In today’s world, it’s rare that expectant parents won’t know the gender of their child after they get into the midpoint or so of pregnancy. Even friends and relatives wait with baited breath to find out whether they should be buying blue or pink wrapping paper.

Spreading the information as to the gender of your baby can be casual, of course. Tell one person and you can just about bet that everyone in your circle of friends and family is going to know within a week (probably less than that).

However, one of the more interesting ways expectant parents are choosing to spread the word is by throwing a party. The Gender-Reveal party is a gathering where you invite friends and family to gather together and announce it all at once.

Being surprised

There are even ways you can participate in the excitement of the gender-reveal party. Ask the ultrasound technician to include the famous fetal ultrasound that reveals the baby’s gender (along with a note for any confusion) in an envelope. Rather than opening the envelope, take it to your neighborhood bakery and ask them to bake a cake dyed either pink or blue for a girl or for a boy.

Make sure the bakery uses vanilla icing (not dyed). When you cut into the cake, with all of your friends and family around you, you’ll know whether your’re having a boy or a girl.

A chance to celebrate

The Gender-Reveal party is a good excuse to celebrate, anyways. Typically, you’re going to know your baby’s gender at the 20-week ultrasound. You’ve made it through that first trimester, which can be very difficult with morning sickness, emotional changes, and other symptoms. Yet you’re not yet into the third trimester with its discomfort and rapidly-growing belly. That alone is reason to celebrate.

The gender-reveal party movement is just getting started. As time goes on, we can expect to see more and more products designed for these parties, such as decorations, confections, and more. 

Today, there are a variety of gender prediction tests that expecting parents might use to try to determine their baby’s sex before the baby is born. Some of these gender prediction tests aren’t based on science, and are really meant for fun. Other tests are pretty accurate, and a good way to determine your baby’s gender.

For example, the Drano test is one that seems to be scientific but really isn’t. There’s no basis to suggest it works. For the Drano test, a woman mixes urine with crystal Drano. If the Drano turns one color, her baby is supposed to be a boy. If the Drano turns a different color, it’s supposed to be a girl. As a matter of fact, depending on who you ask, the same color might mean a boy for one or a girl for someone else.

Another test that’s more interesting and fun is the wedding ring gender prediction test. For this test, someone needs to dangle the woman’s wedding ring over her pregnant belly. If the ring swings around in circles, it’s going to be a girl. If it goes back and forth like a pendulum, it will be a boy.

The most completely accurate gender test would be with amniocentesis. Amniocentesis can be dangerous for your baby, although the risks are fairly low. For the most part, amniocentesis isn’t done for the purposes of baby gender prediction.

An ultrasound is probably how you will actually predict your baby’s gender. After around 20 weeks of pregnancy, ultrasounds are about 90% reliable. An ultrasound tech or a doctor can identify the developing genitals, and let you know whether it’s a boy or a girl.

There are home gender prediction tests, as well. How well these work isn’t certain. Many of the manufacturers offer a money-back guarantee. If your child winds up being the other gender, you can get a refund. Even if the tests don’t work, there’s a 50% chance they will be correct, of course. 

It’s happened to many couples: you start a family, become pregnant, and have a child. That child is the most precious thing in your world, no matter whether it’s a boy or a girl. As time goes on, you decide to have another child. This time, you’re hoping for the opposite. If you have a boy, you want to add a girl to the family, or if you have a girl, you want to add a boy.

When you get to that 20-week ultrasound appointment, you can’t wait to hear which it will be. When you find out it’s the same as your other child, your heart sinks a little bit.

Sure, you’re still happy to be pregnant. Yes, you’re going to love that second child just as much as you love your first child. Still, you sometimes wish you could have one of each.

By the time you get to the third child, you really start thinking hard about gender. You do some reading, and find out that having sex at certain times and in certain ways might maximize your odds of conceiving one gender or the other.

So, you try – and you fail. Baby number three, while precious, is the same gender as the other two.

There’s nothing wrong with feeling disappointment. It’s normal and natural. It doesn’t make you a bad parent. It doesn’t mean you’re going to resent the child because they’re not the gender you hoped for.

What it does mean is that you probably need to talk through these feelings. Your partner is a good place to start, but he’s probably feeling some of the same emotions. You might even think about talking to a therapist, as it can be a difficult time.

You need to learn to accept the emotions that come. Don’t feel guilty at sadness or disappointment. But instead you need to bring yourself to the point of acceptance, and remember just how much you truly love your other children. Having one more boy or one more girl isn’t going to change that.

Throughout human history, people have tried to determine the gender of their baby. This isn’t a new concept brought on by modern technology. In addition to one of the most famous types of gender prediction – the Chinese gender prediction chart – there are many historical examples of how people tried to determine their baby’s gender.

For example, in ancient Greece men believed that they could conceive a son if they were to try to conceive while lying on the right side. We know today that this is false, of course. Yet, there are some theories – such as the Shettles method – that attempt to use sexual position during conception to the best possible advantage for getting either a boy or a girl.

