I had a dream that I gave birth to a penis. I was very small for being pregnant, but I remember feeling what I thought was the head moving and then all of the sudden, this penis just slid out of me. No body was attached to the penis—just the penis with testicles.

My fiance and I had just had sex. Does that have anything to do with the dream? Does this mean that I would have a deformed child? Help! I know this sounds really weird.

—Anonymous, Age 33, Engaged, Female, Bloomingdale, IL, USA

Hi Anonymous—

Freud said that every dream is the expression of a wish. Does this mean you already are so tired of men (you are newly engaged?) that you wish to strip us to our bare essentials? (And leave all that “Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus” stuff behind?)

It’s a funny dream, Anonymous, but fortunately, I don’t think there’s a lot of hidden meaning to it. Pregnant women (and women looking forward to pregnancy) actually have a long history of strange, birthing dreams. Cats, dogs, lizards, pigs, reptiles... any number of unusual creatures are known to star in expecting mother’s dreams. Usually the dreams are more frequent among first time mothers. What’s the message? It’s just another case of those “pregnancy nerves.” (Are you sure there’s a baby inside me?)

It’s also common to dream about sex right after we have it. This doesn’t mean we aren’t sexually satisfied—it just means our minds, as usual, are playing back the events of the day.

Your dream was caused by the association of having sex with having babies—because, as we all know, that’s how babies are made. Keeping on the fertility theme, it is also significant that the testicles were included with the penis in your dream. This shows us that babies, and not just sex, really are on your mind.

What’s the message of this dream? It’s time to take the steps to motherhood in order! Keep the fires burning with your fiance, get him to sign on the dotted line, and we wish you the best of success raising your healthy babies. In no way does your dream indicate problems in pregnancy or delivery. To the contrary—it simply shows a strong desire to get going!