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Gender Guessing

Myths for Predicting a Baby's Sex

By Katherine Bontrager

As for the differing opinions on how a mother's changing face hints at the baby growing inside, Petrini says that every women gains weight differently during pregnancy and every woman experiences different skin changes. "If people tell you that because your face is round and rosy you're having a girl, they might be right, but it's just as likely that they're wrong!" she says.

The popular Chinese Lunar Calendar was taken from a Royal tomb near Peking, China, says Petrini. "The original copy is kept in the Institute of Science of Peking," she says. "The accuracy of the chart has been proved by thousands of people and is believed to be 99 percent accurate. By reckoning, you follow a line drawn from the figure representing the woman's age to a line drawn from the month the baby is conceived. For instance, if the woman is 27 years old and her baby is conceived in January then her baby will be a girl."

"There is so much we don't know about pregnancy and the growing baby," says Joyce King, a nurse-midwife and clinical assistant professor at the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing at Emory University in Atlanta, Ga. "Much is still a mystery. But the theories on how you carry your baby, fetal heartbeat counts, dangling rings, etc., are all myths. Although, it is kind of fun to play around and make predictions."

King says an ultrasound is really the most reliable way to predict a baby's gender. "But the accuracy of an ultrasound may depend on the gestational age of the baby, the baby's position and even fetal movement during the ultrasound," she says.

And as for the variety of other tales? "Remember, there's a 50/50 chance of being correct with any of the theories on gender prediction!" says King.

Want to see more?

• Pink and Blue: Does Gender Affect Your Parenting Style?
• Assisted Sex Selection: High-Tech Ways to Choose Your Baby's Gender
• Modern Pregnancy: Debunking the "New" Myths
• Talk about it!