Special Delivery: Why Storks Bring Babies

Source: (autodeskresearch.com)

It is one of our most common trope…a long-legged, white stork carrying a newborn baby in a white cloth bundle, delivering the child to its new parents. This is the story that we often tell young children when they ask that awkward question about where babies come from. We see illustrations of storks carrying babies on book covers, infant bedding, baby shower cards, television commercials, and more. But just how did the stork, of all birds, become associated with childbirth? The association between storks and babies goes back much further than you probably thought—all the way to ancient Greece.