Birthmarks either develop when the baby is in the womb or when it has just been delivered. They come in all shapes and sizes. Some birthmarks stay with people for their entire life, while some fade away a week after birth. Most cultures believe that birthmarks of a specific shape have a hidden meaning. Many theories have been put forth regarding this. One must remember that birthmarks are mostly harmless and it depends upon you, whether to believe their associated superstitions or not.Some of these Myths are ;

 

A cat with a cat figure birth mark 

 

▶ Some birthmarks are considered to be symbols of good fortune. 

▶ Certain cultures in our society believe that people who have birthmarks either live long or die a sudden death.

▶ Some believe that a birthmark is an angel’s kiss or a devil’s mark that is there on the body to indicate something mysterious. In rural India, a lady was boycotted because she had a weird mark on her body, from which people interpreted that she has been haunted by a demon.

▶ Japanese ladies, at times, believe that if they witness fire when they are pregnant, their baby will have a burn mark on the skin. 

▶ Some believe that if a woman has a birthmark on the right half of her body, then she is likely to have many lovers! LOL .

▶ In some countries, it is believed that if a woman suffers some trauma or accident during her pregnancy, then the child is likely to get a birthmark. 

▶ Some tend to believe that fair people have more birthmarks than people with a darker complexion. 

▶ Some people think that eating too many red fruits and vegetables during pregnancy, causes strawberry shaped birthmarks on babies. 

▶ Many believe that a child with a snake-shaped birthmark on his/her body, was a snake in the earlier life and died a death of revenge! 

▶ In Europe, it is considered  a good luck to touch people who have birthmarks. 

▶ Chinese culture proposes interpretations of birthmarks based on their shape, color, size and location. e.g. People with moles on their body, face a challenging life ahead. See my  publication regarding moles and superstitions in linked .

Facts About Birthmarks

▶ One must know that a birthmark is merely a randomly shaped mark on your body, which does not mean anything. At times, it can create certain health issues. If it does not, then you should not worry about anything! It is just a mark that has got nothing to do with prediction of your future!

▶ People tend to believe that all birthmarks are cancerous. While some really are, not all can be termed as cancerous. The best thing to do is to show it to your doctor. In most of the cases, the birthmark is completely harmless, while in some cases, it can really invite complexities. Often, a doctor advises to wait and watch.

No one knows the exact cause of these marks. Today, they can be easily removed using natural and laser treatments. You can even cover them up using makeup! If you can’t do that, just consider your birthmark to be your beauty spot!

Have you ever gotten nervous on Friday the 13th? Or worn your ‘lucky shirt’ to a game to give yourself a better chance of winning? Stuart Vyse, PhD and author of Believing in Magic: The Psychology of Superstition, says that one of the driving forces behind superstitious thought is a desire for more control. We want to be able to explain causes and manipulate outcomes.

There seem to be myths and superstitions about nearly every aspect of life, and this includes physical attributes. Moles, for example, were considered evidence of guilt during the Salem Witch Trials. And among the Chinese , the shape of your nose is said to reveal whether or not you will be wealthy. There are also a host of fascinating myths about birthmarks.

Birthmarks aren’t exactly a rare phenomenon. In fact, about 80% of us are born with these seemingly random markings on our bodies. There are several different kinds of birthmarks. As well as brown ‘pigmented’ types of birthmarks like moles and ‘cafe Au lait’ spots, there are reddish ‘vascular’ types ranging in color and form from tiny, pink marks that are flush with the skin, to dark red puffy sorts.

All these reddish (vascular) markings are caused by blood vessels that lie close to the surface of the skin and show through. The varying concentration of the blood vessels under the skin is what causes the difference in appearance between these two types of birthmarks – the pink blemishes (also known as ‘angel’s kisses’ or ‘stork bites’), and the red, or ‘strawberry’, birthmarks.

Even though we know that the blood vessel-clumping makes a birthmark a birthmark, we don’t know why this happens in the first place. And this is where all the myth, mysticism and juicy superstition comes in.

First on the docket is the ‘maternal impression’ myth. This theory suggests that if a woman experiences an especially strong emotion during pregnancy, her baby may be born with a birthmark. Not only that, but if the woman touches a particular location on her body while experiencing the emotion, that is where the birthmark will appear on her baby’s body. In Iranian lore, meanwhile, it is believed that if a woman touches her stomach while watching a solar eclipse, her baby may well have  a birthmark.

Other myths center around the colors of food. For example, if the baby ends up with a red birthmark, it is supposedly because the mother wanted to eat strawberries while she was pregnant. But, if she wanted to eat jelly or beets, her baby gets a port-wine stain. Chocolate cravings, meanwhile, apparently lead to light brown cafe Au lait spots.

