Disclaimer: I am not a scientist. (I don't even play one on TV.) But as a woman and two-time mom, I still think I'm qualified to say that the results of a recent study on the scientific basis for baby fever are off-base. I can tell you exactly where baby fever comes from, and it's not what researchers think.
Don't get me wrong; the people who did this study got a couple of details right, it's just that they missed the Big Baby Fever Picture. In my opinion, that's because they were looking for psychological factors … when baby fever is anything but all in your mind.
If you've experienced true baby fever, you know what I'm talking about. It's a hormonal condition, not an intellectual one.
According to the study, there are three factors that predict how much a person will want a baby: Positive exposure (like being around cute babies), negative exposure (like being around screaming babies), and potential trade-offs (whether you'd have to give up something you really want, like a dream job, to have babies).
I'm not saying those things don't influence someone's decision on whether or not to have a child, but "now's a good time to have a baby" isn't the same thing as baby fever. Baby fever is when you hold a friend's infant and you could swear your ovaries start aching and your body temperature rises just a tiny bit. Baby fever is what happens when that unmistakable baby smell gives you a contact high. When the sound of a baby babbling makes you literally swoon.
Right?
Another thing about the study I don't agree with is the assumption that both women and men can get baby fever. No, no, no. Of course men can very much want to have babies. I suppose they can even desperately want to have babies.
But can they come down with a legit case of baby fever?
Without a hefty dose of estrogen therapy, I'm gonna say it's a long shot.
Do you think baby fever is in your mind or your uterus?
Image via Jerome Decq/Flickr
