Category Archives: Gestation, birth, and infancy

Generally up to the first year.

Yam for Pregnancy

Text:

“Something that a lot of Yoruba and Igbo and just Nigerian people in general will do during their pregnancies is eat a lot of yams. There are many positive associations with yams — they’re seen as a nutritious food, a staple starch in Nigeria, found in many dishes. My mom said that when she was pregnant with me, she ate a lot of yams. And her mom did as well — my grandma gave birth to twins, and my grandma’s mom did too, and my grandma was a twin. I think it’s a good luck thing. It won’t always mean you’ll have twins, but it’s just a superstition.”

Context:

As the informant notes, this practice is common in Nigerian customs related to pregnancy and health. The belief, common among the Yoruba and Igbo people to whom her family belongs, has been passed down through at least four generations of women in her direct family line. She reflects that she has already thought of following the same practice eventually. Nigeria is the world’s largest producer of yams, supplying more than half of the world’s yams, meaning that cultural importance in Nigeria amplifies a value that goes far beyond nutritional benefit.

Analysis:

This belief is a colorful example of sympathetic folk medicine: yams are a food associated with abundance, fertility, and foundational nourishment in Nigerian culture, and it is believed that those same qualities will be imparted to a pregnant body. The association between yam consumption and twin births is particularly interesting — twins are sacred in Yoruba culture, associated with good fortune and spiritual power, and this may be why the belief has such strong associative logic. The documented history of twins in this informant’s family over generations empirically supports the folk belief, at least in the family’s narrative. The community’s encouragement to eat is also an endearing form of support for women during a biologically vulnerable period. Whatever the yams do or don’t do, the practice is an act of cultural continuity: each generation of women who eats yams during pregnancy takes part in a chain of care and tradition that links them materially and symbolically to their mothers and grandmothers before them.

Birthday Spanking

AZ: In my family we do birthday spanks. You get one swat for every year you’ve been alive, plus one to grow. My dad usually does it while we’re all standing around the cake before we blow out the candles.

“Interviewer: I know this is a common folk ritual, however is there anything your family specifically does to modify this practice?

AZ: Now that you mention It we make sure to do the spankings at the exact hour the person was born, in order to “spank” them into the next chapter of their life”

Context: This is a multi generational family tradition passed down from her paternal grandfather. To AZ, this is a nostalgic and grounding ritual. While the act is playful, the family takes the timing seriously. The added later of the timing transforms a general game into a practice of family law. She views the physical sensation as a necessary “spank” into her new age.

Analysis: This ritual is another example of how folklore can be localized through variation and a secular rite of passage. However, the specific modification AZ describes, performing the ritual at the exact hour of birth, elevates the practice from a general custom to a sacred domestic event. Anthropologically, this emphasizes the importance of liminality. This is also connected to sympathetic magic, and the physicality of the action in the present propels the individuals journey into the future.

Rituals for Expectant Mothers

Age: 56

Context:

The informant has gone through pregnancy three times and childbirth twice. In each instance, the informant relied on their family during difficult times and found comfort in cultural customs. However, the informant is an immigrant and their experience was influenced by the distance and long travel between them and their family.

Text:

Expectant mothers in India usually must return to their current childhood home to deliver the baby in this house. They must reside here for 3-6 months as they recover from childbirth and settle into their new role. Every day, their family and in-laws with provide them with oil massages and baths to rejuvenate them. The new mothers are fed meal and high-protein meals constantly and told to sleep/rest whenever possible.

Analysis:

This practice is a life-cycle ritual and rite of passage, in which childbirth marks a transition into motherhood. There is separation in the act of returning home, liminality during the recovery period, and reincorporation after the mother re-enters society. The emphasis on care and rest demonstrates how rituals are intentional and promote both mental and physical healing. According to Ted J. Kaptchuk, these performative and symbolic aspects of healing can create real, tangible change. In this way, rituals reinforce cultural values about family responsibility and create communitas, a strong social bond, through caregiving. The informant’s specific experience as an immigrant highlights how folklore adapts to context and yet, traditions persist even when separated from community.

The Baby Thief

Age: 18

Context: The following story was told on April 28th, 2026, in my dorm room to me by the informant, who is one of my close friends.

NB: “Okay, so basically, my mom has explained to us over and over again that each time she’s had one of us, she’s been visited by, like, an evil, dark presence in the middle of the night when she’s, like, half asleep, trying to take us from her. And every time that the evil spirit like comes, she like senses it. She’s like half asleep. I personally think it’s just sleep paralysis. But it’s just weird and too much of a coincidence that this has only happened to her each time she’s brought us home from the hospital. It happened to my oldest sister, I believe, and then my other sister, me, and then my brother. She recalls it every single time, where this evil spirit will basically visit her in the middle of the night of our first time, like, coming to the house, and she just has to say no, like, not yet. Like… Not yet. Basically, like..”

Me: “Is it, like, the devil or like?”

NB: “I think it’s like trying to take us while we’re young. Like, kind of trying to take us from her or something. Like, kind of maybe trying to, like, kill us, maybe. I don’t know? It’s really weird. And, um, yeah, she kind of explains that it’s a really weird energy. She gets the same feeling every time that it happened, and she doesn’t know how to explain it. And she just, yeah, she kind of just, like, says that its an evil, dark spirit or whatever. She said that she sees like kind of like a cloud of black like mist. So it’s not like a… And, like, it’s not like a figure. No, like a cloud of black in the shape of like a… Like, kind of like, um, I don’t even know how to describe it, like, just, like, it’s not smoky, maybe not. Yeah, like, it’s, like, really weird, and it’s just, like, moving close to us and, like, trying to approach us.

