Maternal Impressions

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

Maternal Impressions

Doctors cite still another case which illustrates, in a different way, the lack of correlation between a mother’s impressions and birthmarks.

This mother’s baby was born with five large “black cherries” on its back. Immediately one of the child’s grandmothers chided her for not telling someone of her craving so the baby would not have been marked. “T don’t even like black cherries and I have never thought of them once during my expectancy,” the young mother replied, and accepted her doctor’s explanation that birthmarks are just irregularities of development that occur accidentally. The medical term is embryological anomaly. There is no nervous connection between the mother and the developing infant, medical experts explain, to permit markings from maternal impressions. Furthermore, doctors argued as long ago as’ 1729, why shouldn’t it be just as logical for the mark to appear on the mother as on the baby? Old Superstitions Persist Persistence of the old superstition —which developed centuries ago among people of all races who were seeking explanation for blemishes and deformities—has been fostered by the fact that when a mother learns that her ,child is disfigured she usually Ibokg back into her prenatal ..experience and tries to find a cause. ' Experts on genetics have had ample time to check .and observe many generations of marked and unmarked babies, and they report that no one ever has been able to prove a single authentic case of a defect caused by a maternal impression. ’V .

The way most fishermen catch fish is by the tale. ■