Pregnant Mothers with Heartburn Can Expect Babies with Lots of Hair

New Study Shows Old Wives' Tale to Be True

There are many wives tales associated with pregnancy. Most of these deal with gender-prediction and include such clues as the baby's heartrate, whether the mother is carrying the baby high or low, where the mother is carrying extra weight. One wives' tale deals with how much hair your
 baby will have: If you struggle with heartburn during pregnancy, your baby will have a lot of hair. This belief, like many others, has been chalked up to myth although some mothers swear it is true.

It turns out that these mothers may be right after all. Researchers at Johns Hopkins have released a study in the journal Birth showing that a correlation between heartburn and the hairiness of a newborn actually exists.

The research was conducted by Kathleen Costigan, a registered nurse in the Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics at John Hopkins, and colleagues. The study followed 64 women throughout pregnancy. These women were asked to rank the severity of their heartburn symptoms. When their babies were born, two independent observers rated the thickness of the newborn hair using photographs taken after birth.

Seventy-eight percent of the pregnant women reported some level of heartburn, and were able to participate in the study. Of the 28 women who reported moderate to severe heartburn during pregnancy, 82% gave birth to babies with above average hair thickness. Of the 12 women who reported no heartburn symptoms at all, 83% gave birth to babies with very little or no hair.

Costigan writes "Contrary to expectations, it appears that an association between heartburn severity during pregnancy and newborn hair does exist." She adds, "We've heard this claim hundreds of times, and I've always told people it's nonsense. Since the study came out, I've had to eat a lot of crow."

While investigating this myth, I personally ran across a number of websites that are going to have to do the same.

Related information
  • Having heartburn means your baby will likely be hairy
 
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I KNEW there was a connection. With my first pregnancy I had brutal heartburn and my baby had so much hair! Now In my 2nd pregnancy and what helps me through the hearburn is thinking and hoping the new baby will have beautiful hair! `

Posted on 04/22/2009 at 12:04:59 AM

Good to see this article...I struggled throughout pregnancy with HORRIBLE heartburn and acid reflux and my daughter was born with a TON of hair!

Posted on 12/30/2008 at 3:12:15 PM

Well i agree with the study my first was born nearly bald and i had no heartburn at all while with my second i had really bad heartburn constantly for the third trimester he was born with a thick head of black hair and one of the midwives actually commented saying she had never seen a baby with so much hair! I am now 35 weeks with my third child and have severe heartburn again so the outcome will be interesting though i`m betting she will have a good head of hair!

Posted on 12/07/2008 at 9:12:55 PM

I agree! I just had a baby September 23. I had heartburn from about 8 weeks into my pregnancy and it never let up. My daughter was born with so much hair, it's the first thing people comment on when they see her! With my first daughter I didn't have heartburn until the end of my pregnancy (when it is expected) and she didn't have much hair at all.

Posted on 10/06/2008 at 7:10:43 AM

No heartburn...hairless baby. I agree.

Posted on 04/11/2008 at 10:04:04 PM

My mother had severe heartburn with my brother and he was born needing a haircut!!! Beautiful, thick curly black hair!

Posted on 12/13/2007 at 8:12:23 AM

Really interesting. But I was bald (until almost a year old - and so was my oldest sister) and my mother had heartburn with both of us, and not so much with my other sister with full head of hair - maybe we're the exception that proves the rule?!

Posted on 12/02/2007 at 4:12:00 PM

I love this kind of article. Good work.

Posted on 10/13/2007 at 1:10:00 PM

The study doesn't say it's 100% all the time. It simply says there is an association or correlation. There are always exceptoins people. Maybe you're just exceptoinal! It doesn't mean the study is flawed. This world is not black and white.

Posted on 10/05/2007 at 5:10:00 PM

I had a lot of heartburn and my last baby was nearly bald! The older three had tons of hair, and not much heartburn.

Posted on 09/26/2007 at 7:09:00 PM

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