In the 1700s in France, me would tie off their left testicle, in the belief that doing so would help them to conceive a child. The theory was that girls were produced by sperm from the left testicle, and that boys were produced from the right. Thus, preventing sperm from the left testicle would result in a boy.

Natural methods

There are some natural methods of conception that may increase the likelihood of conceiving one gender or the other. For example, sperm that produce boys tend to die off quicker than sperm that produce girls. Having sex during ovulation or the day before might increase your chances of conceiving a boy, while having sex three or four days before ovulation might increase your odds of conceiving a girl.

Fertility medicine

For couples who are getting fertility treatments, there may be other options. Some fertility doctors can “spin” out the sperm, setting aside only those sperm that will produce a specific gender. These methods aren’t 100% accurate, but they are certainly more reliable (and safer) than tying off the man’s left testicle.

It’s not uncommon to want to know your baby’s gender, even before you hit that 20-week ultrasound where you will usually find out.

So many myths surround gender prediction that it’s often difficult to discern the real from the surreal.  Of all the pregnancy myths, gender prediction myths are probably the most encountered. The most common of these rely on fetal heart rate to predict whether the baby will be a boy or a girl.

There are some expectant mothers who declare that a heart rate of 140 beats per minute indicates a girl; others swear that the cut-off is the 150 mark. The truth of the matter is that a normal fetal heart rate fluctuates between 120 to 160 beats per minutes. In fact, if measure the fetal heart rate at ten minute intervals during an hour, you might just get six different heart rates, some below 140 beats and others below 140.

This variation has more to do with the developing fetal brain than the genitalia (although some would argue that the male brain and genitalia are one in the same.) The fetus’ brain is controlled by the sympathetic nervous system (the flight or fight response) and the parasympathetic system (relaxation.) As the fetus develops, these two systems engage in a power struggle. The heart rate speeds up when stimulated by the sympathetic system, and slows down when controlled by the parasympathetic response. We usually listen to the fetal heart for about ten to thirty seconds at a time in the office. If the baby is moving, the rate may be higher than if it were sleeping. 

This variation also applies to men and women, boys and girls, none of whom have different heart rates based on gender. If someone stood behind a curtain, for instance, and I told you that person’s heart rate, you would not be able to determine if that person were male or female.  The same holds true for an unborn baby.  Thus, science again rears its materialistic head and claims this myth is simply not true.  The wonderful thing to remember is that your baby does not easily fit into some descriptive box, and he or she is as individual as you are.

As long as people have been having babies, they have been making guesses as to the gender of their baby. Gender prediction is, in some respects, probably one of the oldest practices known to humankind. As science has progressed, we have become more and more able to make an accurate gender prediction, as well. Still, there are many myths that have grown up around the idea of predicting your baby’s gender.
Many of the myths about gender prediction have to do with old wives’ tales. For example, one old wives’ tale says that if you are craving sweets during your pregnancy, you will have a girl, whereas if you are craving sour foods like pickles, you will be having a boy. While your cravings aren’t truly related to your baby’s gender, this old wives’ tale does make one point that has been scientifically proven: pregnant women will often have cravings.

There are other myths about gender prediction that are not as obvious as the old wives’ tales. For example, there was a time when even the medical community thought that a fetal heart rate over 140 meant that you were going to have a girl. It has been demonstrated in the last couple of decades, however, that this is not necessarily the case, and that the link between fetal heart rate and your baby’s gender is a myth.

There are also myths about gender prediction that sound like they might be scientific, but actually are not. The Drano test is one of these. This test proposes to predict your baby’s gender by mixing your urine with Drano, and examining the results. While it sounds almost scientific, the fact of the matter is that there is nothing in your urine that will interact with the Drano to accurately predict gender.

Ultimately, the best methods of gender prediction tend to be ultrasounds and genetic testing. An ultrasound is, of course, only as reliable as the ultrasound equipment and the technician, but ultrasounds still have a decent gender prediction success rate. Genetic sampling is the most accurate, but generally not done solely for gender prediction as there are certain risks involved in the procedures.

The fact of the matter is that the advances that we have made in terms of medical science in the last century is staggering. Yet, some of those advances can, in many ways, be a little bit frightening. In some ways, we seem to be tinkering with things that it just doesn’t seem natural to tinker with. Sometimes, we use science to change things or to make things happen a certain way that, in the grand scheme of things, isn’t really necessary or even ethical. In other cases, there are perfectly natural ways to perform some tasks that we readily give over to medicine. In terms of trying to conceive, we know that we can select our baby’s gender during In Vitro Fertilization. However, most of us don’t have the capacity or the desire to spend tens of thousands of dollars on IVF just to select our baby’s gender.
Fortunately, there may be natural ways to select your baby’s gender. While natural ways to select your baby’s gender may not have been proven in clinical studies to be effective, many women nevertheless have experienced some degree or another of success in selecting their baby’s gender through these means.