Me: “So it doesn’t like talk and say like, I’m going to take your baby…

NB: “No, she just kind of has like an energy and like feels it. And then she’ll wake up the next morning and she’ll just like go back to normal.

Me: “So do you know, like, what does she think it is? Like, does she think it’s, like, a demon or, like, just like what?”

NB: “Well, my mom is like a really spiritual person because she has a lot of like dreams that she believes are kind of like almost premonitions. She, like… one of her dreams predicted my grandfather’s death. So, um, I think that she kind of, like, had, like, she can, like, sense that energy, and I think she thinks of it more like, yeah, maybe a demon. But my mom isn’t, like, religious or anything. So I think she just senses, like, maybe it’s, like, I think one time she said maybe it’s, like, the angel of death or something. Like, trying to take us too soon, or maybe it is a demon, like, trying to latch onto our innocence or something. Yeah, very, very strange…”

Personal thoughts and analysis: I thought this story was very interesting, not only because of the story itself, but also the informant’s reaction. The informant is a supernatural believer, but their first thought was to dismiss their mother’s belief and write it off as sleep paralysis, almost like they were too scared to consider it truly being a supernatural entity that attempted to abduct the informant at their most vulnerable state. Initially, as the informant described the entity, I thought of a kind of demon Papa Legba esc figure, so it was interesting to hear the informant’s mom’s perspective that it might have been some sort of grim reaper figure. However, overall, I think I would tend to agree with the informant that this was some kind of postpartum sleep paralysis, but it is an interesting coincidence nonetheless.

The Baby Monitor

Age: 19

Context:

This story was told to me during a car ride at night back from a camping trip with friends. Everyone started going around and telling creepy or weird paranormal experiences they’ve had and when the topic shifted to technology the informant went on and told this story about their experience with their baby sister’s baby monitor as a kid.

CL:

“So this happened when I was around fifteen, and I still don’t really know what to make of it. My baby sister had just been born, so my parents had one of those baby monitors set up in her room, the kind that only does audio.

My room was right next to hers, and since she cried a lot at night, I got used to hearing little noises through the monitor when my parents left it on in their room or in the hallway.

One night, I was home alone babysitting while my parents went out to dinner. My sister was asleep, and I was downstairs watching TV. Everything was normal. Then I heard the monitor crackle. At first I ignored it because it always made static noises.

But then I heard someone whisper. Like… an actual whisper. I couldn’t make out what it said, but it sounded like a woman’s voice. I muted the TV and just sat there listening. Then I heard it again. Really soft, like right into the monitor. It sounded like, ‘It’s okay… go back to sleep.’ I froze. I remember staring at the monitor and thinking maybe my mom had come home without me hearing, but I would’ve heard the front door or footsteps. So I ran upstairs. My sister was asleep in her crib. Nobody else was in the room. I checked the closet, under the crib, the bathroom, everything. Nothing.

I grabbed my sister and brought her downstairs with me because I was so freaked out. I called my mom crying and told her to come home. She thought I was overreacting until they got back. My dad brought my sister upstairs and plugged the monitor back in to prove it was just static or interference or whatever. And then we all heard it. The monitor crackled and this voice came through. ‘Shhhhhh…’ Like right into it. My mom literally unplugged it immediately. The next day my dad bought a new monitor and threw the old one away. And it never happened again.

Later, my dad said it was probably signal interference from another house because the monitor was old and not encrypted or whatever. Like maybe someone else’s monitor or a walkie-talkie got picked up. But… I don’t know. The voice sounded like it was in the room. Not through a machine. It sounded close. Like someone leaning over her crib.”

Interviewer:

“Did the voice sound threatening?”

CL:

“No, honestly that’s what made it weirder. It sounded calm. Like soothing. If it had sounded creepy, I think I would’ve just assumed it was in my head. But it sounded… normal.”

Interviewer:

“Do you think it was paranormal?”

CL:

“I don’t know. Probably not. The interference thing makes sense. But hearing it with my whole family there made it harder to brush off.”

The Informant’s Thoughts:

She does not fully believe the event was paranormal, but she remains disturbed by how clearly she remembers the voice. The fact that it happened twice, once when she was alone and again in front of her parents, validated her fear in the moment.

She says what scared her most was not the possibility of a ghost, but the idea that a real stranger’s voice could somehow reach into her house and speak to her baby sister. In some ways, that felt scarier than anything supernatural.

My Thoughts:

I think what makes this story so creepy is how realistic it feels. Unlike a lot of ghost stories where someone sees a full figure or something impossible happens, this one has an explanation that actually makes sense. The signal interference idea is believable, which somehow makes it even scarier because it could happen in real life.

I also think the fact that the voice sounded calm instead of threatening makes the story way more unsettling. If it had been some distorted or obviously creepy voice, it would almost feel fake. But the fact that it sounded normal and soothing makes it feel more personal and invasive.

I find it interesting how technology changes the way ghost stories are told. Instead of hearing strange voices in a hallway or through the walls, now people hear them through baby monitors, phones, or speakers. It’s like modern devices create new ways for people to interpret weird experiences as paranormal.

I think the scariest part of this story isn’t even the idea of a ghost. To me, the thought that it could have been an actual stranger’s voice somehow reaching into the house is worse. That makes the story feel less like a supernatural haunting and more like a real invasion of privacy.