The Perseid Meteor Shower Is Coming & Here’s How It Can Affect Your Pregnancy

Those of us who like wishing on shooting stars are about to be in luck. The annual Perseid meteor shower is coming, and expected to peak on August 12 and 13, according to Space.com. The 2018 shower will be particularly amazing, giving star-gazers a glimpse of hundreds of "shooting stars" per hour in the night sky. If you follow astrology or are even a little superstitious, you might wonder how this beautiful event can change your cosmic outlook. For example, if you're expecting can it actually impact your pregnancy?

It turns out that there are more than a few myths and legends about Perseid and, yes, some even include babies? Modern astronomers now know that "shooting stars" are not stars at all, but rather debris from the Swift-Tuttle comet exploding in the atmosphere. How Stuff Works explains that the ancient Greeks believed they were caused by the gods looking down on us and accidentally knocking some stars loose in the process, which may be the origin of the "wishing on a star" myth.

Astrologer and co-author of the book Spellcaster: Seven Ways to Effective Magic Leah Whitehorse explains that the Perseid meteor shower is a time to face our fears head-on. For pregnant moms-to-be, that is definitely par for the pregnancy course. If you are close to your due date, the Perseid shower might signal that you will get to welcome your baby sooner rather than later. According to author Charles Raymond Dillon, the ancient Brits believed that shooting stars were the souls of babies about to be born.

According to Space.com, the Perseid meteor shower gets its name from the constellation Perseus, where it appears to originate in the night sky. Whitehorse notes that in Greek mythology the hero Perseus confronted his fears to slay the snake-headed Medusa. As such, the appearance of the Perseid shower each year is a time when we should no longer ignore the things we fear and, instead, face them head on.

As anyone who's been pregnant can tell you, growing another human being inside your body can be scary. Instead of letting those fears take over, though, we can choose to let the beauty of Perseid remind us that childbirth is going to happen and, when it's over, we're going to be parents. Acknowledging and facing our fears about pregnancy and motherhood might be just what we need to find strength to make it through the process.

According to greekmythology.com, ancient Greeks believed that the Perseid meteor shower represented the shower of gold that Zeus rained on Danae to conceive her son Perseus. As such, it was generally viewed as a time of good fortune and fertility, which you should keep in mind if you are trying to conceive.

Astrology of Light's Elizabeth Jones shares that the Perseid meteor shower also signifies gifts from the cosmos. She encourages people to write down the thoughts, ideas, or inspiration that seem to come to us out of nowhere during Perseid. Depending on your perspective, you might view your baby-to-be as a blessing, or, on the flip side, wonder if the universe is responsible for those weird pregnancy dreams.

If you are close to your due date, you might expect a special arrival during this auspicious time. As Dillon notes in his book, Superstitions and Folk Remedies, people once believed that shooting stars were souls falling from heaven, each representing a baby who was soon to be born. For what it's worth, they also believed that in order for wishes on falling stars to come true you have to make your wish before they fall out of view, so if you are at all superstitious you should keep that in mind.

Whether you simply enjoy star-gazing, wishing on shooting stars, or believe that the Perseid Meteor Shower has a deeper cosmic meaning for your life or pregnancy, it's bound to be a sight to behold.