How to Find the Gender of a Baby During Pregnancy
Whether you're fix to know your unborn baby's sexual practice (now!) or are waiting to discover out in the delivery room, chances are you have your suspicions—hunches fueled, perhaps, by well-significant friends and family unit. Take, for example, first-time mom Arlene Bordinhao of Las Vegas, who was convinced she was having a girl. Folks informed her that because she was carrying high and her belly resembled a watermelon, not a basketball game, it had to exist a daughter. The Chinese lunar calendar also predicted a girl.
- RELATED: How Soon Tin can You Find Out the Sex of Your Baby?
Plus, Bordinhao's female parent didn't encounter any dark circles on her cervix. "In the Philippines, where I was born, no rings means a girl," she explains. Although her husband wanted to wait to notice out the baby'due south sex, Bordinhao had to know for certain.
"Not being able to gear up for the biggest event of my life made me crazy," she admits, so she found out at sixteen weeks during a routine sonogram. Surprise! "At that place was our little human, in all his celebrity," Bordinhao recalls. "We were in shock for 24 hours, but now we're thrilled. Finding out helped the states set up mentally and stock the nursery. I tin can't wait to meet him!"
"What Are You lot Having?"
That'south unremarkably the first question expectant mothers and fathers are asked. Parents-to-be can—and nearly always do!—respond information technology earlier than e'er before, thanks to the latest imaging technology. In fact, 9 out of 10 new moms polled in our MomTrak survey knew the sexual practice of their infant prior to labor day.
"By your fifth month, around week 18 or 19 of your pregnancy, a sonogram can evidence you lot the sexual practice of your unborn child with about 95 percent accurateness," explains Daniel A. Potter, M.D., a reproductive endocrinologist at the Huntington Reproductive Center Medical Group in California. "From a medical standpoint, nosotros do an ultrasound to check the age, position, and health of the fetus, simply about parents desire to know the sex too. That's true if information technology's the first infant or the fourth."
Expectant parents are specially nosy creatures: If you Google "predict baby'south sex," you'll find more than 1 1000000 results, including gender predictor kits you can purchase at your local Target. Yet, if nosotros all concord that having a healthy, happy babe is paramount, why do we intendance then much whether that baby is a boy or a girl?
"It's human being nature," Dr. Potter says. It started in the Stone Age, he continues: "A family unit without sons, whose chore was to chase and continue everyone fed, might not have survived. So 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, sexual activity adamant non only your life's options only your parents' options too," says social historian Stephanie Coontz, Ph.D., writer of A Strange Stirring, which tells of the struggle for gender equality in the 1960s. "Information technology influenced how your parents treated you, what they expected of you, even if they welcomed you lot at all."
In many societies, not having a son was a tragedy; for the ruling elite, it was a threat to their power: "Women were killed or killed themselves if they didn't deliver a boy," she says.
Polls today reveal that Americans however have a slight preference for boys. But in this state, a baby'due south gender is no longer a affair of life-and-death importance. "We increasingly want the aforementioned things for our children, boys or girls," Dr. Coontz says. Still, many tin can't resist the siren call of knowing Infant'south sexual practice.
Credit: Alexandra Grablewski
Finding Out
These days, curiosity, practicality, and peace of mind oftentimes outweigh surprise. "Nosotros felt that learning the infant'southward gender was a succulent moment, no thing when we found out," says Robin Rosen of Atlanta, a mom of a girl and a boy.
Some get-go-time parents choose to know the sex of their babe but prolong the suspense the 2d fourth dimension effectually. "As a new mom, and so much is completely unknown," says San Francisco mom of two Kat Eden. Finding out the baby's sex and focusing on picking a name, wearing apparel, and decor helped Eden experience grounded during her start pregnancy. "With my second, I knew what to expect," she says. "Information technology was heady to wonder well-nigh the picayune person growing in my tum."
Sometimes siblings cistron into the decision. "My older son is a need-to-know kind of kid," says Caren Rodriguez of Greensboro, North Carolina, a mom of two boys. "Being able to tell his class about the baby was a source of pride for him."
Those who do choose to wait savour the anticipation. As Rachel Levin of New York City says, "Having the surprise to look forward to helped me go through those last, long weeks of my pregnancy."
What if you desire 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 activity on an alphabetize carte and seals information technology in an envelope. The couple agrees that if either of them is bursting to know, he or she tin peek.
You could besides wait and see where things get. "We'd been trying to have a infant for a long time," says Sophie Beauvais of Cambridge, Massachusetts. "We were so stressed out that we stopped trying and took a vacation. Soon later on we got back, I found out I was significant." They remained undecided nigh finding out until the day of the infant'southward 18-calendar week ultrasound: "By and so, we were so thrilled our dream was coming true that when the nurse asked if we wanted to know, we both blurted, 'Yes!' Information technology but felt correct."
Dealing with Disappointment
What if you've been envisioning tutus and tea parties, only to find out you're having a boy? Or your hubby has a deep want for a male child, but y'all're getting a girl? You may be bummed out, and that'southward okay.
"It's normal to feel allow downwardly," says Sara Rosenquist, Ph.D., writer of Afterwards the Stork. Feeling guilty about your negative emotions can add to the feet stew. Talk with your partner, a close family member, or friend. "Pretending you're non upset keeps negative feelings simmering and can intensify the sadness," Dr. Rosenquist adds. It's best to work through whatever regrets at present, before sleep impecuniousness and other realities of having a newborn chemical compound your sadness.
