NO FOUNDATION TO OLD SUPERSTITION ON BIRTHMARKS

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 13, Issue 41, 14 January 1949, Page 5

NO FOUNDATION TO OLD SUPERSTITION ON BIRTHMARKS

None Are Caused Before Birth What are the chances of a baby’s being, born with some kind of birthmark due to some experience suffered by the mother during pregnancy? This question was put to a Beacon reporter by an expectant mother recently. Not having much knowledge on the subject he referred the query to an experienced medical authority at Whakatane. His answer was: “Superstition. Just plain superstition.- There is’nothing in the belief at all. It has been proved that for every baby born with a slight defact there are thousands born perfect.” He added that doctors the world over *paid little heed to the tales, told mostly by old women. It had been proved conclusively that there was nothing in them. The reporter gave this authoritative answer to the rather doubtful woman. But even then she did not appear satisfied. So he looked round for more information on the subject and found it in an article by a noted American medical man, Dr George W- Kosmak, editor of the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology. Thousands Born Perfect “Thousands of perfect babies are born for every one that has some physical or mental defect, because nature is more consistent than careless. Yet when a woman*starts out on the great adventure of motherhood she is often beset with completely needless pre-natal worries,” he warned all mothers-to-be. What are the chances of having a baby who “isn’t bright?” the expectant mother asks her doctor. “How do I know my child won’t be deformed, or will be born .. with some peculiar character trait?” Then, perhaps a bit shamefacedly but with sincerity, she is likely to repeat some old wives’ tale about a woman who was frightened by a spider and thoughtlessly clapped her hand to her forehead with the result that her baby was born with a spider-mark on its brow. Such occurrences are purely coincidental, Dr Kosmak points out. The question, “Can a mother’s emotions, or v her unfulfilled desires, mai-k her unborn child?” has persisted in a great many minds from generation to generation but medical science'labelled the idea a rank superstition nearly 200 years ago. A wife became aware of the suffocating fumes of wood-smoke. Soon her entire apartment seemed to be ablaze. She had heard superstitious elders tell of unborn babies disfigured by angry red scars under similar circumstances. After her rescue from the fire she was sure the child she expected would bear a flame mark. Her doctor couldn’t allay her fears, but the baby’s arrival proved them groundless.