Do patients associate adverse pregnancy outcomes with folkloric beliefs?

Many "old wives' tales" suggest that women can contribute to adverse outcomes through their behaviors and thoughts. Women attending a Midwestern American clinic were surveyed to determine how common such beliefs are. Two hundred women rated their agreement with a set of nine such beliefs. Women with a personal history of an adverse event had beliefs similar to those without such a history. The data suggest that such beliefs do not influence a woman's experience of pregnancy loss or birth defect.