from: Greece
Informant Data:
Two informants shared this superstition with us, Mary Wallenmeyer and Katie Spanos.
- Katie Spanos is a 20 student at Dartmouth College. She is from Hummelstown, PA. Her dad is Greek, but her mom is not. Her dads family comes from a small village called Neohori, and she still has a lot of family there as well as some in other parts of Greece. Katie and her siblings do not speak Greek, but her dad, aunts and uncles will speak Greek with her Yia-Yia. Their family follows most Greek customs and holidays, mainly because her entire family is Greek Orthodox.
Contextual Data:
- Social Context: Extended family will practice this on a pregnant woman to guess the babys gender, the woman can also hold the tread herself. The superstition is passed down through families and practiced on pregnant women by family members and close friends. It is often done before a babys gender can be determined by doctors as a fun way to predict a babys gender.
- Cultural Context: This superstition began before ultrasounds were used during pregnancy as a way to predict a babys gender. The practice is now more of a fun way to predict gender and bring family together.
Item:
- Associated file :
A pregnant woman holds a thread with a needle attached over her palm to predict the gender of her baby. A circular motion indicates a girl, while a linear motion indicates a boy.
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Set The Test Aside And Set Your Timer
Now, take a quick look back at the directions and see how long youre supposed to wait before looking at the results.
Its probably about 3 minutes. Set your timer and walk away. It is tempting to watch the test change colors, but all you will do is go through 1,001 moods in those 181 seconds. But dont walk away from the test without setting a timer. If you do that, you might stay away too long.
Reading a test significantly after the maximum wait time can result in false positives or negatives.
What can you do while you wait, without losing your mind? How about…
- Watch one of your favorite funny YouTube videos.
- Go make yourself a cup of tea.
- Put in a load of laundry or load/unload the dishwasher.
- Turn on a song that makes you happy, do a little dance. No sad songs, please! Dont torture yourself.
Ways To Accurately Determine The Sex Of A Baby
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The Mayan Gender Predictor Test
Finally, a gender test that doesnt require you to pee on anything or swing items back and forth! To perform the Mayan gender predictor test, all you need is a couple of numbers specifically, the year baby was conceived and your age at conception. According to Mayan legend, if these numbers are both even or odd, then youll welcome a girl. But if one is even and the other is odd, its a boy. For me, this test worked for exactly 50 percent of the time, correctly predicting two out of my four pregnancies.
How To Do The Baking Soda Gender Test
A woman who wants to try this test must collect her urine in a clean container the first time she uses the bathroom in the morning.
This first-morning urine must be used for the test because the womans urine may become diluted as she drinks fluids throughout the day.
It is important to wash the hands thoroughly before collecting urine. To collect the urine, a woman can squat over the toilet and hold the container under her while releasing a small amount of urine.
The next step is to add an equal amount of baking soda to the urine and look for whether the urine fizzes or remains the same.
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Babys Heart Rate Boy Or Girl
Your babys heart will start to beat around 6 weeks pregnant, and your doctor will be able to hear it and measure the BPM .
According to this modern old wives tale, if your babys BPM is below 140, you may be pregnant with a baby BOY! If your babys heartbeat it above 140, this theory suggests you are having a baby GIRL.
Learn more about your babys heart rate and this gender prediction.
String Testboy Or Girl 20
dewberry1 · 17/12/2005 15:55
I know its a load of cobblers but I was bored and got talked into it by my sis..anyway the result was it went round and round which means its supposed to be a girl!!! ..As im only 15 weeks I have no idea what my little babe is and really dont mind either way!! Has anyone done this and found out off their scan it to be correct..Just a bit of fun for the weekend..let me know xx Dx
WigWamBam · 17/12/2005 16:02
You’ll think I’m mad but a friend of mine is heavily into crystals, pendulums, that sort of thing, and she had got a new pendulum that she was trying out. She was asking all kinds of questions to try and get to know her responses to it and at one point asked whether I was pregnant, expecting a negative as she knew that I had no plans to have children at all … the pendulum went absolutely haywire swinging aound in circles. She was adamant I was pregnant with a girl, I was equally adamant that she was barking. A day or two later, after copious amounts of throwing up and with very sore boobs I took the test. Of course, I knew there was no way I was pregnant … It might have been a huge co-incidence of course … but dd is now 4.5
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Wedding Ring Gender Test
Jessica Gomez is a freelance writer and editor who has several years of experience contributing to a multitude of publications on subjects like real estate, pets, and film, as well as multiple fiction and nonfiction books in print.
