Do you believe that someone you're close to dies when a new baby is born?

[CheshireMum1212]

My mum is convinced that a new life always brings about the death of a loved one too.
For our last baby and nephew this has been true.
Has anyone else heard this? - Apologies for such a tough topic.

No.

No, of course not.

Or indeed all the times when an old person dies and a baby isn't born in the family/community?!

humans are programmed to look for patterns. A moment’s thought would tell your mother this is bollocks. For a start how would it work?

My dad died 3 weeks after my daughter was born....he was 80 and had been becoming increasingly unwell over the past 10mths.
You do hear it said sometimes that people seem to 'hold on' and see marriages and births before 'letting go' although not sure if that's really possible.

My grandad passed away before he could be told that my sister was pregnant.

A few years later, my friend was desperate to see a psychic and begged me to go with her. The psychic said my grandad was with her and he wanted to say that he was glad that we all got a new life after he had passed. I don't know how believable it all is but a nice thought none the less!

I think it’s good to remember that correlation is not causation. There are billions more people in the world so the math of one in one out just doesn’t make sense.

I've heard the saying 'one in and one out'

No

No it's old wives tales

No not at all.

No of course not the world doesn't work like that

I think it’s just a natural coincidence from common ages. For example, I’m in my early 30s, I had my eldest 6 years ago, but a lot of my friends are having babies now. Any of us with living grandparents, they tend to be in their 80s/90s. So it not particularly unlikely that someone in their 90s with a few grandchildren in their 30s might die around the same time one of the grandchildren is pregnant or has a new baby. My niece was born a couple of months after my grandad died, but he was 95, and my sister was 31. So not hugely surprising the both those things might happen within the same year.

I have never heard of this and am completely horrified- are older relatives quaking in fear when someone in the family gets pregnant in case they get ‘bumped’?!

of course it is not true and is horrible to suggest to new parents that their baby has caused a death in the family!

I lost my dad 2 weeks before the birth of my middle child. My dad was laid back, happy go lucky. My son is the same. Although I don't believe in the one in one out theory, I do believe a little bit of my dad came back in my son.

When my mum was in her last hours my brother and I went outside for 5 minutes ,for some air, while the nursing staff were doing their checks . There was a young man next to us excitedly telling his family that his child had been born . The phrase “as one arrives another one leaves” did spring to mind .

Funny, I was talking about this yesterday with my Mum. She went to two funerals of family members when pregnant with me and one when she was pregnant with my sister. I went to three funerals of family members in my first pregnancy and two in my second.

That is obviously a very small sample size and proves nothing; it also can’t have any basis in science because how would that even work. But it is a phenomenon that I’ve noticed and commented on in the past.

Who is 'we' in this research?

Er, no. Didn't happen for us and is just a coincidence when it does - babies do tend to be born when grandparents are getting on a bit, after all.

My fil died the morning after we brought our son home, my great aunt died the day my other son was born, it's coincidence. Old people die.

No. Don’t be silly

Even the 2023 stats you mentioned don’t show that.

In Scotland and Ireland in 2023 there were more deaths than birthday for the first time in fifty years

In England in 2023 there were more births than deaths just.

So yes the UK had more deaths than births but it was reported because that is unusual.

Globally in 2023 the population increased by 70 million.

I’m sorry your family have suffered losses but please be sensible.

I like a bit of woo but can't get with this notion

I like this website to show that there are, more births than deaths. The DC were obsessed with watching the population grown!
www.worldometers.info/world-population/

silliest thing I’ve ever heard

No. I’ve never heard this before and I don’t want to hear it again.