Can How U Feel Determine the Sex of Your Baby Early in Pregnancy

Whether you're ready to know your unborn baby's sexual activity (now!) or are waiting to detect out in the delivery room, chances are you accept your suspicions—hunches fueled, mayhap, by well-meaning friends and family. Take, for case, first-time mom Arlene Bordinhao of Las Vegas, who was convinced she was having a girl. Folks informed her that considering she was carrying loftier and her abdomen resembled a watermelon, non a basketball, it had to be a girl. The Chinese lunar agenda also predicted a girl.

• RELATED: How Before long Tin can You Detect Out the Sex of Your Baby?

Plus, Bordinhao's mother didn't see whatever night circles on her neck. "In the Philippines, where I was born, no rings means a daughter," she explains. Although her husband wanted to wait to discover out the baby's sex, Bordinhao had to know for sure.

"Non being able to fix for the biggest upshot of my life made me crazy," she admits, and so she constitute out at sixteen weeks during a routine sonogram. Surprise! "There was our little man, in all his celebrity," Bordinhao recalls. "We were in shock for 24 hours, but at present we're thrilled. Finding out helped united states of america prepare mentally and stock the plant nursery. I can't wait to meet him!"

"What Are Yous Having?"

That's ordinarily the first question expectant mothers and fathers are asked. Parents-to-be can—and nearly ever do!—answer it before than ever before, thanks to the latest imaging technology. In fact, 9 out of 10 new moms polled in our MomTrak survey knew the sex of their baby prior to labor mean solar day.

"By your fifth month, around week xviii or nineteen of your pregnancy, a sonogram can show you the sexual activity of your unborn child with virtually 95 percent accurateness," explains Daniel A. Potter, One thousand.D., a reproductive endocrinologist at the Huntington Reproductive Center Medical Group in California. "From a medical standpoint, we practice an ultrasound to check the age, position, and health of the fetus, merely most parents desire to know the sex too. That's true if information technology'due south the first infant or the quaternary."

Expectant parents are particularly nosy creatures: If y'all Google "predict babe's sexual activity," you'll discover more than 1 million results, including gender predictor kits you can purchase at your local Target. However, if nosotros all hold that having a salubrious, happy baby is paramount, why do nosotros care so much whether that baby is a male child or a daughter?

"It'southward human nature," Dr. Potter says. It started in the Rock Age, he continues: "A family without sons, whose job was to chase and keep everyone fed, might not take survived. And then offerings were made to the gods, and soothsayers were consulted. People passed on to the next generation the methods they considered most effective for guaranteeing a boy, and this inspired old wives' tales."

Throughout history, gender has remained a priority. "For hundreds of years, sex activity adamant not simply your life's options but your parents' options too," says social historian Stephanie Coontz, Ph.D., writer of A Foreign Stirring, which tells of the struggle for gender equality in the 1960s. "It influenced how your parents treated y'all, what they expected of you lot, even if they welcomed yous at all."

In many societies, non having a son was a tragedy; for the ruling elite, it was a threat to their ability: "Women were killed or killed themselves if they didn't deliver a boy," she says.

Polls today reveal that Americans still have a slight preference for boys. But in this land, a baby'southward gender is no longer a matter of life-and-death importance. "We increasingly want the same things for our children, boys or girls," Dr. Coontz says. Still, many can't resist the siren call of knowing Baby's sex activity.

blueish and pink bottles

Credit: Alexandra Grablewski

Finding Out

These days, curiosity, practicality, and peace of listen oftentimes outweigh surprise. "We felt that learning the baby'southward gender was a delicious moment, no thing when we constitute out," says Robin Rosen of Atlanta, a mom of a daughter and a boy.

Some commencement-time parents choose to know the sexual activity of their baby but prolong the suspense the 2d fourth dimension around. "As a new mom, so much is completely unknown," says San Francisco mom of two Kat Eden. Finding out the baby'due south sexual practice and focusing on picking a proper name, clothes, and decor helped Eden feel grounded during her commencement pregnancy. "With my second, I knew what to expect," she says. "It was exciting to wonder about the little person growing in my stomach."

