Wearing a safety pin during pregnancy is a cultural folk practice, most commonly associated with Mexican and Latin American traditions surrounding eclipses. The belief holds that pinning a small safety pin to your clothing near your belly protects an unborn baby from harm during a solar or lunar eclipse. The practice has no basis in medical science, but it remains widespread across several cultures and carries real psychological meaning for many families.
The Eclipse Connection
The most well-known version of this tradition comes from Mexican and broader Hispanic culture. When a solar or lunar eclipse is approaching, a pregnant woman is told to place a safety pin on her shirt or blouse, positioned close to her stomach. The pin is meant to shield the baby from the eclipse’s effects, which folklore says can cause birth defects, particularly cleft lip (historically called “harelip”) or cleft palate.
This belief has deep roots. Ethnographic research from Ocuituco, Mexico, documents the longstanding idea that a pregnant woman is in danger of having a baby with a cleft lip during a solar eclipse. The safety pin, as a small piece of metal worn against the body, is thought to deflect or neutralize whatever harmful energy the eclipse carries. Some families specify that the pin should be worn on the inside of the clothing, directly against the skin near the abdomen. Others simply pin it to the outside of a shirt.
The tradition gets passed down through family, often from mothers and grandmothers. One account from the USC Digital Folklore Archives captures the pull of the practice perfectly: a woman whose mother told her to pin a safety pin near her stomach during an eclipse said she knew it sounded unlikely, but “the consequences of not doing it, even as silly as it sounded, was tugging against me. What if something did go wrong?”
The Practice Beyond Latin America
Wearing a safety pin during pregnancy isn’t limited to eclipse protection or to one region. In parts of Nigeria, particularly in the southwest, pinning a safety pin to garments or undergarments throughout pregnancy is a common cultural practice. A study published in AIMS Public Health found that it remains widely encountered among pregnant women in the Ogbomosho area, with religion and education level both playing complex roles in how common the practice is. The specific reasons women gave for wearing the pin varied, but the underlying logic is similar: the pin serves as a form of spiritual or symbolic protection for the baby.
In some traditions, the safety pin is paired with other protective items. A red ribbon or red thread tied near the pin, or worn separately, appears in several Latin American and Caribbean folk practices related to warding off “mal de ojo” (the evil eye) or other spiritual threats to a vulnerable baby.
What Science Says About Eclipses and Birth Defects
There is no scientific evidence that solar or lunar eclipses cause birth defects. Eclipses are purely visual phenomena caused by the alignment of the Earth, moon, and sun. They do not emit radiation, alter magnetic fields in a meaningful way, or produce any physical force that could affect fetal development.
Cleft lip and cleft palate, the conditions most commonly cited in these beliefs, have well-studied causes. They result from a combination of genetic factors and environmental exposures during early pregnancy. Research published in the British Dental Journal identifies the key risk factors as alcohol intake, smoking, folate deficiency, and inherited genetic susceptibility. Several specific genes have been linked to clefting conditions, and the geographic variation in how often they occur reflects differences in lifestyle and genetics rather than celestial events.
The timing likely reinforced the myth over centuries. Cleft lip occurs in roughly 1 in 700 births worldwide, and eclipses happen multiple times per year. In any large population, some babies born with cleft lip will have been in utero during an eclipse, creating a pattern that feels meaningful even though it’s coincidental.
Why the Tradition Persists
Even when people understand the science, many still follow the practice. This isn’t irrational. Pregnancy is a period of heightened vulnerability and anxiety, and cultural rituals serve a real psychological function. Research on pregnancy traditions across cultures, including a recent review of Indonesian perinatal practices, shows that community-driven rituals during pregnancy can reinforce a sense of emotional safety, strengthen family bonds, and reduce anxiety. Studies confirm that strong social and familial support during pregnancy is linked to lower rates of anxiety and postpartum depression.
Pinning a safety pin to your shirt takes seconds, costs nothing, and connects you to generations of women in your family who did the same thing. For many women, the calculus is simple: there’s no downside, and it honors a tradition that makes the people around you feel better, even if the mechanism is symbolic rather than physical.
Practical Considerations
If you choose to follow this tradition, the main thing to watch for is the pin itself. An open or loosely fastened safety pin worn against the skin can cause small puncture wounds, skin irritation, or, in rare cases, a minor infection. If you have a nickel allergy, which is one of the most common metal allergies, the contact could also cause a rash. Make sure the pin is securely closed and consider placing it on the outside of your clothing rather than against bare skin if you have sensitive skin.
The AIMS Public Health study noted the “potentially harmful risks” of wearing safety pins on garments during pregnancy, referring primarily to the physical risk of an accidental stick rather than any deeper medical concern. The practice itself is harmless as long as the pin stays closed and clean.