I was a very late addition to my family; basically, my parents had four kids in a row in the first four years of marriage, then waited fourteen years before deciding they wanted one more go at it, from which I was the result. So, my mother used to explain to me when I was a wee lad how much she and dad wanted to have one more child, and that they 'prayed and prayed' that god would give them one more.
Thus, I thought up until I was seven or eight that the whole secret of where babies comes from was simply...praying. Really hard.

Sean

I never believed in the stork or the cabbage patch; when I was quite small my parents gave me books about reproduction and answered questions truthfully. I don't remember not knowing where babies came from.

I don't think the books I had explained birth control, though, so I naturally assumed that every act of intercourse between a woman and a man resulted in pregnancy. The book also made a vague mention that sex was fun and felt good, but their description didn't make it seem like something people would want to do a lot for reasons other than making babies.

So, when I was about eight, I figured my parents had had sex three times, because they had three kids. I also figured that the only reason for having sex was a desire to have a kid. If they went into their room at night and closed the door I would always find some reason to interrupt them, because I didn't want any more siblings. Sorry, Mom and Dad...

Brenda

When I was about 3, my mom, grandma and I were sitting on the couch looking through old ictures. My couin and I are only a month apart and there was a picture of my mom and my aunt together while they were both pregnate. I pointed to that one and said, why re you and Aunt. Vicky fat? She giggled and said, thats a picture of when you where in my tummy! I scrame and said, WHY DID YOU EAT ME!? My grandma and my mom started to laugh and now they STILL torture me about that!

Dessy

I used to believe it took two hours to make a baby, and if the couple wanted twins they should have sex for four hours, triplets? Six hours! And so on...

Jenny

When I was 18, I was pregnant with my first child. A good friend of mine was pregnant as well. One day she was telling me that she refused to have sex with her boyfriend because she was already pregnant and didn't want to have twins.

I thought it was incredibly sad that nobody had given this girl the facts and information about sex and pregnancy...and here she was almost ready to give birth.

Jessica

my sisters used to believe that the small seeds on strawberries made you pregnant..

ML

I used to believe that you got pregnant just in the same way you caught a cold. A man would cough on you or sneeze on you.

Josh

My sister and I thought that when girls were born, they already had a baby inside them and that they would start growing when you became a grown up. So needless to say, we washed our abdomens extremely well, thinking that we were keeping the baby clean.

Lydia

To explain sex to me, my parents just showed my a video. It showed the sperm travelling to the egg and such, but it never said how the sperm GOT there. It never explained sex. This led me to believe that after a woman started her period, she would just constantly get pregnant unless she kept taking the pill. Her body would just keep making babies one after another.
After watching the video, this belief firmly planted in my mind, I told my mom, "When I get older I'm definitely going to be on the pill. Otherwise I'll be getting pregnant all the time." Imagine what my poor mom must have thought!

Katie

My eight-year-old son and six-year-old daughter think that a woman gets pregnant by eating a very, very tiny baby. It then grows in her stomach.

They don't seem bothered by this thought! I'm not going to correct them, until they ask!

Kara

When I was little, my mom was pregnant with my little brother. She was acting and looked different and i didn't know why. I asked my father and he said that she was really an alien.

I believed him.

Arielle

When I was little, I thought that all girls when they became a certain age (21 or so) got pregnant. They were very unlucky if they were not married by then. I remember watching a show on TV and feeling sorry for the main character because she had not managed to find a husband before she became pregnant.

Pat

My mom used to have a friend who was in a large Catholic family with 12 siblings. They ate a lot of beans. Thus, Mom made the connection that beans made you pregnant.

Anon

I used to believe that pregnancy happened when a man somehow made his penis about 3 feet long and inserted it down a woman's throat into her uterus and ejaculated. Guess I had the idea of where the uterus is just not how to get to it.

Anon

I used to believe the doctor got to decide if the baby was a boy or a girl. I once ask my mom if i could be a girl. She said no cuz God made me a boy.

zzz man

When I was in the first grade I thought I'd cracked the mystery of how babies are made: I'd heard on the playground that a man and woman get naked then rub their nipples together. For some reason, this made perfect sense.

kp

When I was little, I overheard my mother telling her friend that my cousin Dorothy was going to have a baby. I asked how that could happen, since Dorothy had no husband. My mother whispered that "Dorothy was a bad girl." From then on, I tried to be really good because if I wasn't, I would get a baby and everyone would know I was a "bad girl!"

Kate

when i was about five years old mom told me and my sister how babies were made. i replied "you and dad did that TWICE" with a discusted look on my face. (she has two children) she just replied "yes"

jb workman

At one point, after the part in sex ed about egg and sperm uniting but before the mechanics were explained, I thought the sperm could travel around-- on chairs, the floor, etc-- and climb into a woman. After all, how else could it happen by accident?

Anon

When I was in junior high school, sex education was taught separately to the girls and boys. The teacher pulled down a chart of female reproduction organs and showed us how the egg traveled from the ovaries, through the fallopian tubes, and into the uterus where it was fertilized by sperm. She rolled up that chart before pulling down another of the male reproduction organs. She then traced the journey of the sperm from the testicles through the penis. And, then, up went that chart, out of sight. What she never explained was how the sperm and the egg actually got together. It seemed like the "fast girls" who always got asked to slow-dance always got pregnant. As a result, I did not dance slow with a boy for years, thinking that slow-dancing was the key to pregnancy! I was a virgin until my second year of college!!

Linda Lou