When it comes pregnant women, they themselves start to dream about their baby’ sex right after the pregnancy test.
How can we predict a baby’s gender? Some say we can do it through the baby bumps; some listen to old wives’ tales; some guess through weight gain; some predict by dangling a wedding ring over the belly, while others assume it through the shape of the belly or even the belly size.
This article is dedicated to pregnant women who are restless to find out the gender of babies and are using different tricks to predict it. Let’s get right into it.
Baby Girl Belly vs Baby Boy Belly
We all get super excited right after hearing that someone is pregnant. We then start playing games to predict the gender of the baby.
Friends and family check weight gain in gatherings, colleagues make their guesses at the office, while grandmothers decide the gender of the baby by just looking at the shape of the belly of the pregnant woman. The debate of baby girl belly vs baby boy belly is never-ending.
While people make their predictions, it is difficult for you to get a 100% surety of what proofs other people present to prove their theory of predicting the gender of the baby is right or not. Maybe it’s just another old wives’ tale.
Old Myths About Pregnancy That People Still Believe
In order to predict whether the gender of the baby is a boy or a girl during pregnancy, the only guaranteed way is by asking the ultrasound technician.
For your first ultrasound, however, you need to be far along in your pregnancy since then only the genitals of the baby, which is a vagina for a baby girl and a penis for a baby boy, are visible on the monitor.
There exists another way which predicts the baby’s sex to very high accuracy is through a blood test. Any other method is a plain fairy tale.
Ways To Find The Baby’s Gender
Belly Shape of The Pregnant Women
As per stories and lore, you can differentiate between baby boys and baby girls based on how the pregnant belly is shaped. If you are carrying a baby boy, your pregnant belly will be higher and pretty tight as well. If it is a baby girl, however, the belly will be lower and widely spread.
How much truth is in this theory that carrying a baby girl will spread your belly bump during pregnancy? Absolutely none.
In reality, if you are carrying high or how the belly is shaped has more to do with your height instead of the baby’s gender prediction.
Tall women, in general, have more space above their pubic bone for the bump to appear. As a result, taller women tend to carry their baby higher, and their bump is relatively round and well-defined.
On the other hand, shorter women have less room above their pubic bone. Due to this, the baby bump is more widely distributed in the midsection during pregnancy. This results in them to carry low. It might also be due to the baby swimming weirdly in the amniotic fluid or transverse lie.
Moreover, the belly shape during pregnancy also depends on if it’s your first time being pregnant or not. For the first pregnancy, the abdominal wall will not have stretch marks. You will have tight abdominal muscles, giving you a higher and less loose bump on the belly.
Lastly, your fitness level plays a role in the belly shape as well. If you have tighter abdominal muscles which never had to stretch to accommodate a baby bump, carry it higher.
Dark Areolas
While women are in their pregnancy, their pregnancy hormones tend to change some of their bodies either temporarily or even permanently. This is a major reason why some the women’s belly shape changes, and this is based on science and biology.
If your nipples, known as areolas, darken during your pregnancy, then you are carrying a boy; if they stay the same as before, you will give birth to a girl. In reality, this all is a hoax.
A Dark Line on The Pregnant Belly
Some women get a dark line, also called a linea nigra, during pregnancy. It is said that if this line which is naturally caused by hormones, travels along the belly and stops right above the belly button, it is a baby boy belly.
On the other hand, a pregnant woman has a baby girl belly if this line does not travel much and stops well before reaching the belly button.
In reality, however, this has no basis in the factual and scientific world. If you have a linea nigra, people are likely to make their suggestions on the sex of your baby.
A Heart Rate of 180 at 9 weeks
Checking the heart rate of your baby is used to check whether the baby to be born is a boy or girl. A baby’s heart rate is measured by a fetal doppler. You can use this equipment to measure the heart rate of your baby at various stages of pregnancy.
Typically, girls seem to have a faster heart rate, so if you are signaling a heart rate of over 140 beats per minute, as per the wives’ tales, you are going to give birth to a little girl.
As per experts, your baby’s heart rate is expected to change based on which stage of pregnancy journey you are on. So, we can say it is not a predictor of your baby’s gender.
Cold Feet
This is a strange way of guessing whether it will be a boy or girl.
During your pregnancy, if your feet are cold, then supposedly, you are going to give birth to a boy. If your feet are at room temperature and are warm as they usually are, then it is going to be a girl.
There is no reality or merit in this one, either. We all know that if we have poor circulation in our feet, we will have cool feet. So be aware if someone asks about the temperature of your feet during your third trimester.
Morning Sickness
According to a pregnancy myth, if you are carrying a girl, you are highly likely to meet with this unpleasant pregnancy symptom. However, If you don’t get nausea or any other pregnancy symptom, it means that you are carrying a boy.
This a complete fairy tale with no proof.
Food Cravings
It is a very common sight that soon-to-be moms eat lots of food, especially during their first trimester, which turns upside down completely during their third trimester.
The wives’ tale is such that if you are craving for salty and sour foods, chances are that you are going to have a baby boy. On the other hand, if you are craving for sweet foods, it’s going to be a girl.
There is absolutely no authenticity of this at all.
Your Breast Size
Amongst many pregnancy myths is this one.
Whether it is going to be a girl or a boy will be decided based not on the belly size but on the size of the breasts of the pregnant woman. If the right breast is larger than the left one, it is going to be a boy. If it goes the other way around, you are supposedly carrying a girl.
In reality, most women have differently-sized breasts. It has more to do with your dominant hand.
Chinese Prediction Chart
This is one of many old wives tales that some women would literally swear by.
This method is a pretty old Chinese way of predicting whether it will be a boy or a girl. A Chinese chart takes the age of the mother and the month of conception and gives you the exact sex the child will be.
While the odds are pretty good on this one, and many women swear by it, too, there’s are fifty per cent chance that it will actually be true.
The Wedding Ring Test
Lastly, this one requires an experiment to predict the baby’s sex. For this, you need a string and a ring. Then you will suspend it over the belly or the hand of the father-to-be.
If the ring swings in circles, the baby gender will be a girl, but if it swings in straight lines, you are expecting a boy.
Welcome The Baby With a Surprise
While all of us, especially a new mom, are curious to guess the gender of the babies, why not wait till the actual due date of the birth? There’s nothing really like a big old surprise that stuns everyone.
These myths can be a fun way to predict, but you cannot predict the sex of the baby based on these signs. So, if there’s one thing to learn, don’t buy clothes for a boy or a girl before you for sure know the gender and never compromise emotional well-being on this.
Also interesting to read:
- 40 Weeks Pregnant: A Guide for Mom-To-Be
- 39 Weeks Pregnant: Symptoms, Signs & Baby’s Development
- 35 Weeks Pregnant: A Guide to Final Stage of Pregnancy
- What Should a 24 Weeks Pregnant Women Expect
- 16 Weeks Pregnant: A Complete Guide to Middle Stage
- 26 Weeks Pregnant: A Guide to Baby’s Development
- When Does Third Trimester Start? A Guide to Fetal Development in the Last Months
- Miscarriages: What to Expect in this Traumatic Experience
- Pregnancy: What to Expect in the Second Trimester Weeks
- Weight Gain Calculator in Pregnancy: A Complete Guide
- What is Abortion? Purpose, Risks, Preparation, Recovery
- Diabetic in Pregnancy: How to Keep Baby Healthy?
