In the early 70's, when I was about 4 or 5, I saw a TV documentary about human reproduction. While the narrator explained what I later learned to be intercourse, the images on the screen were of a man and woman, in leotards, doing some sort of elaborate ballet-style dance. For years afterward, I believed my parents had performed such a dance to conceive me.

Dave

When I was pregnant with my second child, I jumped at the opportunity to use the pregnancy as a 9 month long sex education/biology/anatomy lesson for my nine year old son. With puberty right around the corner, I'd rather he learned the awful truth from me than have his head filled with crap from his friends. He was very involved with the pregnancy right from the start and even acted as my labor coach. Right before the big day, I quizzed him on where babies come from. He said, "First, you ovulated and then you and dad had sex. Then dad SPIT A BIG WAD OF SPERM IN YOUR MOUTH and fertilized the egg..." Needless to say, we had to have a refresher course on the sex part.

Tiff

How a woman got pregnent: We worked this out in a mixed discussion group of 7-10 year olds once. A man and woman were required and sleeping together; also required. We were all poor and several of us had shared beds with an opposite-sex sibling and that did not result in a pregnancy. After posing and rejecting several ideas, we determined that the rings (wedding rings) were the trick. If a man and woman wearing rings slept together, then the woman would be pregnant in the morning. Further, the rings had to be on the third finger of the left hand. This also explained the prohibition of non-married to wear rings on those fingers. The ring on THAT finger obviously triggered and set in motion the repoductive system. I had some concern about putting a ring on any finger after that, fearing a mistake.

Allen W.

My dad was a farmer and I thought he placed his 'seed' inside my mom to get her pregnant by putting a seed (using his fingers of course) inside her naval. A penis had nothing to do with it.

Monty

When my dad described human reproduction to me at the age of eight, he said that the man put his penis inside the woman and she got pregnant. For some years after that, I had the understanding that he and my mom had gone to the doctor's office, cut off his penis, and that my mom had then swallowed it like a big pill to get pregnant! Sex Ed. cleared that one up for me real quick!

CoralOrchid

When I was little, I asked my mother where babies come from. She thought I said "rabies." She answered "From a dog bite." Then the lady down the street gave birth to triplets. I figured she must have been bitten by a great dane. :-)

Donna K.

I was 14 and sat on my boyfriends lap, I kissed him and my mom saw us. She took me aside and told me.. "That's how girls end up pregnant!" For years I NEVER sat on a guys lap, and spent many hours wondering how many kids got pregnant after sitting on Santa's lap.

older and wiser

My mother made me watch a children's program about childbirth when I was seven. It featured a boy whose mother was pregnant, and explained that there was a baby inside mommy's tummy and it would at some point come out and he would have a baby brother or sister. At one point, the mother's doctor shows the boy a little cartoon to explain how the baby got INSIDE mommy in the first place -- it explained that there were egg cells inside the mommy, and sperm cells that came from the daddy, and when those two cells got together, it started a baby growing. The boy is satisfied with this, and leaves.

Well, an hour after the program, I suddenly realized they hadn't explained HOW the cells got FROM the daddy INTO the mommy. I thought about it for a while instead of asking my parents and came up with an idea that made sense to me -- I assumed that the daddy wore a set of mommy's underwear for a day, so the sperm cells could "fall out" into them, and then mommy put them back on and daddy's sperm cells would then "go in."

Yes, for an entire year, I honestly believed all hopeful fathers were transvestites.

K.W.

I believed my best friend---She had a very rational and scientific explaination for how babies were concieved------- The man pees into the woman- and fertilizes the egg--- that is why the egg yolk is yellow.

