Carrying high or low
Carrying high is said to mean a girl and carrying low a boy.
Body superstition
Pregnancy superstitions
Pregnancy superstitions: carrying high means a girl; do not raise your arms above your head; do not buy anything before the birth. First recorded: Antiquity; bump-shape prediction recorded from the medieval period. That makes it more than 1,500 years old — joint 2nd oldest of the 45 superstitions we have dated.
- Earliest record
- Antiquity see the history below
- Written down in
- 1817 Nathan Drake
Record: Nathan Drake, Shakspeare and His Times, vol. 2 (London, 1817).
When it actually starts
How old is this one
First recorded
Antiquity; bump-shape prediction recorded from the medieval period
That makes it
more than 1,500 years old
Rank by age
Joint 2nd oldest of 45 dated here
Category
Body
Before ultrasound there was no way to know a baby's sex or health, and the gap filled with rules: what not to look at, what not to reach for, what the shape of the bump means.
Why it stuck. Sex prediction is right half the time by chance, and the hits get remembered while the misses are quietly dropped.
1 of the dated superstitions here were written down earlier and 32 later, while 11 share its date.
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Primary source
As it was written down in 1817
“Pregnant and child-bed women were considered, as in Germany, peculiarly in danger of being stolen by the Fairies at noon-day…”
Nathan Drake, Shakspeare and His Times, vol. 2 (London, 1817) — read the original text.
Drake is describing old Scottish fairy belief, quoting Robert Kirk’s Secret Commonwealth (1691).
The versions people follow
What exactly is believed
The ring test
A ring on a thread swung over the belly predicts the sex: a circle for a girl, a line for a boy.
Heartburn and hair
Heartburn during pregnancy is said to mean the baby will be born with a full head of hair.
No baby shower too early
Buying baby clothes or holding a shower too early is thought to tempt fate.
Where it lives today
Sex-prediction folklore performs no better than chance when tested. The heartburn-and-hair link is the exception: a small study found a real association, probably through shared hormones.
What people say
Carrying high means a girl; do not raise your arms above your head; do not buy anything before the birth.What is going on
Bump shape reflects muscle tone, position and the mother's build, not the baby's sex. Ultrasound settles at around 18 weeks.Where it applies. Universal, with the not-buying rule strongest where infant mortality was historically high.
Nearest in age
Pregnancy superstitions are joint 2nd oldest of the 45 dated superstitions here. Of those, 3 date from 1900 or later and 14 predate the common era.
First-recorded dates are the earliest documented appearance in written sources, not the earliest possible origin — an unrecorded practice can be older. How the dating works and where it is uncertain →
Sources
Statements of fact on this page were checked against these sources in October 2026. How we choose and check sources: editorial policy.
Cite this page
AstroHot. “Pregnancy Superstitions: Origin, Meaning and When It Began.” Accessed October 28, 2026. https://astrohot.com/superstitions/pregnancy-superstitions/
For Wikipedia
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