Predict your Baby’s Gender with Old Wives’ Tales
We live in an age of instant everything, and it deprives us of a lot of mystery that was enjoyed in previous times. Take baby genders, for instance. In the days before ultrasounds, the gender was anybody’s guess, which made everything very mysterious.
What’s a Gender Reveal?
Nowadays, of course, “gender reveals” are a new phenomenon, in which a big to-do is made of revealing the gender of the baby or babies to be born. For example, the entire family comes over and gathers around as balloons with blue or pink confetti are popped, to show the baby’s gender. Sometimes family and friends learn at a gender reveal that more than one baby is expected—such as by cutting into both blue cake and pink cake under white icing.
It’s debatable whether gender reveals are annoying or fun, but there’s no question it’s titillating when you ask your doctor and his staff not to tell you what an ultrasound has revealed about gender. To make an “educated guess,” check out the following tips or myths for guessing a baby’s gender.
Common Signs of an Unborn Baby’s Gender
The predictors that follow are only based on the science of Old Wives’ Tales, which is arguably no science at all. Still, the following are bound to have some level of convincing accuracy or they would have outgrown their status as mere superstition…right?:
- You’re carrying a baby boy if the fetal heart rate is below 140 beats per minute. Science says the heart rate has nothing to do with a baby’s sex, based on studies that found no connection between gender and heart rate. Doctors have been known to predict gender based on heart rate, however.
- If you’re carrying the baby in your belly, expect a boy. If you’re carrying the baby in your hips, expect a girl.
- The line of pigmentation on the belly of a pregnant woman is the “linea nigra.” According to Old Wives’ Tales, you are having a girl if the linea nigra runs up only to the belly button. You’re having a boy if it runs up past the belly button and in the direction of the ribs.
- Chinese gender predictor charts, also known as the Chinese birth calendar, predict\ a baby’s gender based on the mother’s age and the month in which the baby was conceived.
- Attach a ring to a thread and lie down. Get someone to hold the ring dangling over your belly. If the ring moves like a pendulum, back and forth, you’re having a boy. Expect a girl, however, if it swings in a circular motion.
Enjoy Your Baby!
All babies are wonderful. It doesn’t matter whether you have a boy, a girl, both, or one of each. Babies are a joy, and that’s a big reason it’s so fun to guess the gender! It does, of course, help to decorate the nursery appropriately, if you want a gender-themed room to rock your baby in. Congratulations on your baby. May we recommend a funny baby onesie in a generic color?
