Pregnancy and Gender Prediction

Without an ultrasound can you predict the gender of your baby? Someone may tell you that the baby must be a boy because you are carrying low. Someone else may tell you that it must be a girl since you experienced severe morning sickness. Is there any truth to these methods...

Is it Possible to Predict the Gender?

Throughout your pregnancy, you will hear predictions about the gender of your baby. Everyone from your mother in law to the cashier at the grocery store seems to have an opinion. One will tell you that the baby must be a boy because you are carrying low. Someone else will tell you that it must be a girl since you experienced severe morning sickness. Is there any truth to these gender prediction methods?

The Chinese calendar: This is one of the oldest methods of predicting the gender of an unborn baby. Although the claim is that the calendar can predict the gender in 95 percent of babies, the actual results can vary. This method uses the Chinese lunar calendar, the lunar age of the mother at conception and the month of conception.

To read the chart, you need to figure out your lunar age. This is calculated by adding one year to the mother’s actual age. Then locate on the chart the month that conception occurred. Follow the line to the box that intersects the mother’s age and the month of conception. This box will have an M for male or an F for female.

How the mother is carrying is said to be an indication of the gender. The common wisdom is that if the mother is carrying low the baby is a boy. If she is carrying high, the baby is a daughter. Other signs are said to be the shape of the stomach. If the mother is carrying all in the front, the baby is a boy. If the weight is distributed to the hips, buttocks and thighs, the baby is said to be a girl.

Doctors say that this method is nothing more than an old wives’ tale. The size or height of the stomach has nothing to do with the gender of the baby, but more with the body type of the mother and the size of the baby. Most women will tell you that the belly often looks different in each pregnancy, even if the gender of the children is the same. While this method may be fun for baby shower conversation, it isn’t very reliable.

The Fetal Heart Rate: A newer rumor about gender prediction concerns the baby’s heart rate. The heart rate of girls is said to be faster than with boy fetuses. People will often try to guess the gender of the baby based on the heart rate. If the heart rate is closer to 150 or above, the baby is predicted to be female. A lower heart rate, closer to 140, is believed to be a boy.

Other Tales about Gender Prediction:

The Drano Method: A sample of the mother’s urine is mixed with Drano. If the mixture turns bluish yellow, brown, black or blue, the baby is a boy. If the color does not change or is greenish brown or green, the baby is a girl.
Cravings: The foods a mother craves are said to predict the gender of the baby. Sweet cravings mean the baby is a girl. Sour or salty cravings mean the baby will be a boy. Meat is also said to be a predictor of a son.
Face Shape: The shape of the mother’s face is said to indicate the gender of the baby. If the woman has a full face and a rosy glow, the baby is said to be a girl. Acne in pregnancy is said to indicate a girl as well. The myth says that a daughter steals her mother’s beauty.

The only way to reliably predict the gender of the baby is through prenatal testing. If you have an ultrasound during your pregnancy, you will get the chance for a peek at the gender. With an experienced ultrasound technician, the results are accurate about 97 percent of the time. An amniocentesis or chorionic villi sampling has an accuracy rate of 99 percent. These tests have risks and should not be used to determine the gender of the baby. However, if you are having the test anyway, this is a bonus. Of course, the only way to know with 100 percent certainty is to wait until the baby is born.