Having only been around pregnant women, but never pregnant myself, the only one I can think of is "if the baby carried high, it was a girl, low, a boy".

Hi greytone!
I remember some of these non-medical tests. They were fun, sometimes accurate, but then there was a 50/50 chance of that!
When I had my son, I had only one ultrasound to determine how many babies were there. That was 26 years ago, OB/GYNs weren't sure how safe ultrasounds were for the baby.
Hi zabadu! I still here that one today. Women I know say it is true, I don't know because I only had one son.
I like the if you have heartburn, the baby will have lots of hair one!! I think pretty much all pregnant women have heartburn at some point. I have even heard that if the mother craves certain foods, the baby will like those foods later in life. It goes on and on!

My mother-in-law, a 1959 high school graduate, after catching me in the act of reaching to a top cabinet in my kitchen with both hands high while pregnant freaked out and said: "don't raise your hands above your head like that, you'll wrap the cord around the baby's neck and strangle it"

This sounded so weird to me I laughed. Didn't help with our relationship.

Hi bipolarbear! That is a good one!!

Well, I carried my firstborn - a boy - so high I could set a teacup there like a little shelf, and my second - a girl - low enough to press on my sciatic nerve. So much for THAT old wives tale. I did recognize the "pendulum test" but nobody I knew could remember what each direction was supposed to signify. Our firstborn was "Thumper" for his kicks, and the second was "Tumbelina" because she would roll all over my insides.

Who was that other girl? is that Don's new secretary or something? She took his coat at the end of the episode too.

Hi Auburn Annie! I was trying to remember which direction the pendulum went in too. Also, wasn't part of the superstition that the object being swung above the mother's abdomen was something of hers? Was the wedding ring that Joanie was using Betty's?

I remember at one of my OB appts. I told the MD that I was having the sensation of kicks evenly spaced apart. He told me the baby probably had hiccups from swallowing the amniotic fluid. I was so amazed! My ultrasound picture confirmed that he was sucking his thumb in utero, so he probably did have hiccups!

I remember being told I was a very large baby and was very active, so my parents thought I would be the boy they longed for. This would have been my mother's second child, so because it was so different than the first pregnancy, she didn't think it would be another girl. (I don't know if it is true, but my name was to be 'Thomas' they were so sure.) Anyhooo...Mom was wrong.

Her third pregnancy was a little baby who was very quiet, so my parents thought it would be a repeat of the first birth, a girl. Now that birth produced the boy.

Pregnancies are all so different....

No one guessed my baby's sex accurately using any ol' wives tale. Somehow, I knew it was a boy, though. I feel if anyone is going to predict accurately, it will probably be the person carrying the baby.

Do you think Betty will be right in insisting the baby she carries is a girl?

60'schild...
Now that you mention it, the pregnant woman's wedding ring is usually used for this superstition.

But, in the office Joan had removed her wedding ring and suspended it by a thread over Betty’s belly. As Roger stared at her, you could see Joanie put her ring back on. He spoke to her as she walked past. She did not respond….you can still tell there is real chemistry and regret between them.

Hi greytone! Thanks! I know what you mean about Joan and Roger...I'm still hoping!

Interesting, all those old wives tales/superstitions!

I, like you, grey, just "knew" I was carrying a boy, too! Never could explain it, but it turned out I was right. I carried low...only child/pregnancy so that's the only one I have to refer to, as to whether old wives tales proved true or not (like you say, 60's...50/50 chance of anything being "right" anyway!)

And, AA...I also had a handy little "table" that I missed after his birth!

Didn't miss the constant trips to the bathroom/scoping out anywhere we went for the ladies rooms right after arrival! What a hassle!
Also, not being able to get up out of a chair....!

Also, when they would be quiet during the day and active when one was trying to sleep....although there was a mixture of relief that they WERE active and frustration at not being able to sleep!

Great memories everyone! Remember reading "What To Expect When You're Expecting" ?

Oh, I wanted to mention....
My mother said I was the largest of her three babies. I guess it's all relative because I weighed in at 6 lb. 5 oz. (she was a smoker...). My siblings were smaller at five pounds or so.

I haven't seen a 6 or a 5 since....in shoe or dress size! lol

Greytone: I was 6 lbs 7oz, considered perfectly normal for our time!!

My mother said her two sons kicked violently inside; her daughter made light, feathery kicks.

greytone. The way Betty treats Bobby I think she simply doesn't like boys and wants another girl (if she has to have another child) instead of a boy. She's down-right mean to her son. I'm still trying to figure where that comes from.

A German woman my mom knew insisted that we make tea out of fennel seeds to give my son for colic.

My mother-in-law thought it was bad luck to buy anything for an unborn baby because her first was still-born.

I was told that having sex in a certain position would determine the sex of the baby.

My mother told me not to get a permanent while I was pregnant because it wouldn't "take".

Oh yeah-- none of those superstitions proved to have any factual outcome. The fennel tea did nothing for colic, my permanent looked normal, I bought tons of baby stuff with no ill effects, and I had two sons who were not conceived in the same way, if you get my drift.

I thought I had heard all of them; apparently not....

Check these out:

http://pregnanstrology.com/american-baby-superstitions.html

@ fifty-two - A lot of Italian families consider it bad luck to give a baby shower before the baby is born and will wait until afterwards - reminded me of your comment about your mother-in-law. I also recall reading that fennel aids lactation.

@bklyngirl-- that's fascinating about the fennel. But if that's the case, they should have told ME to drink it, not give it to the baby!
The thing that made my mother-in-law's belief a superstition rather than a natural, understandable caution was that she never asked me any questions about what my doctor said or how I was feeling during the pregnancy-- as if good or bad luck would determine the outcome rather than good health or medical expertise.