There are many misconceptions when it comes to miscarriage. Many women, for example, feel a tremendous amount of guilt about the miscarriage. They worry that there is something that they could have done differently. If only she had recognized the signs of miscarriage sooner. If only she hadn’t engaged in exercise. If only her diet had been better. It is easy for a woman who has gone through a miscarriage to blame herself. In most cases, however, miscarriage has little or nothing to do with what the mom did; rather, it was caused by something else, such as a genetic abnormality of the fetus.
It is normal to try to find rational explanations for events, like miscarriages, that don’t always have an immediate explanation. Because of this, however, many unproven and unscientific reasons for miscarriage have surfaced over the years. One of these theories suggests that a woman may have difficulty carrying a certain gender to term, and that it is impossible for them to have a baby that is one gender or another.
Research has not demonstrated any truth to this idea. In over two thirds of cases, a miscarriage is caused by a fetal abnormality. Typically, this is some sort of chromosomal problem with the fetus, where it is not developing the correct genetic structure. In other cases, miscarriage is related to chronic diseases, such as diabetes or thyroid problems. When combined with the relatively few lifestyle related causes of miscarriage, such as smoking, more than 9 out of 10 miscarriages can be accounted for. There are very few miscarriages that cannot be attributed to one of these causes. Gender does not appear to be a factor in miscarriage at all.
It is also relatively common for someone who has had a child of one gender for their next child to be of the same gender. In around 60% of cases, if you have one gender, your next baby will be of the same gender, regardless of whether or not you had a miscarriage in between. It is understandable the prevalence of having subsequent babies of the same gender would lead some people to connect miscarriage with gender, but it just does not appear to be the case in terms of the research that has been done.