科學(xué)告訴你：關(guān)于懷孕的這些老話(huà)居然不是迷信

肚子圓生女孩，肚子尖生男孩;孕期懶生女孩，孕期勤快生男孩……很多過(guò)來(lái)人都有自己的一套“懷孕經(jīng)”，有些是長(zhǎng)輩那里聽(tīng)說(shuō)來(lái)的，有些是根據(jù)自己和別人的懷孕經(jīng)歷得出的規(guī)律，那么這些“懷孕經(jīng)”是否真的那么神奇?科學(xué)家告訴我們，雖然這些懷孕理論多屬無(wú)稽之談，但還是有一些看似迷信的老話(huà)其實(shí)是有科學(xué)道理的。

Most of the folk wisdom that well-meaning older relatives offer up to expectant mothers can be easily ignored: Carrying the baby lower in the abdomen isn't a sign that it's a boy, or a girl, or anything other than an indication your abdominal muscles have loosened up a bit.

大多數(shù)長(zhǎng)輩好意傳授給準(zhǔn)媽媽的民間智慧很容易被擊破：例如，通過(guò)嬰兒是否在肚子下方的跡象并不能說(shuō)明他是男孩還是女孩，或者其他什么東西，這只能說(shuō)明你腹部的肌肉有點(diǎn)松弛。

Your cravings won't manifest themselves as birthmarks on the kid's skin. Long walks won't induce labor.

你的生理欲望不會(huì)變成孩子皮膚上的胎記。長(zhǎng)時(shí)間的散步也不會(huì)助產(chǎn)。

And no, the full moon has nothing to do with the timing of the birth.

并且滿(mǎn)月與嬰兒的出生時(shí)間毫無(wú)關(guān)系。

But in recent years, a handful of studies have found that some of the most outlandish old ideas concerning babies and pregnancy may have some scientific merit after all.

不過(guò)，近幾年有大量的科學(xué)研究發(fā)現(xiàn)一些有關(guān)嬰兒和懷孕的奇怪舊觀念還是有一定科學(xué)道理的。

Here are a few that superstitious grandmothers everywhere can put in the win column.

下面就是一些我們的迷信祖母的正確觀念。

A long, difficult labor means the baby's a boy

分娩的過(guò)程要是痛且長(zhǎng)，就意味著嬰兒是男孩

Researchers aren't quite sure why this one's true, but nonetheless: In 2003, a team of doctors analyzed more than 8,000 births at a single hospital in Ireland between 1997 and 2000, excluding women who delivered prematurely or needed to induce labor. When they crunched all the numbers, the difference between the sexes was small but noticeable.

盡管研究人員仍不太清楚為什么這個(gè)觀念是正確的，但事實(shí)就是這樣：2003年，一組醫(yī)生分析了來(lái)自同一家愛(ài)爾蘭醫(yī)院的8000多名新生兒的資料，這些新生兒都出生在1997年至2000年間，并且排除掉了早產(chǎn)以及引產(chǎn)出生的嬰兒。當(dāng)這些醫(yī)生分析所有數(shù)字后發(fā)現(xiàn)，分娩男嬰女?huà)氲牟顒e雖然很小，但可以發(fā)現(xiàn)一條明顯的規(guī)律。

On average, labor for boy births lasted a little over six hours, while girl births took a little under six. Women delivering boys were also more likely to run into complications during delivery, requiring C-sections 6 percent of the time (compared to 4 percent for girls) and forceps in 8 percent of cases (as opposed to 6 percent).

平均來(lái)說(shuō)，母親生男孩的時(shí)間持續(xù)六小時(shí)多一點(diǎn)，但生女孩的時(shí)間會(huì)略短于六個(gè)小時(shí)。在分娩過(guò)程中，生男孩的母親分娩時(shí)發(fā)生并發(fā)癥的可能性更大，剖腹產(chǎn)的比例是6%(生女孩的為4%)，使用助產(chǎn)鉗的比例是8%(生女孩時(shí)為6%)。

Overall, 29 percent of boy deliveries ended up requiring some sort of extra intervention; for girls, it was 24 percent.

總的來(lái)看，在生男孩時(shí)，有29%的母親需要某種醫(yī)療介入;而生女孩時(shí)，這個(gè)數(shù)字為24%。

One possible reason for the discrepancy: Boys, on average, weigh three and a half ounces more at birth than girls do. And a small 2003 study found that women carrying boys also consume more calories during pregnancy, suggesting that male babies are a little more demanding even before delivery starts.

分娩差異的一個(gè)可能原因是：男孩出生時(shí)的體重平均比女孩多99克(3.5盎司)。2003年的一項(xiàng)小型研究發(fā)現(xiàn)，懷男孩的母親在懷孕過(guò)程中會(huì)消耗更多的卡路里，這也表明，甚至在分娩之前，懷男孩就更吃力一點(diǎn)。

To have a girl, stay away from bananas

要是想要一個(gè)女孩的話(huà)，就不要吃香蕉

It's not just that women carrying boys will eat more; eating more in the lead-up to pregnancy may also make it more likely that the baby is a boy.

準(zhǔn)媽媽在懷男孩時(shí)吃得更多，不僅如此，在懷孕前夕吃得多的女人也更可能生男孩。

In 2008, a study published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society asked 740 women who were pregnant for the first time to describe their diets over the year before they conceived, then divided them into three groups based on calorie intake.

