From the moment the pregnancy test turns positive the next question on everyone’s lips is will it be a boy or a girl. With several long months to wait, curiosity naturally takes over and the guessing games begin.
Expectant mums can distract themselves for a while planning the nursery, shopping for baby bits and marvelling at their growing bump. And picking out names for both boys and girls can also be fun but let’s face it: knowing the baby’s gender sooner rather than later is what most prospective parents think about.
At least with regular ultrasound scans mothers-to-be have the luxury of discovering the sex at their 20-week check-up if not earlier. Imagine what it was like for women pregnant before the advent of scans who had to wait the whole nine months to discover what gender their baby was!
It’s no wonder that people through the ages have come up with some inventive ways of guessing. Sure, they’re not as accurate as a scan from your doctor but they are a bit of fun.
According to old wives’ tales if you crave meat, cheese and salty foods it’s a boy, if you prefer sugar and spice (and all things nice) it’ll be a girl. The Mayans relied on calendars and basic maths to work it out – if the age you are when you conceive and the year it happens are both odd or even then it’s a girl. If one is odd and one is even it’s a boy.
If dad is packing on the pounds too it could be a girl though quite how dad gaining weight is related we’re not quite sure! Some cultures believe if dad is feeling nauseous as well it’s a boy.
For keen gardeners out there, sow some corn and pee on it. Yes, really. If the ears grow black you’re allegedly having a boy but if they stay yellow, it’s likely a girl. Either way, probably best not to eat the corn.
And for a seriously old school gender test try hanging your granny’s wedding ring over your belly and see which way it turns – circles for a girl, back and forth for a boy.
But there’s one nation who went a step further. The ancient Chinese created a legendary gender predictor chart which, it was believed would accurately predict your baby’s sex.
The Chinese Gender Predictor Chart
According to folklore, this chart was discovered buried in a royal tomb more than 700 years ago. It relies upon the lunar age of the mother when she fell pregnant and the Chinese lunar month when conception took place. It encompasses different Chinese beliefs around time, the elements and Ying and Yang.
So How Does It Work?
You’ll need a copy of the chart which will pop up when you Google it, and then you need to calculate the following:
The mother’s lunar age (her actual age +1 when she conceived)
The estimated month of conception
Cross reference on the chart
But Is It Really That Accurate?
Well, like any non-scientific method you’re going to be right 50% of the time anyway! Proponents of the chart claim it is 93-99% accurate but one US study of more than 38,000 deliveries found it was no more superior than a simple coin toss.
So, there you have it. While it might be an amusing way to guess what you’re having, at Suresign we recommend that if you really want to know your baby’s gender then wait until your 20-week scan and a far more reliable interpretation of the results.
In the meantime, if you’re trying to conceive or think you might be pregnant you can use one of our ovulation predictor kits and pregnancy tests to get you (really accurate) results.
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