Okay, we're not saying anyone believes in the stork...that we know of. But it's bad. Although it should be said that the survey in question was affiliated with the uptight-prude-meets-lout-meets-baby rom-com Life As We Know It.
Says the Guardian of the results of 2000-person poll, "More than 20% of 18 to 25-year-olds questioned thought a pregnancy lasted a year, 10% believed eating red meat influenced the sex of a baby and half expected a baby to walk and talk within its first year. The poll also revealed that 20% of the childless respondents thought the umbilical cord was a musical note."
Perhaps more worrisome, "A third of the respondents believed that £1,000 would be adequate to cover equipment, food, clothes and toys for a baby's first year when the latest studies suggest it is about nine times higher." While if, presumably, someone went into a pregnancy with all of the above misconceptions, a baby at nine months and a year without coherent sentences might come merely as unpleasant surprises — trying to live on a grand would be on another level entirely.
Of course, we don't know the circumstances of the poll: if, after all, it was a Life As We Know It exit survey, well, participants a) might have just watched a baby age dramatically in 120 minutes and b) have just been told that a baby results in true love, happiness and prosperity. And we're guessing that musical note thing was a multiple-choice option...right?
Childbirth A Mystery To Young Brits [Guardian]