Some of the most common natural ways to select your baby’s gender have to do with the timing of intercourse. Specifically, they have to do with the timing of intercourse as it relates to the timing of ovulation. It is thought that if you have intercourse 2 and a half or more days before ovulating, you are more likely to have a girl, whereas if you have intercourse less than 2 and a half days before ovulating, you are more likely to have a boy. In addition, you can select your baby’s gender naturally by doing certain things both before and during intercourse to make it more likely that you will have a certain gender.

Most of these natural ways to select your baby’s gender are based on some relatively solid scientific information, such as the difference between “boy” sperm and “girl” sperm. Using natural methods of selecting your baby’s gender may not be as reliable as medical methods in the long run, but they are certainly less complicated, and less expensive as well.

Predicting your baby’s gender with old wives’ tales is not the most scientific or the most reliable method for predicting your baby’s gender. However, it can be the most fun way to go about predicting your baby’s gender! If your health care provider has not yet been able to determine whether you are going to have a boy or a girl, why not consider some of the old wives’ tales below?
One of the old wives’ tales for predicting your baby’s gender has to do with the way that you are carrying your baby. In this particular old wives’ tale, if you are carrying your baby low, it is predicted that your baby’s gender will be male. If you are carrying high, then, it is predicted that your baby’s gender will be female. Of course, in reality, the way that you are carrying your baby has nothing to do with your baby’s gender, but rather the muscle and tone of your uterus.

The next old wives’ tale that can be used to predict your baby’s gender is cravings. It is said that the particular food cravings you have are caused by the gender of your baby. So, craving chocolate or other sweets during pregnancy would mean that you are going to have a boy, whereas if you crave sour things like lemons your will have a boy. Of course, pregnancy cravings have more to do, in reality, with a combination of nutritional needs and psychological factors.

Another old wives’ tale uses your husband’s weight gain to predict your baby’s gender. If your husband gains weight, you will be having a girl. If he doesn’t gain weight, you’ll be having a boy.

Some old wives’ tales used for predicting your baby’s gender may even have been thought to be scientific at one time. For example, it was thought that your baby’s heartbeat could be used to predict your baby’s gender. It was thought that a heart rate on the higher end meant a girl, and at the lower end it meant a boy. Medical research has proved this one to be an old wives’ tale, as well.

The Shettles method of selecting your baby’s gender has been around for about the past twenty-five years. Proponents of the Shettles method suggest that it has proven to be extremely successful. When the Shettles method is used correctly, it is thought to be successful in about three quarters of cases. There has been some research, while not entirely conclusive, that suggests that it may be even more successful than that. These researchers suggest that the Shettles method is closer to 90% successful at selecting your baby’s gender.
Having said all of that, it is important to understand what exactly goes into the Shettles method of selecting your baby’s gender. The method has many components that need to be followed in order to be successful. While the hallmark of the Shettles method is most certainly the timing of intercourse in relation to the timing of ovulation, the other components of the Shettles method are important if the method is going to be successful at selecting your baby’s gender.

If, for example, you only follow the intercourse-ovulation timing component of selecting your baby’s gender, you are not going to be as successful if you follow the other components. If you want to have a girl, for example, the Shettles method indicates that penetration must be shallow. Intercourse should be in the missionary position, which will put the sperm closer to the entrance of the vagina, which is a more acidic, and will work against the “boy” sperm. In addition, successfully using the Shettles method to select your baby’s gender means that you should not have an orgasm during intercourse if you want to conceive a girl, as the orgasm may produce a variety of substances that would favor the “boy” sperm.

Ultimately, the Shettles method of selecting your baby’s gender will probably be as successful or even more successful as other methods, apart from an IVF situation where the sperm are actually separated between the “boy” and the “girl” sperm, and then the preferred sperm is used in the IVF procedure.

The modern age is an interesting time, in terms of ethics. The fact of the matter is that advances in science, especially in the medical field, create a variety of ethical questions that have not been encountered in the past. One of the areas of controversy has surrounded the issue of gender selection, and whether or not gender selection is ethical. Your answer to the question of whether gender selection is ethical will vary based on your religious beliefs, your background, and your opinions about other issues, as well.

Some consider gender selection ethical in all cases. They view the advances in medicine to be useful for any number of purposes, including such relatively mundane purposes as choosing to have a child of a specific gender. The reasoning for wanting a child of a specific gender is irrelevant, they argue. The fact that the science is available means that it ought to be used.

There are some that argue that gender selection is ethical in certain cases. For example, if a family has a history of same-sex diseases that are hereditary, it may seem more humane to spare a child the risk of having this genetic disease by selecting the gender. Those that support this position argue that, at least in this case, gender selection is not only ethical, but that, given the opportunity, not selecting the gender would actually be unethical.

There are those that argue that gender selection is, inherently, unethical. They argue that gender selection may be used for sexist purposes, for example. They suggest that a society that prefers to have male children might wind up having a disproportionate number of men, and may even wind up seeing women as a failed result. They also may argue that genetic manipulation of any sort is, by its very nature, against the laws of ethics. They may suggest that it reeks of the genetic experiments conducted under the Nazis, for example.

Carefully weighing the question of whether gender selection is ethical is an important exercise, especially for couples to whom it is a choice because of needing In Vitro Fertilization.