At this point, what with the tendency of women to experience pregnancy cravings, you’re probably wondering how most of us managed to get away with just one or two birthmarks and not hundreds!

Beyond being a result of pregnancy cravings and gazing at eclipses, birthmarks are also said to be omens about people’s lives. If, for example, you happen to have a birthmark on your right arm, you’re sure to be prosperous; but, if it’s on your left, you’re going to have to pinch some pennies. Apparently, anyway.

Elsewhere, a left-foot birthmark means the person will be massively intelligent, while if it’s on the right, they’ll love exploration, adventure and travel. Some birthmarks are also supposedly linked with your manner of death in a previous life. Is that creepy or what?

Whether or not you put any stock in these myths and beliefs, they can certainly be a lot of fun to learn about – and possibly exploit. Inventing a story about your death and reincarnation is sure to be a great conversation piece at dinner parties. Or, you can explain the presence of a certain mark by claiming that your mother desired to stroke a goat with her pinky toe while she pregnant with you. Stranger things have happened.

 During pregnancy, “if you have a food craving, and you don’t fulfill that craving, and you scratch yourself, your child will be born with a beauty mark in the shape of the food you were craving,” Moms in Egypt, Brazil, and Italy had also heard of this.

“If you have a food craving, and you don’t fulfill that craving, and you scratch yourself, your child will be born with a beauty mark in the shape of that food.” We know when you scratch you body you body will react with histamine, and when the pregnant lady think of food or get upset she will get certain hormones in her body to increased or decreased and that might effect the baby skin , it is just my theory .  

Which raises the question: How did a belief so strange become so well-traveled?

It’s not clear who started this particular myth, but it seems rooted in a broader set of ancient ideas that attributed birth anomalies to a mother’s experiences while pregnant.

Greek physician Galen believed that a pregnant woman need only look at an image of someone and her child might resemble that individual. This could be used to advantage by gazing at statues one admired, a practice that was sometimes encouraged to produce attractive children, but it could also have the opposite effect. According to Ambroise Pare, a surgical giant of the Renaissance, pregnant women who were exposed to or even imagined alarming sights risked giving birth to malformed infants.

The theory stuck around until the mid-1700s, when William Hunter, a Scottish anatomist, and his brother John, a surgeon, began to disprove it. John Hunter found that a mother and her unborn fetus do not share a blood supply, the path through which the mother’s emotions were thought to be transmitted. (Yes, they were wrong about that, too, but … baby steps.) Still, some doctors continued to believe in maternal impressions for centuries, based on anecdotes of patients who, say, saw a house burning and bore a child with a vaguely flamed like a scar , as the dramatic events of the fire she saw made an impression on the child skin and that might caused by some hormones such as Adrenalin or other hormones that can lead to the marking on the skin, like the cells on the chameleon skin.on her forehead. Birthmarks can be hereditary. 

The old wives’ tales have left their own mark on many different cultures. In several languages, including Italian and Spanish, the word for birthmark means “cravings.” In Dutch and Danish, the term includes the word “mother,” suggesting that only one parent could be responsible for the spots.Finally, this superstition probably has become popular in part because it provides an additional justification for indulgence,

Even though we know that the blood vessel-clumping makes a birthmark a birthmark, we don’t know why this happens in the first place. And this is where all the myth, mysticism and juicy superstition comes in.

Other myths center around the colors of food. For example, if the baby ends up with a red birthmark, it is supposedly because the mother wanted to eat strawberries while she was pregnant. But, if she wanted to eat jelly or beets, her baby gets a port-wine stain. Chocolate cravings, meanwhile, apparently lead to light brown cafe Au lait spots.At this point, what with the tendency of women to experience pregnancy cravings, you’re probably wondering how most of us managed to get away with just one or two birthmarks and not hundreds!

Beyond being a result of pregnancy cravings and gazing at eclipses, birthmarks are also said to be omens about people’s lives. If, for example, you happen to have a birthmark on your right arm, you’re sure to be prosperous; but, if it’s on your left, you’re going to have to pinch some pennies. Apparently, anyway.Elsewhere, a left-foot birthmark means the person will be massively intelligent, while if it’s on the right, they’ll love exploration, adventure and travel. Some birthmarks are also supposedly linked with your manner of death in a previous life. Is that creepy or what?

Whether or not you put any stock in these myths and beliefs, they can certainly be a lot of fun to learn about – and possibly exploit. Inventing a story about your death and reincarnation is sure to be a great conversation piece at dinner parties. Or, you can explain the presence of a certain mark by claiming that your mother desired to stroke a goat with her pinky toe while she pregnant with you. Stranger things have happened.

Thank you for reading.

Steve Ramsey, PhD.    Calgary, Alberta- Canada.