SUPERSTITIONS
CONCERNING BABIES. AMAZING OLD-TIME BELIEFS. Today, with our up-to-the-minute baby health clinics, where all the mother’s problems are solved for her by- capable, specially-trained sisters, and the whole diet rests on the weight of the baby, a superstition that it is unlucky to weigh babies, as they will probably die, shows how ridiculous were the old-time beliefs. Another custom was to take the baby when he first left the mother’s room, upstairs, before going downstairs, otherwise he would never rise in the world. If the room was upstairs, the nurse, with the baby in her arms, had to climb up a few steps of a ladder before descending the stairs. To rock an empty cradle was supposed to rock a new baby into it. One can imagine the horror of some poor woman with too many children when a stranger rocked the empty cradle, but now we can smile at these quaint old wives’ tales, having ousted them with knowledge and common sense.
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Wairarapa Times-Age, 14 July 1938, Page 9
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164SUPERSTITIONS Wairarapa Times-Age, 14 July 1938, Page 9
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