Gender Prediction and Heart Rate

By Ann Douglas

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Ann Douglas, author of The Mother of All Pregnancy Books: The Ultimate Guide to Conception, Birth and Everything in Between and The Mother of All Baby Books: The Ultimate Guide to Your Baby's First Year, is here! Read Ann's advice on everything from keeping romance alive amidst the structure and stress of baby-making to weathering the storms of morning sickness to preparing for the birth of your dreams.

The question: A friend told me that it's possible to predict my baby's sex based on the fetal heart rate. Is this true?

Ann's Answer: The myth that you're referring to says that if your baby's heart rate is under 140 beats per minute, you're having a boy, and if it's over 140 beats per minute, you're having a girl.

Although this particular myth has been kicking around for decades, there isn't much hard evidence to support it. In fact, there's only one study on the books that seems to lend any credence to the theory at all: a 1993 study at the University of Kentucky that concluded that the fetal heartbeat could be used to correctly predict the sex of 91 percent of male fetuses and 74 percent of female fetuses.

Given that every other study on the books has reached the exact opposite conclusion, I wouldn't paint the nursery pink or blue on this basis!

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About the author: Ann Douglas is a bestselling pregnancy and parenting author and mother of four. Her latest books are Sleep Solutions for Your Baby, Toddler, and Preschooler: The Ultimate No-Worry Approach for Each Age and Stage and Mealtime Solutions for Your Baby, Toddler, and Preschooler: The Ultimate No-Worry Approach for Each Age and Stage. You can find her online at www.motherofallblogs.com and read many of her columns at Pregnancy & Baby.