If you’re like many expectant parents, you may be eager to get an answer to the ever-pressing question: is my baby a boy or a girl? Ultrasound is the gold standard for determining a baby’s sex, but it can be fun to try at-home gender prediction tests.
There are plenty of old wives’ tales that people use to guess the sex of their baby, including the popular ring gender test. Learn how to use this fun at-home test to predict whether you’re having a boy or a girl.
How To Perform The Pencil Pregnancy Test
The pencil will need to swing like a pendulum, so choose a location that is free from the interference of wind. Then follow these steps:
1. First, sharpen the pencil to a fine point.2. Next, thread the needle. You dont need too much thread, just enough to hold onto.3. Press the threaded needle into the eraser on the back of the pencil.4. Place your hand palm-up on a flat surface.5. Lift the pencil by the thread, and touch the point to the pregnant womans wrist.6. Raise the pencil directly upwards, taking care to move as little as possible, and hold the pencil very still. Then observe its motions, which will indicate the gender of the baby.
If the pencil moves vertically from wrist to elbow, the baby will be a boy.If it moves horizontally across the wrist, the baby will be a girl. The pencil should stop on its own and start again between children, to indicate the number of children the subject will have . Im not pregnant, but if this test is accurate, Ill have a girl someday! Try it out and let us know your results in the comments.
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Nausea Gender Predictor Test
If youre sick a lot in your pregnancy, then its a girl. Little to no nausea and its a boy.
I was pretty damn sick in the beginning of my pregnancy. And every morning I still dry heave after brushing my teeth even though Im 17 weeks along. My friend who had two girls believes this is a sign of my having a girl. But another friend of mine who had a boy was just as, if not more, nauseous than I am during her pregnancy.
But following the article, that would make this a tick in the box for girl.
So according to those wives tales, Im having a girl. Its 5 to 2 people.
And yet, when I let my mind wander, Im pretty sure its a boy. Ill have the surprise of my life on Oct. 25 if the ultrasound reveals a girl. Will be absolutely shocked. Isnt there something to be said for mothers intuition?
Other Ways To Determine Baby’s Gender
Ultrasound scans are the most widely used method to accurately determine a baby’s sex in utero. Prior to the introduction of ultrasounds in the 1970s, people around the world relied on various folk tales to guess the gender of unborn babies. These tried, but not necessarily true, gender prediction methods have been passed down for thousands of years and rely on a variety of tools and methods to predict an unborn baby’s gender.
Some cultures look to the moon, others rely on ancient charts, and some suggest that the pregnant person’s food cravings or the shape of their belly can indicate whether the baby is a boy or a girl.
Though there is no written history on the origins of the ring test, the lack of scientific data to support the method most certainly means this test is rooted in superstition.
Thanks to advancements in medical technology, there are a number of methods that can accurately determine an unborn baby’s sex. Many of these methods are screening tests that monitor your unborn baby’s development and/or test for certain chromosomal or genetic abnormalities in the baby.
Finding out whether you are having a girl or a boy can be one of the most exciting milestones during your pregnancy. Though the ring test is an old wives’ tale based on superstition rather than fact, it can be a fun bonding experience while you wait for a more certain way to learn the sex of your baby.
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Skin Changes During Pregnancy
Pregnancy hormones are the root cause of your skin changes. The fluctuations can cause your skin to either dry out or produce more oily acne-prone skin. Therefore, old wives tales claim that if you do not have a surge in acne, you may be carrying a BOY. If you are breaking out all over your face and body, and you normally do not have excessive acne, you may be carrying a GIRL!
More body appearance changes:
- Areola becomes dark=BOY. Areola unchanged predicts GIRL.
- Face shape appears long and lean=BOY. Face shape is round=GIRL.
- Right breast is larger than the left=BOY. Left breast is larger than the right=GIRL.