2008年，一項(xiàng)發(fā)表在《英國(guó)皇家學(xué)會(huì)期刊》上的研究對(duì)740位初次懷孕的女性進(jìn)行了調(diào)查分析。研究人員讓這些女性描述她們?cè)趹言星耙荒昀锏娘嬍城闆r，然后再根據(jù)熱量攝入將她們分成三組。

The women in the top third of the study, calorie-wise, had boys 56 percent of the time; among the third that consumed the fewest calories, 55 percent had girls.

從熱量排行來(lái)看，最靠前的三分之一中有56%的母親懷的是男孩;攝入熱量最少的那三分之一中有55%的母親懷的是女孩。

Here's where the old line about bananas -- that eating them before conception will up your chances of having a boy -- comes in. The study authors found that sheer calorie intake wasn't the only thing that made a difference; specific nutrients did, too.

有關(guān)香蕉的老觀念來(lái)了——據(jù)說(shuō)在懷孕前吃香蕉會(huì)增加你生男孩的幾率。研究作者發(fā)現(xiàn)，攝入卡路里總量并不是造成差異的唯一因素，生男生女也與特定的營(yíng)養(yǎng)元素有關(guān)。

Eating plenty of potassium (which bananas are chock-full of) was linked to boys, as were diets high in calcium and sodium.

從飲食中攝入大量的鉀(香蕉富含鉀)、鈣和鈉會(huì)提高生男孩的幾率。

Though as the Guardian noted, overhauling your diet to influence the sex of a future kid can be a risky move, health-wise, spurring people to overload on some nutrients and to ignore others -- a safer idea may be to focus on eating healthily in general, and leaving the rest up to chance.

雖然正如《衛(wèi)報(bào)》所指出的那樣，從健康角度來(lái)看，調(diào)整準(zhǔn)媽媽的飲食以影響未來(lái)孩子的性別可能是一項(xiàng)有風(fēng)險(xiǎn)的舉動(dòng)，這會(huì)促使人們過(guò)量攝取某些營(yíng)養(yǎng)素，而忽略其他營(yíng)養(yǎng)物質(zhì)——更安全的做法是，多多關(guān)注飲食健康，剩下的就由上天決定吧。

Heartburn is a harbinger of a hairy baby

胃灼熱是毛發(fā)旺盛的寶寶的預(yù)兆

Here's a horrifying fact about babies: Sometime in the second trimester of pregnancy, they develop a coat of fine hair all over their bodies, called lanugo -- and sometime in the third trimester, they shed it and eat it. A baby's first poop, in fact, is the digested remains of their own body hair.

一個(gè)關(guān)于嬰兒的可怕事實(shí)是：有時(shí)在第二孕期，嬰兒會(huì)全身覆蓋著一層細(xì)毛，這被稱(chēng)作胎毛。在第三孕期，胎毛會(huì)脫落，嬰兒會(huì)把它們吃掉。所以事實(shí)上，嬰兒的初次排便就是他們消化掉的胎毛。

The hair on their heads, though, is another story. While all babies have lanugo in the womb, not all babies are born with anything up top -- and mothers looking to know ahead of time whether their kid will be fuzzy-headed or bald may be able to use their own heartburn as a clue.

嬰兒的頭發(fā)又是另一個(gè)故事了。雖然所有的胎兒在子宮內(nèi)都會(huì)長(zhǎng)出胎毛，但不是所有的胎兒一出生就會(huì)有頭發(fā)，因此，媽媽可以通過(guò)胃灼熱這個(gè)跡象來(lái)提前知道她們的孩子會(huì)毛發(fā)茂盛還是稀疏。

In 2006, for a study in the journal Birth, a team of researchers from Johns Hopkins University followed 64 women throughout their pregnancies, 28 of whom reported moderate or severe heartburn.

2006年，約翰霍普金斯大學(xué)的一組研究人員在《生育》雜志上發(fā)表了一項(xiàng)研究，他們跟蹤調(diào)查了64名女性的孕期生活，其中有28人報(bào)告稱(chēng)有中度或嚴(yán)重的胃灼熱。

Within that group, 23 women ended up having babies of average or above-average hairiness. On the opposite end of the spectrum, of the 12 women who reported no heartburn at all, ten of them gave birth to kids who were less hairy than the average newborn.

在這28名女性中，有23名女性生出的嬰兒的毛發(fā)量達(dá)到或者高出平均水平。另一方面，報(bào)告中12名沒(méi)有出現(xiàn)胃灼熱現(xiàn)象的女性中，有10名女性生出的嬰兒毛發(fā)量低于平均水平。

But here's a perfect example of correlation not equaling causation. The heartburn wasn't a result of the hair, or vice versa. Rather, the study authors argued, both were caused by a third factor: pregnancy hormones.

不過(guò)，這個(gè)是相關(guān)性的典例，而不是因果關(guān)系的典例。胃灼熱的產(chǎn)生不是因?yàn)閶雰好l(fā)的生長(zhǎng)，反之亦然。實(shí)際上，研究作者認(rèn)為，這兩者都是由第三個(gè)因素引起的：孕激素。

Specifically, the same hormones that contribute to hair growth in the womb have also been shown to relax the muscles that keep stomach acid contained in the stomach.

具體來(lái)說(shuō)，在子宮里促使嬰兒毛發(fā)生長(zhǎng)的激素也同樣會(huì)使胃里控制胃酸的肌肉松弛。

So you can technically blame the baby for that fiery pain in your chest, but the link isn't quite as direct as the old wives' tale implies.

所以在理論上你可以責(zé)怪嬰兒，因?yàn)樗麄冏屇阈乜谧茻?，但這兩者之間的聯(lián)系沒(méi)有像長(zhǎng)輩的所說(shuō)的那么直接。