✍️ Best Baby Shower Games Editorial Team · Updated May 2026

Pregnancy Myths vs. Facts

A printed quiz of 15 pregnancy statements. For each one, guests mark Myth or Fact. Read the answers aloud at the end and the room turns into a half-hour conversation about every old wives' tale grandma swears by.

🤝 Low-pressure
💝 Sentimental
🍷 Coed-friendly
📹 Works on Zoom

⏱ Prep: 15 min
👥 Best for: 6–20 guests
🍷 Coed: Yes
📹 Virtual: Works on Zoom

What you'll need

Printed Myth-or-Fact quiz — one per guest (white cardstock from Target or Office Depot)
Pens or fine-tip Sharpies (Target, Walmart)
A printed answer key with one cited source per fact (BabyCenter, Mayo Clinic, CDC)
A small basket to hold the sheets
A named prize (a $20 Target gift card or a Bath & Body Works gift set)

Before the shower (setup)

About a week before the baby shower, write your 15 statements. Aim for a clean 50/50 mix of real myths and verifiable facts so the quiz doesn't feel rigged. Strong picks: "Spicy food induces labor" (myth — no clinical evidence), "You can't eat any cheese while pregnant" (myth — pasteurized cheese is fine, soft unpasteurized cheese is the actual concern), "Heartburn means a hairy baby" (mostly myth, but a 2007 Johns Hopkins study found a small correlation), "Belly shape predicts the baby's sex" (myth), "Caffeine should be cut completely" (myth — under 200 mg/day is fine per ACOG), "Vegetarian moms-to-be need extra iron and B12" (fact), "A pregnant person needs to eat for two" (myth — only 300 extra calories per day in the second trimester), "Lifting your arms above your head wraps the cord around the baby" (full myth). Write a one-line citation next to each answer on your own key — "per Mayo Clinic, 2024" — so you can shut down debate during the reveal.
Open Google Docs or Canva. Set up a clean numbered list with each statement on its own line and two small boxes labeled "Myth" and "Fact" next to it for guests to circle or check. Leave a small space for notes at the bottom — some guests like to scribble why they chose what they chose, which makes the discussion better. Print one sheet per guest on white cardstock so pens don't bleed through. Build a separate, full answer key for yourself with sources for every fact.
On shower morning, set the sheets in a small basket on the food table with a pen tucked into each one. Place the named prize next to the basket in a clear cellophane bag — a $20 Target gift card with a small bow works perfectly. Pull the mom-to-be aside and tell her she's playing too; the quiz isn't about her pregnancy specifically, so it's fair. If a nurse, midwife, or pediatrician is on the guest list, ask if they'd be willing to read the answer key with commentary during the reveal — that's the version everyone remembers.

Front-door setup for Pregnancy Myths vs. Facts — basket of clothespins and a chalkboard rule sign by the entryway — Set up at the front door so the game starts the second guests walk in.

How to play

About thirty minutes into the baby shower, after the gifts are open and guests are settled with cake, hand out the pregnancy myths vs. facts sheets and pens. Give the room one quick rule: "Each statement is either a real fact or an old myth. Circle Myth or Fact for each one. You've got ten minutes. Most correct wins this gift card." Hold up the prize so everyone sees what they're competing for. Start your phone timer.

The room gets quiet for a minute, then someone laughs — usually at the spicy-food-induces-labor one — and the energy lifts. Guests work through their sheets at their own pace. The nurse cousin will rip through it in three minutes. The dad-to-be's friends will second-guess every line. The grandmothers will scoff at half of them because they raised three kids without an app. That's all part of the fun. Don't shush the side conversations; this is the rare shower game where talking during it makes it better. Keep phones off the table — Google ruins a Myth-or-Fact reveal in two seconds.

When the timer hits ten minutes, read each statement out loud, then the answer, then the source. "Heartburn means a hairy baby — mostly myth, though Johns Hopkins did a small 2007 study showing a slight correlation. Moving on." Pause after the spicy ones — the cheese rule, the caffeine rule, the eating-for-two rule — so the room can react and grandma can defend her position. Guests grade their own sheets. Most correct wins. For a tie, pull out one extra deep-cut statement ("raspberry leaf tea induces labor" — myth, mild evidence at best) as the tiebreaker. Hand the prize over right then.

A hand lifting a clothespin off another guest's shirt — the steal moment in Pregnancy Myths vs. Facts — The moment of the steal — someone slipped, someone caught it, pin changes hands.

Variations to try

Doctor cameo. If a nurse, OB, pediatrician, or midwife is on the guest list, ask them ahead of time to read the answer key with commentary. They'll add the studies, the nuance, the "actually, your doctor will tell you it depends on your trimester" line that turns the reveal into a mini Q&A. Best version of this game.
Open-text version. Skip the Myth/Fact circles. Have guests write a one-line reason for each answer. Harder, slower, but the answers are golden — and the mom-to-be ends up with a real glossary of folk wisdom and modern science to take home.
Multi-cultural myths round. Mix in 3 or 4 pregnancy myths from non-American traditions — the Chinese gender calendar, the Filipino "don't sit on stairs" rule, the Mexican avoid-the-moon-during-eclipse myth. Inclusive, more interesting, and gets the older relatives talking about how their own moms warned them.
Pair with [[old-wives-tales-gender-quiz]]. Run [[old-wives-tales-gender-quiz]] right before this one. Pseudo-science round, then the real fact round. Twenty minutes total, same crowd, same energy, and the two play off each other perfectly.
Zoom version. Email the PDF the day before and have guests answer in the chat during the call. Read the answers out loud with sources. Works just as well virtually as in person — give a Visa eGift card or a Target eGift card as the prize.