- Hair, leg hair, and fingernails growing fast predicts you are pregnant with a BOY. No noticeable growth=GIRL.
- Shape of your belly is round like a basketball? BOY. The shape of your stomach is flat like a watermelon? GIRL.
- Carrying Low predicts that you are pregnant with a BOY. Carrying High means, you might be carrying a GIRL.
How Accurate Is The Ring Gender Test
Although many people swear by the accuracy of the ring on a string test to guess a baby’s sex, there is no scientific evidence to back up these claims. Accurate results are usually just by chance , so the test is more about having fun while you wait for more accurate test results or your baby’s birth to know for sure if you are welcoming a boy or girl into your family.
If you try the ring test more than once, you might notice that your first try tells you you’re having a boy, and the next attempt says girl. So why the different answers? Apart from the fact that the ring test is akin to flipping a coin, a number of factors can affect the test results. In fact, the person who is holding the ring/string above your hand or abdomen can influence the results. Maybe they have shaky hands or shifted their feet while conducting the test. In some cases, the ideomotor effect may influence the results of your ring test.
Ideomotor movements are small, involuntary movements that are influenced by a person’s expectations, preconceptions or beliefs. This means that if the person who is performing the ring test wants your baby to be a girl, or someone else in the room suggests they “know” it is a girl before the test is completed, then the person holding the ring/string subconsciously makes the string move in a circular motion to confirm their suspicion.
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The Wedding Ring Test
One of the most popular old wives tales is the wedding ring or needle test. All you will need is a needle, or your wedding band will work as well. Thread the needle or wedding ring, and then hold it over your belly as you are lying down. If the wedding band/needle starts making circles, it means that you are having a girl, if the wedding band/needle moves back and forth it means that you will be having a boy. This is the most common old wives tales that some of the older generation swear by.
The Drano Gender Test
Lets just get this one out of the way first. If youre searching for ways to predict babys gender at home, youll likely stumble across something called the Drano gender test. Were here to beg you not to do this one. Seriously. Dont. This test calls for mixing urine with Drano, which can produce noxious, harmful fumesand theres no reason to put yourself or baby at risk just for a gender prediction test . If youre keen on trying a gender prediction test at home, keep reading for some much safer alternatives.
Watch, Popular Baby Boy Names:
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The John Hopkins Study On Gender Prediction Methods
In 1999, researchers at John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health set out to test whether traditional gender prediction practices held any accuracy. They interviewed 104 pregnant women and asked them to use their preferred gender prediction method to guess their future babys gender. These methods included:
- The ring method
Researchers found that overall, women using various traditional gender prediction methods had a 55% accuracy rate when it came to guessing the gender of their child-just about the same as flipping a coin.
But that doesnt mean this old wives tale is just hocus pocus and superstition-rituals and traditions may help moms feel more connected to their baby, celebrate the coming birth, and share in family customs.
Have A Say Before You Conceive
Can you influence the sex before you conceive? These elaborate and bizarre methods say yes. For a boy, have your partner sit on the roof near the chimney for several hours before intercourse. Pining for a girl ? An old American myth claims you can shake off your baby’s “extra equipment” by taking your buggy over rough roads.
Note: We’re using the word gender here because people often use this word when talking about their child’s sex. However, the two are not the same. A child is generally assigned a sex at birth based on biological characteristics, such as their genitals. But their sex designation may not match the gender identity that they assume later.
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What Is The String Gender Test
The string gender test is a test to figure out the gender of your baby. Simply tie your wedding ring on the end of a piece of string and hold it above your belly as you lie on your back. Relax and let the string move on its own without any help from you.
If the ring begins to circle then youre carrying a girl, if the ring swings back and forth then youre carrying a boy.
Why Does The String Move
According to Critical Thinking Psychology Today, Ideomotor actions are unconscious, involuntary motor movements that are performed by a person because of prior expectations, suggestions or preconceptions.
In other words, if you would like to have a girl then your unconscious thoughts might begin to spin the ring. The test would then show that you were having a girl. Your mind wanted a girl and so that is what the string concluded.
It is interesting because when I did the string test I didnt care about the gender, but I thought the baby might be a girl. Hence why I believe that the ring predicted that I would be having a little baby girl even though I was carrying a boy.
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