Many soon-to-be parents want to know whether they’re carrying a boy or a girl. Some will wait until the baby is born, while others will look to the ultrasound for the answer. Even before you can determine your baby’s gender, however, you may be tempted to look to a pregnancy gender calculator to predict if you’re having a boy or girl.
Chinese Birth Chart vs. Gender Quizzes
The two predominant gender calculators are the Chinese birth chart and gender quizzes. To determine your baby’s gender based on the Chinese birth chart, you simply find your age at the time of conception on a chart, along with the month that you conceived. It will show whether you’re having a boy or girl. If you take a gender predictor quiz, you’ll answer a series of either-or questions based on old wives’ tales.
History
According to legend, the Chinese birth chart was found by a Chinese scientist in a royal tomb over 700 years ago. The original is in the Institute of Science of Peking. Modern gender quizzes are based on a combination of old wives’ tales that state that you can determine the baby’s gender based on how you’re carrying the baby, the food that you’re craving and whether or not you have that “pregnancy glow.”
How They Work
The results of the Chinese birth chart are supposedly based on statistics on pregnancies, noting that over time, women who are a certain age tend to give birth to different genders based on the month of conception. In a gender quiz, you answer several questions about your pregnancy, each of which lends itself to a girl or boy. For example, if you crave sweet foods, you’re supposedly having a girl, but if you crave salty foods, you’re having a boy. The computer tallies the results and tells you whether you’re having a girl or boy based on the number of your answers.
Determining Gender By Timing
Another way that you might be able to guess your baby’s gender is based on the Shettles method. Parents use this technique to try to plan having a girl or boy baby. The theory is that “girl sperm” live longer, but are slow, while “boy sperm” are fast, but die quickly. If you know the dates that you had sex and the date that you ovulated, you may be able to predict your baby’s gender. Having sex on the day of ovulation or soon after is more likely to produce a boy, while having sex before ovulation is more likely to produce a girl.
Accuracy
Though these gender calculators claim to be up to 99 percent effective, you should treat them as for entertainment purposes only. The only way you’ll be able to tell whether your having a boy or girl is through the ultrasound or by waiting until your baby is born.