Sometimes siblings gene into the decision. "My older son is a need-to-know kind of child," says Caren Rodriguez of Greensboro, North Carolina, a mom of two boys. "Existence able to tell his class about the baby was a source of pride for him."

Those who do cull to look savor the anticipation. As Rachel Levin of New York City says, "Having the surprise to expect forward to helped me get through those concluding, long weeks of my pregnancy."

What if you lot want to find out and your guy doesn't? Some parents adopt a "Don't ask, don't tell" policy. One scenario: The doctor writes the sex on an index carte and seals information technology in an envelope. The couple agrees that if either of them is bursting to know, he or she tin can peek.

You could also wait and encounter where things go. "We'd been trying to have a baby for a long time," says Sophie Beauvais of Cambridge, Massachusetts. "We were so stressed out that we stopped trying and took a vacation. Presently after we got back, I institute out I was pregnant." They remained undecided virtually finding out until the 24-hour interval of the baby's 18-week ultrasound: "By then, we were so thrilled our dream was coming true that when the nurse asked if we wanted to know, we both blurted, 'Yes!' It just felt right."

Dealing with Disappointment

What if you lot've been envisioning tutus and tea parties, only to notice out you're having a boy? Or your hubby has a deep desire for a boy, but yous're getting a girl? You may exist bummed out, and that's okay.

"It's normal to feel allow downwards," says Sara Rosenquist, Ph.D., author of Later on the Stork. Feeling guilty about your negative emotions can add to the anxiety stew. Talk with your partner, a close family member, or friend. "Pretending you're not upset keeps negative feelings simmering and can intensify the sadness," Dr. Rosenquist adds. It'due south best to work through whatever regrets now, before slumber impecuniousness and other realities of having a newborn compound your sadness.

Kerstin Armstrong of Atlanta, a mom of iii girls, e'er pictured herself with boys and needed time to accept that she'd never take a son. "But wishing for a boy doesn't mean I love my girls any less!" she says.

Armstrong's hubby, Scott, feels similarly. "I was hoping for a boy with each pregnancy, and a part of me volition always long for a son," he admits. "But Kerstin once told me something that still resonates: 'Everything our daughters know about boys will come from yous.' I consider it a privilege to be their vision of what a human being should exist."

baby's gender

Boy vs. Daughter

Behavior

• Baby girls feel discomfort more than acutely than boys do, so they're more likely to fuss when they get cold or have a moisture diaper. But don't be as well quick to label your little princess high-maintenance; her keener sense of touch too makes her more responsive to cuddling and easier to soothe.
• Girls tend to produce more than oxytocin, the human-bonding hormone, and serotonin, a "feel-proficient" hormone. This helps explain why they're more apt to exist caregivers to dolls and younger siblings. Little boys really are more interested in toy cars, trucks, and other things that move.
• "Boys tend to explore their world more physically than girls do, such as by banging their toys, jumping, and playing rough. "They have an unrestrained manner of expressing free energy," says Adie Goldberg, co-author of It'due south a Baby Male child! and It'due south a Babe Girl! Play is calmer amongst girls, who tend to stay closer to adults, engage in fantasy, and hang out in small groups, whereas boys gravitate toward packs of playmates and intense, agile games.

Health

• Baby girls are five times more likely than boys are to become hemangiomas, raised red birthmarks acquired by a buildup of claret vessels. They normally disappear by age 9 but can be treated with steroids or removed by lasers.
• Baby boys are at college run a risk for hernias. That's because when they're in utero, their testicles descend from the abdomen, which can go out a cavity in the groin that requires surgery to repair.
• Babe girls are four times more than susceptible to hip dysplasia, a dislocation of the thighbone from the hip socket. Braces can usually remedy the condition.
• Boys more than often have asthma, yet they're more likely than girls to outgrow information technology past adolescence. One possible caption: College testosterone levels might relax airway muscles.
• Girls are more than prone to UTIs. Their urinary tract is shorter, and so information technology'due south easier for bacteria to reach their bladder and crusade an infection

