Many women can't wait until the ultrasound or amniocentesis to find out if they are having a boy or a girl during their pregnancy. That's why old wives' tales come into play. Some say that if you are having a girl, you will have a lot of morning sickness, while others say it is the other way around. This article will discuss the ins and outs of no morning sickness, boy or girl.
No Morning Sickness: Boy or Girl?
Despite the discomfort, many women have used the absence or presence of morning sickness to predict whether or not they are having a boy or girl. According to old wives' tales, if the mother has a lot of morning sickness, she is likely to have a girl. If there is no morning sickness, it means she will have a boy. This is just a wives' tales and many women have disproved it in reality.
Scientifically, extreme morning sickness tends to be associated with a pregnancy that is carrying a girl. The hormones the female fetus makes are more likely to cause nausea in the mother. There was one study out of Sweden that showed woman admitted to the hospital for hyperemesis gravidarum (extreme morning sickness in pregnancy) had a female child 55 percent of the time. However, this study was flawed in that it only looked at severe morning sickness and not to the regular morning sickness many women get. Because the risk is nearly 50-50, you shouldn't discard boys' clothes or buy any girls' clothes on the basis of your morning sickness severity.
More Old Wives' Tales and Scientific Explanations
Except no morning sickness boy or girl, there are many old wives' tales about the gender of your baby. Take a look at some common ones:
Old Wives' Tale 1: Carrying the Baby Low – Boy
It is believed that if you are carrying the baby low in your abdomen or out in front of you, you are having a boy. If you are carrying the baby high or are wide across the middle, you are carrying a girl.
Truth: There is no scientific data to back this up. Exactly how you carry you baby depends on how strong your abdominal muscles are and on the exact position the baby is in inside the uterus. It also depends on how much weight you gain during the pregnancy and the shape of your body. Gender has nothing to do with it.
Old Wives' Tale 2: Quick Heart Rate – Girl
People believe that if the fetus' heartbeat is greater than 140 beats a minute, you are having a girl.
Truth: There is some truth to this wives' tale. In one study, there were no real differences in heart rate when comparing boys and girls at early months. However, later on in the gestation, the female's heart rate tends to be faster than the heart rate in a male infant.
Old Wives' Tale 3: Swinging in a Circle – Girl
The idea is to take your wedding ring and hang it from a strand of the baby's father's hair over your pregnant stomach. If the ring swings in a circle, you are having a girl. If it sways back and forth along your abdomen, it means you are having a boy. This can also be done using a pin instead of a ring.
Truth: There aren't any research studies to support this old wives' tale. This is a practice among those who practice Traditional Chinese Medicine and who believe that there are lines of energy in the body that can influence the swaying of an object like ring or pin.
Old Wives' Tale 4: Green Mixture of Drano with Urine – Boy
This old wives' tale involves putting some Drano into the urine. If this mixture becomes green in color, you are having a boy. There are some different color changes reported, but green is the one most people recommend looking for.
Truth: There is no basis for doing this test. There have been studies on women out of the University of Wyoming that tested a hundred women with the Drano test. The accuracy was no different than guessing or flipping a coin.
Old Wives' Tale 5: Craving Sweets – Boy
The myth is basically stating that a woman who eats a lot of sweets, she is having a male child. If, instead, she craves foods that are sour, she is having a female child.
Truth: You may have an infant son who grows up to crave sweets, but this type of craving never happens in utero. If you crave a specific food in pregnancy, it is probably because you are listening to your hormones rather than predicting the gender of your baby.
Old Wives' Tale 6: The Chinese Calendar
There is a myth that looking at the Chines Lunar Calendar can help you find out if you are having a boy or a girl. The calendar is based on how old the mother was at the time of conception and the month in which the baby was conceived.
Truth: This particular calendar was found in a centuries' old Royal Chinese tomb and many people believe it is accurate. According to Canadian scientists, the Chinese Lunar Calendar predicts the gender of the baby only about 50 percent of the time, the same as guessing.
Here are more old wives' tales about gender. If you are interested in it, click and watch it.
Three Reliable Methods to Find Your Baby's Gender
As the old wives' tale,like no morning sickness boy or girl, is just a myth, you should look at some more reliable ways of determining the baby's sex. Here are some good ways:
- Ultrasound. At about 18-20 weeks' gestation, you can have an ultrasound which will show the genitalia of your baby. Before this time, the genitals look too similar and the test will not be accurate. After 18-20 weeks along, the genitals can be easily seen in the examination.
- Genetic Tests. There are highly accurate tests you can have that will use genetics to identify whether or not you are having a boy or a girl. These tests include the amniocentesis and the chorionic villus sampling test (CVS). These are done whenever there is suspicion of a chromosome abnormality, such as Tay Sach's disease or cystic fibrosis.
- Blood Test. Doctors can use a simple test of the mother's blood to determine the gender of the baby. If the blood in the mother contains any evidence of a male chromosome in it, it means she is having a boy.