Boy or girl: determining the sex of a child by heartbeat

Probably the biggest intrigue in the life of every pregnant woman has been and will be the desire to find out at all costs who lives under her heart - a girl or a boy. In addition, this question is also of a purely practical nature, because the expectant mother cannot wait to buy a dowry, and whether it will be “blue” or “pink” depends on the gender of the child.

The gender of an unborn baby is no longer a secret: at 17–20 weeks of your “interesting” situation, an ultrasound specialist will easily answer the question that concerns you. This procedure does not pose the slightest danger to the health of the fetus and allows you to closely monitor the growth characteristics of the baby at certain stages of its development. During 9 months of pregnancy, several routine ultrasound procedures are performed:

from 10 to 13 weeks - transvaginal examination;
from 20 to 22 weeks - transabdominal;
from 32 to 34 weeks - the last.

However, even in this event, “punctures” occur when a secretive or shy person turns his back to the monitor. Let's remember alternative ways to determine the sex of a baby.

How did you find out the sex of a child in the past?

Our resourceful grandmothers knew without any ultrasound whether a boy or a girl was living in the expectant mother’s belly. There were several ways to determine gender:

According to the shape of the belly. A pointed, “tucked up” belly was considered a sure sign of a boy, and its rounded shape indicated a girl.
According to the gastronomic preferences of the expectant mother. A pregnant woman expecting a daughter, as a rule, indulges in delicious things: sweet pastries, candies, fruits. With mothers of boys, everything is different: serve them pickles, meat and tart and sour dishes.
According to the metamorphoses of a pregnant woman's appearance. It was believed that the mother shared her beauty with her daughter, so the pregnant woman’s hair became dull, dark spots appeared on the body, pimples and excessive fat deposits. If the expectant mother looks so wonderful that you can’t take your eyes off her, it means she has a son under her heart.
According to how I feel. It is more difficult for a woman to bear a baby of the opposite sex, so boys “cause” toxicosis, which during pregnancy with a girl is weakly expressed or absent altogether.

Of course, all these folk tricks cannot be taken seriously. Even if in half the cases such predictions come true, it is nothing more than a coincidence, doctors say.

How does this happen

Even considering that today there are a lot of modern methods of determining gender, many still prefer the old-fashioned methods. Establishing the sex of a child by heartbeat at 12 weeks still has its supporters today.

No expensive tests or studies are needed to use this diagnostic method. It is enough to have a stethoscope - a small wooden tube with a funnel at the end, more like a pioneer bugle.

Using one of these instruments you can hear the baby's heart sounds. It is enough to apply it to the anterior abdominal wall of the pregnant woman's abdomen. If everything is fine, the doctor will hear rhythmic double knocks. When researching, the following indicators are very important:

knocking frequency;
their rhythm;
the point on the mother’s body where sound is heard best;
character of tones.

This examination is properly called fetal auscultation.

Modern methods of determining the sex of a child

Ultrasound examination is not the only procedure that can be used to “declassify” a baby in the mother’s womb. Modern diagnostic medicine offers several more effective ways to determine the sex of a child.

One of them is invasive diagnostics, during which placental cells or amniotic fluid become the material for research.
It is believed that a method based on recording the latest period of blood renewal of the future parents can provide a truthful answer to the question that is relevant for the expectant mother about the gender of her baby. Scientists once proved that male blood is renewed once every 4 years, and female blood - once every 3 years. It is logical to assume that the gender of the child should correspond to the gender of the parent, whose blood was “younger” at the time of conception.
A fairly popular, albeit unofficial, way of determining the sex of a child is the Chinese conception calendar, according to which expectant mothers make calculations taking into account the number of their full years at the time of conception and the exact date of pregnancy.

Heart development

The first contractions of a tiny heart can be detected 4–6 weeks from the moment of conception. This is possible when performing an ultrasound using a transvaginal sensor. Since the circulatory and nervous systems of the fetus are constantly undergoing changes, at different stages of pregnancy the heart rate (HR) of the baby is not the same. Using them, the gynecologist determines how the intrauterine development of the future heir of the family proceeds. There are three stages of this development:

From weeks 5 to 7, heartbeats are slow and uneven. They reach 130 beats per minute.
From 8 to 12 weeks, the frequency of contractions increases. It is at the level of 170–190 beats.
After 12 weeks, the heartbeat slows down again. They should be uniform and within the range of 140–160 beats.

Since the heart rate becomes rhythmic only after the 12th week of pregnancy, the method of determining the sex of the baby involves collecting data from this moment.

Determining the sex of a child by heartbeat

We deliberately left this diagnostic method “for dessert,” with the help of which you can also find out who exactly is growing in mommy’s belly. This method can be called the borderline between the past and the present. It was invented long before the advent of ultrasound, but continues to be used successfully today.

