Baby Gender Prediction And Baby Gender Selection Methods
Written by Pregnancy Tips on November 15th, 2009Many methods available for baby gender prediction or selection
There was a time when wise women, grandmothers and even astrologers claimed they could predict a baby’s gender. These days, it’s doctors who are the experts in baby gender prediction or selection, and methods have never been more accurate.
Medical studies show that around 30 percent of new parents still want to be surprised by their baby’s gender. The remaining 70 percent of parents will jump at the chance to learn a baby’s gender before birth.
Many times there are valid medical reasons for wanting to know a baby’s gender in advance of birth. Certain genetic diseases, such as hemophilia, are sex-linked. For instance, the genes for hemophilia may be carried by the mother without visible effect, but the males in the family can experience the full-blown disease. History has shown how devastating this can be. Part of Russian society’s resentment of its imperial family, the Romanoffs, stemmed from the influence wielded by the monk Rasputin over the Tsar and Tsarina, Nicholas and Alexandra, whose son Alexei suffered from hemophilia.
Thankfully, most parents don’t have to worry about such an unhappy family medical history. They simply want to know the gender of their baby so that they can prepare name, clothes, and nursery well in advance.
The most common way to detect a baby’s gender today is through an ultrasound scan. This is a relatively simple, non-invasive test performed at the 12th week of pregnancy or later. The ultrasound machine emits high frequency waves that enable a doctor or technician to get a picture of the fetus inside the uterus. If the test can get a clear view, this test can predict a baby’s gender with 99 percent accuracy.
Another method used to determine a fetus’s gender is amniocentesis, although this is a test that’s normally used to look for disease or fetal abnormality. In this case, a sample of the amniotic fluid – the “water” in which the baby floats inside the placenta – is withdrawn through the mother’s abdomen using a needle. This sample is then tested for illness or defect and to determine the baby’s sex if the parents request it. However, amniocentesis can be a more hazardous test, because it is invasive; it pokes a hole in the placenta in order to extract the sample and bacteria can enter via this opening, leading to an infection. Sometimes an amniocentesis can result in a miscarriage, which is why obstetricians tend to resist this test for gender prediction unless there’s also a valid medical reason for performing it.
Another test from which a baby’s gender can be determine is known as Chorionic villus sampling (CVS). This is a test for genetic disorders that captures a small sample of the placental sac where the baby is developing. The baby’s gender can be determined in a secondary way from this test as well.
The psychological effects of learning a baby’s gender in advance can be tremendous for some people. Some people who have several sons and dearly want a daughter may be dismayed if they find their coming baby is another boy. There are also families in which large inheritances still only pass to boys instead of to children of either or both genders. If you are parents-to-be face none of these pressures, then by all means get the doctor to tell you the baby’s gender.
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