"Do you know how?"

[Eilidh]

My mother would tell us to get rid of our cat and have kids.

That one really bugs me! What on earth does having a cat have to do with having kids, and why is one thing somehow excluding the other?? A cat is a living, sensing, thinking, feeling being, not something to throw out with yesterdays trash when it isn't convenient anymore! You make a commitment when you take in a kitten, and that lasts out its life, not until you want to go away on vacation next time. And besides, barring serious allergies, a cat is good to have around kids. It strenghtens immunesystems and teaches kindness and responsibility. Unless of course the parents choose to teach that living beings are disposable, trashable things. 
/rant

While this is all very,very true, and I'm a person who grew up in a house FILLED with cats.  Although, certain doctors and professionals believe that a cat litter box will cause toximia in the baby if a pregnant woman comes in contact with the urine of a cat.  Not a big deal, have DH clean the cat box.... also, there's that old school way of thinking that a "cat will steal a baby's breath"....comming from cats smothering sleeping babies while trying to lick the milk from the mouth of the infant. 
Just putting a little insight into where this posters mom might have been comming from.  I managed to work around owning 2 cats and having a baby, so I know it's entirely possible and easy.

My mother was _convinced_ that my cat would smother the baby. How she got that, I don't know. Her mother was medically trained!

So rather than get rid of the cat, we just put a screen door on the baby's room door! It worked like a charm.

BTW, the cat wanted _nothing_ to do with that noisy thing...

-Eilidh

[Twik]

It's a very old wive's tale - cats are supposed to "steal the baby's breath". Possible arose because cats liked to snuggle in warm cradles.

I suppose if a cat did decide to sleep on a baby's face, it could smother the baby who couldn't push it aside like an adult, but I don't think it's a likely thing to happen.

[Perfect Circle]

I think most cats will naturally move away from the really ugly, hairless kitten the bad humans brought into its home. 

However, I have say we got a little bit worried when our Cleo, the craziest of our two cats, decided the cradle was the best place to sleep. We had to make sure all doors to the baby's room were closed because we didn't really want a) a cat in with the baby - they are quite warm animals and temperature control is really important for small babies nor b) the cat hair in the cradle.

Now as DD is no longer a baby, we're quite happy for them to nap together in her bed. Cleo's happy too - apart from when DD wants to give her cuddles.

[Reika]

I never understood the cat stealing a baby's breath, Mom and I like to joke around that as a baby I had two moms: Mom and my catmom Snowball.

Snowball was a great cat and would've been one heck of a mom to kittens, instead she had me. I swear the cat was a bigger disciplinarian than my own mom.

[Rosgrana]

A colleague of mine came home from her honeymoon to find that her new mother-in-law had been in while they were away and the family Christening gown was laid ceremoniously front-and-centre on the marital bed!
 

[Suze]

A colleague of mine came home from her honeymoon to find that her new mother-in-law had been in while they were away and the family Christening gown was laid ceremoniously front-and-centre on the marital bed!
 

oh that is too rich

not so subtle clue is it?

[Sara Crewe (previously Tia2)]

A colleague of mine came home from her honeymoon to find that her new mother-in-law had been in while they were away and the family Christening gown was laid ceremoniously front-and-centre on the marital bed!
 

oh that is too rich

not so subtle clue is it?

At which point I would be changing the locks and making sure MIL did not have a copy!

[Reika]

A colleague of mine came home from her honeymoon to find that her new mother-in-law had been in while they were away and the family Christening gown was laid ceremoniously front-and-centre on the marital bed!
 

oh that is too rich

not so subtle clue is it?

At which point I would be changing the locks and making sure MIL did not have a copy!

Not to mention a conversation or two about boundaries. How did her husband react?

[shhh its me]

It's a very old wive's tale - cats are supposed to "steal the baby's breath". Possible arose because cats liked to snuggle in warm cradles.

