Pregnancy fact or fiction: determining baby's gender
Categories: Just for moms, Pregnancy & birth

Guess what, folks--it can't be done. Unless you have a bonafide medium/psychic in your midst, hard science makes it darn near impossible to prove there is a way to determine your baby to be's gender without the aid of one of those scary blood tests or a good old ultrasound at around the 20th week of pregnancy.
But, if that is the case, then why do all these other options persist? Maybe it's simply because it's fun, or gives the new parents to be something else to think about rather than worrying that everything is ok in there (the womb). Maybe, though, there is something more to it. After all, those old wives tales the modern world has eschewed seem to turn out to be true, or at least relevant, more often than we think.
I have a pal, a guy, who, for some reason, is almost always able to tell the sex of the baby after spending time with a pregnant friend (nothing more!). Now, I know there are only two choices involved, male or female, but still--he is almost NEVER wrong!
When I was a kid, my mother had a gender predictor crystal stashed in our upstairs attic. I suppose it had been given to her as a gift for her baby shower although we never discussed it. The crystal would swing one way for a girl, the other way for a boy (either horizontally or vertically). It was from the '70s, so I can't vouch for the accuracy of it, but my guess is it was no better or worse than any of the others.
Currently, company Pink or Blue offers a home prediction kit. Jury's still out on whether it's accurate or not, but several sources say it's only right about, er, 50% of the time. Heh. A friend once told me that the gender could be determined based on how mom to be felt about the other parent to be. If mommy loves her husband, it's a boy; if she detests him, it's a girl.
Then there's the old-school thought about how a woman carries. If it's all in the middle and up high, it's a boy; if mom gets big all over an carries low, it's a girl. In my experience that has been true, but I know many women who contest that methodology too.
So, are there any gender predictors (outside the realm of hard science) that, in your experience, have proven accurate? If so, do tell!
Universal gender pic by lazzarello.
Recent Posts
- Weekend Fun and Games (7/03/2009)
- Kids and Extracurriculars - When Do You Let Them Quit? (7/03/2009)
- Twitter Follow Friday on ParentDish! (7/03/2009)
- Lush Lashes (7/03/2009)
- Abigail Breslin Makes $13 a Week (7/03/2009)















Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
AndreAnna 5-06-2008 @ 9:44AM
I don't know about predictors, but I KNEW with each of my pregnancies. When I had my daughter two years ago, I KNEW she was going to be a girl before the ultrasound confirmed it. The same with this current pregnancy, except I KNEW it was going to be a boy, and I was right.
I am also carrying way lower and am all belly this time, which they say is indicative of a boy, but it could also be indicative that this is my second baby in two years and my body is like "Hey, we just did this. Let's expand quicker and rounder!"
Maybe we don't give maternal intuition the rank it deserves among "old wive's tales"
Reply
Courtney 5-06-2008 @ 9:57AM
I knew with both of my girls that they were girls. However, people kept telling me that they were boys because they were so high and I was all belly. Mother's intuition proved right.
I did dispise my husband both times although I tried to hide it with the second one for my older daughter's sake. The first time around it was very well known that I hated him. Before I got pregnant and after I had them I went right back to loving him and not being able to be happier with him. Maybe that one is true!
Reply
Kat 5-06-2008 @ 2:52PM
I dont believe in any old wives tales. I have 3 girls. I KNEW #1 and #2 were girls but I also swore #3 was a boy...I was wrong LOL. I carried them all so differently, my cravings were all so different, my morning sickness was all different....everything was different. Everyone swore #2 was a boy b/c of my basketball tummy and no morning sickness and were shocked to learn it was a girl. Next time Im just going to wait for the u/s or birth to find out the sex.
Reply