Prophetic Pins

I just began this book and I'm stuck. I have to know everything there is to know about the superstition of the pins before I can move on. I've looked on the web, and found nothing helpful. I can guess it has something to do with foretelling something about a baby in utero, perhaps gender or health or fate. Guessing or getting the gist of it doesn't make it for me. And I see a few pages later that "Bless the baby!" is an appropriate sentiment connected to, not just pins, but pincushions. (OK, it isn't the seemingly haphazard arrangement of loose pins in a drawer, as I had originally thought.) But what else? When and how did the superstition originate? What was a pregnant woman in 1812 supposed to do with her pins? What was she supposed to look for? What were all the potential omens, signs, and readings? What would an 1850 reader, completely familiar with this superstition, have known?

Thanks.