The Fetal God

The Chinese believe that at the moment when a life is created (fertilization of an egg), a spirit will approach the fertilized egg. The name of the spirit is called the "baby god" or "fetal god" or in Chinese "胎神". To make sure babies can be safely carried, the ancient Chinese warned the pregnant women that they should pay special attention to their daily activities simply because they cannot hurt the fetal god. It is said that the fetal god and the fetus are somehow physically connected. So if the fetal god is hurt, the fetus could also be hurt.

The job of the fetal god is to protect the fetus before coming out from the womb, so it always exists at the house of the pregnant woman. However, although the spirit takes care of the fetus, it is very important that it could be easily get angry or get hurt, and the fetus may result in physical birth defects or may die before or immediately after birth.

So how exactly can the fetal god get angry or get hurt and what are the consequents? Well there are actually quite a lot, and here are some of them.

• Inside her house, a pregnant woman can not use rope to tie things up, or the baby will be born with fingers that cannot be straightened voluntarily.
• Pregnant woman cannot use nail with hammer, or the baby will be born with cleft lip.
• Pregnant woman cannot use scissor or nail cutter on her own bed, or the baby will be born with blindness.
• Pregnant woman cannot move heavy objects, or result in miscarriage.

While it sounds ridiculous to believe the existence of fetal god, it is not uncommon to hear that the bad consequences did happen for pregnant women who did not follow these "customs".

The positions of the fetal god vary every month inside the house. The pregnancy woman and her family members should prevent changing or moving the furniture or appliances in the area, so reduce the chances to hurt the fetal god. Here are the monthly positions of the spirit.

Lunar month	Area
1st	all bedrooms
2nd	close to doors and windows
3rd	doors and living room
4th	kitchen
5th	all bedrooms
6th	all bedrooms and store room
7th	kitchen
8th	doors and bathroom
9th	doors and bedrooms
10th	bedrooms
11th	kitchen
12th	bedrooms

What you should do if the baby god is offended or hurt? You may need to go to a temple and ask for a written charm for fertility. Burn the charm, mix the ash with water and then drink it. Hopefully the baby god and the fetus are both OK.

Here is the question: could it be true that the baby god really exists, or just the ancient Chinese people who made up some stories to help pregnant women avoid accidents. I would choose to believe the latter one at this moment!