Motor Skills

• Boys often take stronger motor skills—think jumping and climbing. They might also master tasks like aiming a throw and building block towers at a younger age than their girl peers do, probably because the area of a boy'south brain that's devoted to visual-spatial relation is larger. Only...
• ...Girls tin boot serious butt when it comes to fine motor skills: They pick upward finger foods earlier on and, when they're older, learn to write and tie shoes sooner.
• Girls generally are toilet-trained earlier than boys are. They typically principal the potty at near 35 months, whereas boys tend to start using the potty at around 39 months. There are loads of theories as to why girls get a head start. I popular caption: Mommy's "plumbing" is the same as her girl's, and she frequently does well-nigh of the teaching.

Milestones

• Boys are late growers: They ordinarily don't accomplish 50 percentage of their adult height until about 24 months; girls can accomplish that mark at merely twenty months. Boys besides enter puberty roughly two years later than girls do and tend to keep shooting up for three more than years.
• Girls talk it up earlier than boys do, thanks to their more efficient use of the language centers in both hemispheres of the brain. At 18 months or so, a girl's vocabulary consists of well-nigh 90 words, compared with 40 words for most toddler boys. Only past age 3, boys are usually but equally skilled in the gift of gab.

What It's Similar to Take All of One Kind

"After we found out we were having our 4th male child, I outburst into tears. My husband patted my arm and said, 'It's okay, dear. It'due south not your fault.' We both had wanted a girl very much, simply nosotros quickly got used to the idea of raising little boys who operate on only two speeds—running and sleeping—and who take a pack mentality. One nighttime they got together and rigged upwardly a rocket launcher. The rockets? My tampons. Endeavour explaining to your neighbor why her Lexus is covered in feminine-hygiene products! Information technology's been wild, crazy, and loud, but we wouldn't have it whatever other mode." — Ariel Lawhon; Wichita Falls, Texas

"We have ii girls, ages 5 and 3, and I love sharing the things that were important to me as a child, like Little House on the Prairie and the Ramona books. Just know this: There will always exist glitter all over everything in your house. Resistance to princesses is futile." — Kristin Mahoney; S Orangish, New Jersey

"Having four boys keeps it simple—with each baby we already had the wearing apparel, toys, and how-to-enhance boys books. I've researched soccer teams and baseball game leagues and accept a stable of other boy moms to call on. What's truly wonderful is that if I didn't have so many boys, I wouldn't have known how different from one another they could exist." — Annie Drexler, Atlanta

"As the mother of three girls, ages five, 3, and ane, and as a total girly girl myself, I truly enjoy all my daughters' dress-up, makeup, ballet, and pretend play. My hubby loves being the only human in the business firm. That said, it tin ofttimes be an emotional roller coaster. If they spot a bug, cover your ears because the sound can exist deafening! If they scrape a knee, you'd think the leg was cleaved, their reaction is and then dramatic." — Andrea Miller; Sienna Plantation, Texas

Do Gender Prediction Kits Really Work?

Instead of waiting for a sonogram, some preggo parents are finding out at domicile.

A slew of gender prediction kits has sprung up at drugstores in contempo years, and some claim to accurately predict a baby's gender every bit early on as five to seven weeks into a pregnancy. Peeing in a cup or pricking your finger and sending a blood sample to a lab for DNA testing is easy plenty, only these aren't surefire methods.

Among the kits, urine tests, which bank check for the presence of testosterone equally early as x weeks, are the to the lowest degree expensive and also the least authentic. Kits that utilize a blood sample to discover gender are imprecise as well (your bath isn't a quality-controlled lab!) and pricey (often upwards of $300). If you have more money than patience, yous may want to attempt 1, but don't paint the plant nursery till you get a sonogram!

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Source: https://www.parents.com/pregnancy/my-baby/gender-prediction/are-you-having-a-boy-or-a-girl/

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