Slide Show: 7 Myths about Pregnancy

A look at the science (or lack thereof) behind prenatal wives' tales

WOMEN EAT MORE WHEN EXPECTING A BOY: In 2003 a team of researchers from the U.S. and Europe studied the diets of 244 pregnant women during their second trimester and found that those carrying male fetuses ate, on average, 190 more calories per day than those carrying females... EYELIAM VIA FLICKR
LIFTING HEAVY OBJECTS COULD CAUSE THE PLACENTA TO RIP FROM THE UTERINE WALL: Lifting something cannot not cause the placenta to shear from the wall of the womb, cutting off the supply of nutrients and oxygen to the fetus, Saade says. The concern with lifting, he says, is that the mother could injure her back or lose balance and topple over... © ISTOCKPHOTO.COM/MEVANS
A FETUS WITH A FULL HEAD OF HAIR SPELLS HEARTBURN FOR MOM: A few years ago, researchers from Johns Hopkins University (J.H.U.) in Baltimore decided to put this myth to rest with a scientific study, but they didn't get the results they were expecting... VIRTUALERN VIA FLICKR
PREGNANT WOMEN SHOULD AVOID PEANUTS BECAUSE THEY UP THE BABY'S ODDS OF DEVELOPING AN ALLERGY TO THEM There is no compelling scientific evidence that eating peanuts, shellfish or other potentially allergenic foods during pregnancy affects the baby's risk of developing allergies, according to Aziz Sheikh, a community health scientist at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland who has studied childhood allergies... EUROMAGIC VIA FLICKR
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BUMP IN THE FRONT? IT'S A BOY: If the fetus is male, the mom carries most of the weight low and in the front, like a basketball shooting from her hips; if it's a girl, the mother looks more like a planet, round all over—or so they say... © ISTOCKPHOTO.COM/TOMAZL
FAT PREGNANT WOMEN ARE MORE LIKELY TO HAVE OVERWEIGHT BABIES: According to Robert Zurawin, an obstetrician–gynecologist (ob–gyn) at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, overweight or obese mothers-to-be are more at risk than normal-weight ones of having big babies... © ISTOCKPHOTO.COM/KATE_SEPT2004
ONLY THE MOTHER'S BIOLOGICAL CLOCK MATTERS: Wrong. Sorry guys, but you have biological clocks, too. Scientists have long known that a woman's advancing age brings decreased fertility and increased risk of having a baby with chromosomal disorders such as Down's syndrome, says Joshua Copel, an obstetrician–gynecologist at Yale Maternal-Fetal Medicine in New Haven, Conn... © ISTOCKPHOTO.COM/CHRISTIAN ANTHONY

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