Kerstin Armstrong of Atlanta, a mom of three girls, always pictured herself with boys and needed fourth dimension to have that she'd never have a son. "Only wishing for a boy doesn't mean I love my girls any less!" she says.
Armstrong'due south hubby, Scott, feels similarly. "I was hoping for a male child with each pregnancy, and a part of me will always long for a son," he admits. "Only Kerstin one time told me something that still resonates: 'Everything our daughters know about boys will come from you.' I consider it a privilege to exist their vision of what a man should be."
Male child vs. Girl
Behavior
- Infant girls feel discomfort more acutely than boys do, so they're more likely to fuss when they get cold or take a moisture diaper. Just don't be too quick to characterization your little princess high-maintenance; her keener sense of touch also makes her more than responsive to cuddling and easier to soothe.
- Girls tend to produce more than oxytocin, the man-bonding hormone, and serotonin, a "feel-good" hormone. This helps explain why they're more apt to be 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 globe more physically than girls do, such every bit by banging their toys, jumping, and playing rough. "They have an unrestrained style of expressing energy," says Adie Goldberg, co-author of It'south a Infant Male child! and It'southward a Babe Girl! Play is calmer among girls, who tend to stay closer to adults, appoint in fantasy, and hang out in small groups, whereas boys gravitate toward packs of playmates and intense, active games.
Health
- Baby girls are five times more probable than boys are to go hemangiomas, raised reddish birthmarks caused past a buildup of blood vessels. They commonly disappear by age 9 but can be treated with steroids or removed past lasers.
- Baby boys are at higher risk for hernias. That'southward because when they're in utero, their testicles descend from the belly, which tin leave a cavity in the groin that requires surgery to repair.
- Babe girls are 4 times more susceptible to hip dysplasia, a dislocation of the thighbone from the hip socket. Braces tin usually remedy the condition.
- Boys more frequently have asthma, yet they're more likely than girls to outgrow it past adolescence. One possible explanation: Higher testosterone levels might relax airway muscles.
- Girls are more decumbent to UTIs. Their urinary tract is shorter, and then it'southward easier for bacteria to accomplish their float and cause an infection
Motor Skills
- Boys often have stronger motor skills—think jumping and climbing. They might besides master tasks like aiming a throw and building block towers at a younger age than their girl peers practise, probably considering the area of a male child's brain that's devoted to visual-spatial relation is larger. But...
- ...Girls can kick serious butt when it comes to fine motor skills: They option up finger foods earlier on and, when they're older, learn to write and tie shoes sooner.
- Girls generally are toilet-trained before than boys are. They typically primary the potty at about 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 caput start. 1 popular explanation: Mommy's "plumbing" is the same every bit her daughter's, and she often does most of the didactics.
Milestones
- Boys are late growers: They unremarkably don't achieve 50 percentage of their adult acme until about 24 months; girls tin reach that mark at merely 20 months. Boys also enter puberty roughly two years afterwards than girls do and tend to continue shooting up for three more 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 daughter'south vocabulary consists of well-nigh 90 words, compared with twoscore words for virtually toddler boys. Merely by age 3, boys are usually merely as skilled in the gift of gab.
What It'southward Like to Have All of One Kind
"After we found out we were having our 4th boy, I burst into tears. My husband patted my arm and said, 'It'south okay, honey. It's not your error.' Nosotros both had wanted a girl very much, but we speedily got used to the idea of raising trivial boys who operate on only ii speeds—running and sleeping—and who have a pack mentality. One night they got together and rigged upwardly a rocket launcher. The rockets? My tampons. Endeavor explaining to your neighbor why her Lexus is covered in feminine-hygiene products! It's been wild, crazy, and loud, but we wouldn't have information technology whatsoever other way." — Ariel Lawhon; Wichita Falls, Texas
"We take 2 girls, ages five and 3, and I love sharing the things that were important to me equally a child, like Lilliputian Business firm on the Prairie and the Ramona books. Simply know this: There will always be glitter all over everything in your firm. Resistance to princesses is futile." — Kristin Mahoney; Southward Orange, New Jersey
"Having four boys keeps it simple—with each baby we already had the dress, toys, and how-to-raise boys books. I've researched soccer teams and baseball leagues and take a stable of other boy moms to call on. What'south truly wonderful is that if I didn't have so many boys, I wouldn't have known how unlike from one another they could exist." — Annie Drexler, Atlanta
"Every bit the female parent of iii girls, ages 5, 3, and i, and as a total girly girl myself, I truly enjoy all my daughters' dress-upward, makeup, ballet, and pretend play. My married man loves existence the only human in the house. That said, it tin oft exist an emotional roller coaster. If they spot a bug, cover your ears because the audio can be deafening! If they scrape a knee, you'd retrieve the leg was cleaved, their reaction is and so dramatic." — Andrea Miller; Sienna Plantation, Texas
Do Gender Prediction Kits Actually 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 recent years, and some merits to accurately predict a baby's gender as early equally 5 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 enough, simply these aren't surefire methods.
Among the kits, urine tests, which bank check for the presence of testosterone every bit early equally ten weeks, are the least expensive and also the least accurate. Kits that use a claret sample to discover gender are imprecise as well (your bath isn't a quality-controlled lab!) and pricey (often upwardly of $300). If yous accept more than money than patience, you may want to try one, but don't paint the nursery till you get a sonogram!
Source: https://www.parents.com/pregnancy/my-baby/gender-prediction/are-you-having-a-boy-or-a-girl/