I first heard this “myth” from my midwife while expecting one of my children. The heart rate was 155 beats per minute and she accurately predicted I was having a female child.

Being the curious type, I asked her for more information. If the heart rate is over 145 beats per minute she said, it most almost always indicated a girl. If it was under 145 beats per minute, it was a boy. You don’t say! It seemed a little crazy to me, but you know, this method did accurately predict the sexes of my children, and also my sister’s child.

For my girls, they all had heartbeats of over 150 beats per minute in utero. My son had a heartbeat of 130 beats per minute or around there most of the time. I say most of the time, because his heart rate(just like his sister’s heart rates) did increase with age. Therefore, I’d say from my experience, that the early heart rates should be used as a predictor if you are interested in trying out this method.

Of course, you won’t really know with 100% certainty until after the birth of you child, so it’s best to NOT get your hopes up. I’ve known people who really desired one gender over the other and were crushed when they discovered that the child they were carrying may not be the gender they wanted.

My sister has two children and was hoping for a male child with each pregnancy. As we were both pregnant at the same time with our 2nd and 5th children respectively, we decided to have some fun and try to figure out the gender of our unborn babies using many of the old wive’s tales we had heard during our childhood. Her child had a heartbeat of 160 beats per minute–a girl–according to this myth. My child had a heartbeat of 130 beats per minute–a boy. It should be noted that as they aged, her child’s heartbeat dropped, and my child’s heartbeat increased. She refused to accept anything other than the reality of a male child, and this caused her great stress and anxiety during her pregnancy.

Our children were born one month and one day apart last year. Her child was a girl and my child was a boy. I joke with her that it took me four girls to get that boy (truly, I didn’t have five children for that reason I assure you) and she should keep trying! She was not amused.

Have you ever used this method to determine if your baby was a boy or a girl? Did it work for you?

It’s the first question everyone asks pregnant women, to the point most expectant mamas consider getting a t-shirt printed with “boy”, “girl” or “don’t know” on the bump.

Kudos to all the mamas who have the patience to wait and get a surprise, but most of us want to know straight away if it’s a boy or a girl!

So how can you find out? And how reliable are the different methods? Let’s run down the ways you can tell.

Ultrasound. This is how most moms find out the gender. At 20 weeks, it’s about 85-95% accurate, depending on the skill of the ultrasound technician. A prediction of a boy is more accurate than a prediction of a girl. Seeing a penis is a pretty good bet it’s a boy, but not seeing a penis doesn’t mean it’s a girl – baby could have his/her legs closed, or the cord could be in the way.

To get the best chance of the technician being able to tell you if it’s a boy or girl, baby needs to be awake and moving about, not curled up asleep. Have your ultrasound just after your breakfast or lunch. Food increases your blood sugar which usually wakes baby up.

If you absolutely have to be certain about the gender, because you just have to order that pink or blue crib set, consider having a second ultrasound at one of those commercial 3D/4D ultrasound places to confirm.

Amniocentesis Depending on your age, on the result of other tests, and any medical conditions you have, your obstetrician may recommend amniocentesis. It’s a draw of amniotic fluid from the uterus which will be tested for various markers. In addition to other results from the test, it will tell you with over 99% certainty whether baby is a boy or a girl. Amniocentesis is a risky procedure and not to be done just to find out gender, but if your doctor does want to do this test, you can find out baby’s gender for sure.

Mother’s Instinct Are you having boy dreams? Are you convinced you are having a girl? Well, you are probably right. Moms who guess their baby’s gender are right 65% of the time, and dads who guess are right 50% of the time.

Chinese Birth Chart You know, the one that predicts gender based on mom’s age and month of conception. A word to describe this – bogus. I’ve heard so many moms swear by this, even going so far to plan the month of their baby’s conception to get their desired gender. Think about it – if babies’ genders were organized so neatly by month, wouldn’t everyone be conceiving their kids this way?

Home Tests The Intelligender kit is a home test where you add your pee to a jar of chemicals, and watch for it to change color. Orange means a girl, green means a boy, any time after 10 weeks gestation, and all for $30. Their website claims “up to 90% accuracy”. Key words are “Up To” or in other words, “half right” counts as “up to 90%”.

Googling “intelligender” brings up lots of cross moms who got the wrong results, but the Intelligender website has lots of testimonials from happy moms. So who knows? If you have a spare $30 and don’t take the results too seriously, it might be worth a go.

Lab Tests Baby Gender Mentor sells a test for $250 which claims to be “highly accurate” in determining the gender of a baby from a sample of the mother’s blood.

Apparently a small amount of the baby’s DNA is present in mom’s blood, and the lab detects if it has XY or XX chromosomes, for a boy or a girl.. Moms send a blood sample to a lab, and get the results within 48 hours. The company used to claim the results were “over 99.9%” accurate, but has since removed these claims from it’s website after legal action from several mothers who got the wrong results. I’d say give this one a miss.

Old Wives Tales. Spinning your wedding ring over your bump. Morning sickness for boys. Or is it morning sickness for girls? Bump out front, it’s a boy, wide load, it’s a girl. Peeing in Drano to see it change color. Craving for sweet things, it’s a girl, craving sour food, it’s a boy. And many, many more. All guaranteed to be right 50% of the time, but lots of fun, at baby showers, and especially for moms who don’t know or want a surprise. (But please, mamas, don’t pee in Drano.)

What are your favorite old wives tales? were they right for you?