Pregnancy folklore revisited: the case of heartburn and hair.
Source
Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions, Baltimore, Maryland 21287, USA.
Abstract
BACKGROUND:
Folklore can originate by detection of actual associations between seemingly unrelated events and perpetuated through oral tradition. The objective of this study was to determine whether a common pregnancy belief that women who experience a lot of heartburn give birth to newborns with a lot of hair is accurate.
METHODS:
Sixty-four pregnant women ranked the severity of their degree of heartburn during pregnancy. Independent coders rated newborn hair volume using 2 photographs of the infant's head, taken shortly after birth.
RESULTS:
Most (78%) women reported some degree of heartburn. Symptom severity was unrelated to fetal sex and maternal characteristics including parity, age, or weight. The simple linear relationship between heartburn severity and hair volume was significant r(s)(62) = 0.40, p < 0.001. Categorical analysis by severity score and hair ranking revealed a similar association (chi(2)= 23.93, p < 0.05). Most (23/28) women who reported moderate or severe heartburn gave birth to babies with average or above average amounts of hair, and conversely, most (10/12) women reporting no heartburn had babies with less than average or no hair.
CONCLUSIONS:
Contrary to expectations, it appears that an association between heartburn severity during pregnancy and newborn hair does exist. We propose a shared biologic mechanism involving a dual role of pregnancy hormones in both the relaxation of the lower esophageal sphincter and the modulation of fetal hair growth.
This study was done by Johns Hopkins and it was on Pubmed, so we know it is reliable information. The sample size was small though, so I'm trying to remedy that by polling people who read this blog. In your experience (or the experience of people you know) is this wives' tale true?
If it is, I'm going to give birth to an ape.
5 comments:
Told you! Let's eee--I did have some heartburn with all of you, and you were all bald. I think it was the worst with Joseph and he was...bald.
I had bad heartburn with the girls. They were born pretty much bald. They have great hair now, though!
No heart burn with Alana and she had a TON of hair. I had some heart burn with Leo and he had just a little bit of hair.
Nathan and I have no information to report to aid your research, but we both found this post fairly hilarious. :) We'll pray that your baby is born with a normal amount of hair. Hope your heartburn goes away soon! We are interested to see how much hair your baby ends up with.
I have a sample size of two: a good friend of mine had WICKED heartburn the full 9 months, and her daughter had loads and loads of hair. I had no heartburn (ever) and Forrest had short, thin, baby peach fuzz hair. So there you have it!
Good luck with the heartburn . . . that's too bad. I hope you feel better soon!
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