My great-grandmother was a lay midwife and delivered many babies. She said she could “tell” if a baby was a boy or a girl and claimed that her methods were incredibly accurate. Since I’ve had an ultrasound which made it very clear that our child is a boy, I thought I’d evaluate some of the tales I’ve heard to see how true they are.

Chinese Gender Chart
I found that there are actually several variations circulating. Most of the variations accurately predicted that our child was a boy.

Morning Sickness Method
Supposedly, you have more intense morning sickness if you are carrying a girl. My morning sickness is not as intense as it was with my girls, but yet, it is there and is more intense than it was with my first son. I don’t know what this means actually, except that I have morning sickness which still affects me 5 months into my pregnancy.

Heartbeat Method
According to this tale, if a child has a slow heartbeat, it’s a boy. If it has a fast heartbeat, it is a girl. The cut off is supposedly around 140. This child has a heartbeat of 150 consistently, so this myth didn’t accurately predict the gender of our child this pregnancy.

Out In Front Or All Around?
According to this myth, you can tell the gender of your child based upon how you are “carrying” the child. If you gain weight all over, your child is a girl. If your weight gain is all “out in front”, it’s a boy. For me, this has been true.

For this pregnancy, half of the myths of listed accurately predicted the gender of our child; half did not. This tells me that I had a 50/50 chance of guessing the gender of our child correctly! While the myths may not be of any real help in enlightening you as to your child’s gender, they are a fun way to pass time while waiting for your bundle of joy to show up.

My husband and I are having fun “guessing” the gender of our child that is due in August.  We’ve checked the Chinese Birth Chart, and we’ve pondered our child’s heart rate. We’ve looked at the way I’m “carrying”–which is all out in the front.  Does that mean it’s a boy?

I’ve also looked at my diet and my cravings to see if I could ascertain our child’s gender that way.  I’ve considered a few other “old wives’ tales” that my great grandmother told me about in an effort to discover the gender of our child.  My great grandmother was a lay midwife and had 6 of her own children, so she should have known a thing or two about babies!  I think anyway….

Yet, I am still uncertain as to the gender of our child.  I know–all that effort for what? I suppose it makes the pregnancy go faster?

Last night, my aunt asked me how active our child is in utero.  At this stage, I mostly feel flutters, so I can’t quite gauge it’s activity.  My aunt claims that her male children were more active in utero than her female children.  I suppose this held true for my pregnancies too; my son was more active than my daughters.

Have you noticed a difference in the activity level during your pregnancy between your male and female children? Do you think you can use this to determine gender?

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?