I suppose if a cat did decide to sleep on a baby's face, it could smother the baby who couldn't push it aside like an adult, but I don't think it's a likely thing to happen.

My cat never went near my son when he was a baby, he loved the baby's room when the baby wasn't in it, but at bout 10 years old(the cat) started sleeping on my chest almost mouth to mouth. It would/could look like he was trying to "steal" breath.  My husbands mother had to get rid of her cat because that cat would not stop climbing in the pram/crib when my husband was a baby.

 I imagine at some time cats have been found with dead babies either do to SIDS or very young babies being crushed/suffocated by cats not that cats are evil some just really like to cuddle anything and have no qualms about laying on faces and cats are agile enough to get into most cribs while many dogs aren't.  All pets need to be watched closely with newborns/babies. 

[stitchygreyanonymouse]

"Oh, but enough about MY sex life; let's talk about yours!"   
"Well Mom, I was actually wondering about that...  did you and Dad use square knots or bowlines in the ropes?"
"Sure, we've been lighting candles and praying in both our bedrooms every night!"
{dragging EvilSaphie back into her corner now}

I almost snorted my coffee onto the keyboard for this. Especially the second one.

Luckily on my side my older sibs have provided plenty of grandbabies so my parents don't badger. The bfs' family has produced a couple of gems though.  From his father, after we'd been dating a grand total of maybe 3 weeks:
"You better marry her now so that there aren't any accidental pregnancies."    (Funny, considering the unplanned (but very loved) baby his *married* younger sister had just given birth to.)

His mother has been a little more tactful about the gradkids thing so far (she just harps on marriage). Although I was cornered one day not too long ago and reminded that the BF is the last male LastName, so we have to have babies.

[ladycrim]

Luckily on my side my older sibs have provided plenty of grandbabies so my parents don't badger. The bfs' family has produced a couple of gems though.  From his father, after we'd been d@ting a grand total of maybe 3 weeks:
"You better marry her now so that there aren't any accidental pregnancies."    (Funny, considering the unplanned (but very loved) baby his *married* younger sister had just given birth to.)

Interesting logic there.

Meanwhile, BF baby-sat for his friend's 7-month-old on Friday night, and that killed any remaining desire for children.  (We both adore this little girl, but she apparently wouldn't stop screaming all night.)  Now he just needs to get the message through to his father.

[Rosgrana]

A colleague of mine came home from her honeymoon to find that her new mother-in-law had been in while they were away and the family Christening gown was laid ceremoniously front-and-centre on the marital bed!
 

oh that is too rich

not so subtle clue is it?

At which point I would be changing the locks and making sure MIL did not have a copy!

Not to mention a conversation or two about boundaries. How did her husband react?

He was livid. She thought it was hilarious, in that so-far-beyond-acceptable-I-can't-take-it-seriously way.
They were OK with her being in there, they'd arranged that she would put wedding presents away and clean ready for them to come back to, but Things Were Said about the... little reminder.

[ClaireC79]

There are plenty of stories about cats who hang round by dying people until they pass on (theory being they sense something) stands to reason if this happened a few times in a small community with dying babies (through cot death etc) that the poor cat would get blamed for it, whereas all they were doing was providing company for a human being at the end

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-470906/Grim-rea-purr-The-cat-predict-death.html

[Suze]

the thing I have heard most is that the cat will sleep on the babies chest - cause they are warm -- and smother them sort of by accident

because the baby isn't strong enough to push them off or roll over.

I know it is really hard to breath when the "overgrown fatness that is my cat" sleeps on my chest.  (she is close to 20 pounds)

[Reika]

He was livid. She thought it was hilarious, in that so-far-beyond-acceptable-I-can't-take-it-seriously way.
They were OK with her being in there, they'd arranged that she would put wedding presents away and clean ready for them to come back to, but Things Were Said about the... little reminder.

Glad to hear that he was on the same page, and yeah I can see laughing instead of crying. Or going into a fit of rage.