Mel's best friendfriend

I got my period two weeks after I turned 10. Then a couple of months later, one December, the entire month went by and no period. I was so scared! All I knew was that if you didn't get your period, it meant you were pregnant. Being a virgin of course, I was scared out of my mind as to how it happened. For a while I was even believing I was either going to be the next Virgin Mary and give birth to the new savior or that I was carrying "the devil's" child. Being that my family wasn't religious, I kept thinking "Then why would God choose me?" and that only meant that it had to be the other option, I was going to give birth to the child of Satan! I was so paranoid and scared because I had seen The Omen before. I didn't want to tell my mom because I thought she wouldn't believe me that I was a virgin. Needless to say I had never been more relieved in my life when my period came the next month. Later on I finally got up the courage to ask why I skipped a month and then learned about stress and all the other factors that can mess up your cycle. Looking back now, I laugh at how stupid it was to think those things. But at 10, I was pretty convinced that I was pregnant by some divine conception.

Anon

I started my monthly cycle fairly young, 11yrs. old, in order to teach me about the birds and the bees my mother, two grandmothers and my aunt sat me down and let me know what was going on and that I was becoming a young woman. They also said that with this whole "monthly thing" my body was getting me ready to be able to make babies when I get married. My granny, God rest her soul, told me that "Young men shouldn't be trying to rub on you and things like that or you will make a baby doing that." Now at 11 I had no clue, the next day I told my friends and they were just as clueless as me, after that conversation with my friends a boy walked by me and brushed up against me and I immediately became pregnant!!!!! I was scared to death. I thought I was pregnant and didn't even know what that was let alone what you do about it. To make a long story short...I finally had that baby 9 years later. Whew...don't let them boys rub on you!!! It takes too long to have kids that way!!!

Pregnant and clueless at 11?

When i was little I once asked a grown-up what "pregnant" meant. "Well Gary," she said, "It means BEING WITH CHILD."......huh?? What good is that explanation for an 8 year-old? Anyhow, as children tend to do, I took this explanation very literally, and thought that anyone who was with other children must be pregnant. (Being with child = with children ) One day I was at my aunts, and she asked me if I'd seen my cousin Emma...."Yes" I said....."She's pregnant with Barry in the back garden!"

Terrieux

My dad told me that when you had a baby it had something to do with your genes. Obviouslybeing about 5 i thought this meant your jeans. We were at a barbecue one day and my auntie was wearing jeans, so i thought it neccessary to announce to everyone that she was pregnant. It turned out that she actually was pregnant, and hadn't told anyone yet!

holly

Okay, so you know those tampon/pad machines? Well, I thought that when you put in money for a pad, you wore the pad for 5 weeks, and then you were pregnant, with a girl. Tampons were boys. And you needed to wear them for 10 weeks. . I remember i asked my mom "I want a sister, okayy?" i put in the money, and handed her a pad. she's like... uh, no Alexa. That's not how it's done.

Alexa

I at one time believed that I was impregnated by the Lord. No lie, I seriously thought I was the new Mary. How utterly ridiculous. That's what happens to mis-informed, sheltered, late-blooming girls who were never told that periods aren't always regular and on time.

Not Jesus II's Mamma

When my Mom was expecting my lil brother I was around three, I remember her having me touch her belly to feel the baby moving... I had my hand there for a few minutes and when I felt the baby actually move I ran away crying my eyes out because I was convinced my Mom ATE the baby!
I remembering being afraid of her for awhile, cause I didn't want her to eat me too!

Jules

After learning that making babies required the daddy to put his penis inside the mommy's vagina, I decided that the reason most people had only two or three kids was because they couldn't stand to do such a disgusting thing more than two or three times.

Beverly

My cousin and were swimming at the local pool when she ran away and started crying. I followed her into the bathroom, when to my horror, she exclaimed,"I am pregnant!". We were 8. When I asked how, she said a boy had touched her toes without shoes on!

Jamie Riley

When I was very young I used to believe that a woman got pregnant by eating certain foods, and that when you wanted to have a baby, the doctor would advise you about what to eat. For some reason, I thought corn on the cob was one of the foods that would get you pregnant...

Bonnie

I have an aunt that, until the age of seventeen, believed she could get pregnant if someone flipped her the bird. She was out with friends one night, and some boys drove by in a car and flipped her off. She went home crying and told her mother she was pregnant...

Anon