Pro tips from hosts who've actually run this

Cite a source for every fact on the answer key — "per ACOG, 2023" or "per Mayo Clinic." Sells the win and keeps grandma from arguing the heartburn myth into the cake-cutting.
Skip the heavy controversies. No vaccination myths, no abortion-adjacent statements, nothing that turns the room cold. The game runs on warm conversation; pick statements that earn a laugh or a head-tilt, not a fight.
Mix easy and hard 50/50. The easy ones (spicy food, belly shape) keep newer guests engaged. The harder ones (caffeine limits, the Johns Hopkins heartburn study) decide the winner.
Include two or three modern myths. "Phones cause autism in babies" or "hair dye is always unsafe" pull the quiz out of the 1970s and into a real conversation about current pregnancy advice.
If a nurse or pediatrician is in the room, ask them to read the answer key. The commentary they add is the single best version of this game.
Print extra sheets. Late arrivals and walk-in plus-ones always show up at the moment you start handing them out.
Pair this with [[old-wives-tales-gender-quiz]] for a longer educational block. The two run on the same brain muscle.

Common mistakes to avoid

Including controversial or politically loaded statements. Vaccination, abortion, alcohol-in-pregnancy quantity debates — none of those belong on this sheet. The game gets cold in two seconds and the mom-to-be feels the chill.
Skipping the source citations. Without "per Mayo Clinic" or "per ACOG" next to each fact, the reveal turns into a debate club and the older relatives win by sheer volume.
Stacking the sheet with statements only a nurse would know. If twelve of fifteen require medical training, guests check out by question five and start guessing randomly.
Forgetting to give the mom-to-be a sheet. She's not on the registry for this one and she plays — leaving her out makes her feel like a spectator at her own shower.
Reading the answers without commentary. The reveal is the whole point. "Myth. Next." kills the energy; "Myth — though the Johns Hopkins study did find a tiny correlation, so grandma's not entirely wrong" lights the room up.

Best prize for this game

Pick something specific and gift-worthy. A $20 Target or Trader Joe's gift card lands well with any guest. A Bath & Body Works hand-cream trio or a Yankee Candle (Pink Sands, Clean Cotton) feels like a real present and not a participation token. For an over-21 coed crowd, a small bottle of wine works too. Avoid "mystery prize" wording — the energy doubles when guests can see the gift card sitting next to the basket of sheets.

→ More baby shower prize ideas, by budget

Our verdict

Educational without being preachy. The reveal turns into the best conversation of the shower — grandma defends the heartburn-equals-hair myth, the nurse cousin cites the actual study, and everyone leaves a little smarter.

Pregnancy Myths vs. Facts — FAQ

Is this game appropriate if grandma is the source of half the myths on the sheet?

Yes — frame it as honoring family wisdom, not debunking it. Read the answers with affection: "This is what your grandma swore by, and there's actually a 2007 study that says she wasn't totally wrong." The older guests love being part of the reveal, especially when one of their old rules turns out to have a kernel of truth.

How many statements should the pregnancy myths vs. facts quiz have?

Fifteen is the standard. It fits cleanly on one page, finishes in ten minutes of guessing plus five to ten minutes of reveal, and keeps the energy up. Twenty starts to drag, especially with a virtual crowd.

How long does the pregnancy myths vs. facts game take to play?

About fifteen to twenty minutes total — ten minutes for guests to fill in their sheets and five to ten minutes for the reveal and discussion. The reveal often stretches longer than planned because the room ends up debating each statement, which is the magic of the game.

Where do I find reliable pregnancy facts for the answer key?

Use authoritative sources only: the CDC pregnancy page, Mayo Clinic, ACOG (American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists), Johns Hopkins, BabyCenter, and What to Expect. Cross-check every fact against at least two of these. Print the source name next to each answer on your key so you can cite it during the reveal.

Should I include common myths or unusual ones on the quiz?

Mix both. Common myths (eating for two, no caffeine, spicy food induces labor) keep newer guests engaged because they recognize them. Unusual ones (the Johns Hopkins heartburn study, the Chinese gender calendar) decide the winner because they reward the well-read crowd.

Is the pregnancy myths vs. facts quiz good for a coed baby shower?

Yes — surprisingly well. The dads-to-be's friends often know more pregnancy facts than they let on, especially the ones with siblings or kids of their own. The quiz is gender-neutral by design, low-pressure, and runs on conversation, which makes it one of the better coed-friendly shower games.

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About the author

Best Baby Shower Games Editorial Team — Party planners, parents & writers. We’re a small team of party planners and parents who’ve hosted — and been guests at — dozens of baby showers. Every game here is sorted by what actually lands in a real room, not by what just looks cute on a Pinterest board.