Sneezing Babies? The Strange Old Belief About Possums and Pregnancy
- SewBex
- Sep 4
- 2 min read
Animals have always been magnets for myths, but few are as delightfully strange as this one: the old belief that possums could get pregnant just by sneezing. Yep, according to early folklore, one “ah-choo!” and suddenly momma possum had a pouch full of babies.
Sounds ridiculous? Absolutely. But like most tall tales, there’s a weird grain of truth behind it.
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Where This Wild Idea Came From
Back in colonial America, possums were still a mystery. Unlike farm animals, they didn’t seem to have babies in any predictable way.
One day, a possum’s pouch would look empty. The next? A handful of wriggling little creatures were inside. No one saw the “in-between” moment.
And since newborn possums are tiny—about the size of a honeybee—most people never even noticed them crawling into the pouch after birth. Instead, they jumped to conclusions.
The conclusion? Sneezing was how the magic happened.
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Why Sneezes Seemed “Scientific”
To us, the idea sounds hilarious. But early naturalists didn’t have the tools we do now. No microscopes. No developmental biology. Just guesswork.
And possum biology is weird enough to fuel misunderstandings:
Super-short pregnancy: only about 12–13 days.
Teeny-tiny newborns: pink, squirmy, and smaller than your thumb nail.
The disappearing act: they crawl straight into the pouch after birth, making it look like they appeared out of thin air.
So when people noticed possums “suddenly” had pouch babies, sneezing felt like a reasonable—if slightly sneezy—explanation.
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The Actual Truth
Here’s how it really works:
Possums mate the regular mammal way (no sneezing required).
After their super-short pregnancy, the tiny joeys are born.
The newborns crawl into the pouch, attach to a teat, and keep growing until they’re big enough to peek out.
By the time anyone notices, they look like miniature possums instead of jellybean-sized blobs.
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Why This Myth Still Matters
Sure, the sneeze pregnancy idea is laugh-out-loud funny. But it’s also a perfect reminder of how people tried to explain the natural world before science filled in the blanks.
Possums are already full of quirks: they eat ticks, play dead, and have prehensile tails. But the idea that they were once thought to be sneeze-powered baby machines? That’s a legend worth keeping around—if only for the laughs.
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