Modern obstetricians and gynecologists have adopted the experience of their inquisitive predecessors, who managed to record the connection between the sex of the baby and the individual indicators of his heart. But let's talk about everything in order.

The tiny creature’s heart comes to life 20–22 days after conception has taken place. Isn’t this a miracle: all the organs of the fetus are still in their infancy, but it beats and knocks! Some scientists even claim that the clot of cells from which the heart will later grow begins to contract within 12 to 14 days after conception. By the way, scientists still find it difficult to answer what forces force a certain group of cells in the tissue of the embryo to contract and create what we used to call a heartbeat. It turns out that during pregnancy from 4 to 12 weeks, the heartbeat is the only reliable indicator that a new life has been born inside the woman and has begun to develop. By moving and kicking, the baby will independently make itself known much later - only by the 16th - 20th week of pregnancy.

It will not be possible to immediately register the baby’s heartbeat - this will become possible only at 6-7 weeks of his intrauterine life. At first, the baby’s heart rate inherits the work of the mother’s heart (it is difficult to distinguish between them), but a little later it increases significantly.

The contraction of the fetal heart is a faithful assistant to obstetricians in determining the overall health of the baby. Experienced specialists can even determine the sex of a child by its heartbeat. How long is this realistic?

When an egg is fertilized, it allows only one sperm into its cavity, which, as is known, is the carrier of sex gametes with an X or Y chromosome. This is the most important moment when Mother Nature decides whether a woman will have a boy or a girl. Neither the expectant mother herself nor the doctors can yet know this, because the embryo is only at the beginning of its development. The organs of the reproductive system begin to develop in the fetus around the age of 8 weeks, and at this moment they look the same in future girls and boys. But very soon everything will change: at 12 weeks, the sex of the child can be determined with a fairly high probability by the heartbeat, according to experienced obstetricians.

Advantages and disadvantages of the technique, its reliability

The advantage of determining the sex of an unborn child by its pulse is its availability. That is, a woman undergoes routine medical procedures, planned and necessary in her situation, to assess the general condition of the child. And the doctor makes his assumptions regarding the baby’s gender at the same time.

As for the reliability of this method, as in most cases, it is, of course, not one hundred percent.

The fetal pulse gradually increases until the 9th week, and then just as smoothly decreases, stabilizing by the second trimester. Therefore, it is obvious that the indicator 120–140 for boys and 140–160 for girls cannot be equally relevant in different weeks. Even the doctors themselves, adherents of this method, are divided in their opinions: some say that it only works until the 20th week, others say that it works throughout the entire gestation period. In fact, there are no scientifically based parameters for beat frequency specifically for male and female fetuses: a more frequent or, conversely, slower pulse can occur in both. In addition, the heart rate is quite strongly influenced by various factors. For example, rapid or slow heartbeat can be observed with developmental delays and defects, genetic disorders, intrauterine infection or hypoxia, problems with placental circulation, or the threat of miscarriage. In addition, the rhythm slows down when the baby is sleeping, and, on the contrary, accelerates during his active movements. The mother’s emotional state also matters: when she is nervous, the fetal heart beats faster. If a woman is currently ill, the fetal heartbeat may well change.
The theory of different heart rate depending on gender is also untenable. This parameter, like the pulse rate, largely depends on various factors, so it may well be different for each listening session.
The significance of the localization of the heartbeat (left or right) is another myth. After all, the position of the child periodically changes up to 30–35 weeks, or even until birth, and this has nothing to do with gender. The baby may even lie across the uterine cavity, which means his heartbeat will be heard somewhere in the middle of the abdomen.
As for the coincidence of the heart rhythm of a woman and her unborn son, this is simply implausible. Indeed, in any case, the fetal heart contracts almost twice as often as that of the mother. The regulation of the heartbeat of a woman and a child occurs due to the action of completely different mechanisms.

Thus, any matches between the baby's heartbeat and its gender are simply coincidental. Official medicine does not recognize this method, and a woman should perceive it simply as entertainment and certainly not place high hopes on it (go to the store for baby clothes in blue or pink).

The pulse sex determination method should be taken simply as entertainment, since it is very unreliable

The only accurate medical method for determining the gender of the fetus is an examination of the amniotic fluid (amniocentesis), which is performed only when indicated and may pose a threat to the continuation of the pregnancy. Even ultrasound is not an absolutely reliable method in terms of determining gender.

Based on my experience, I can say that the method of determining the sex of an unborn child by heartbeat does not work. I was told the gender of my baby very early - during an ultrasound at 12 weeks. A very experienced doctor, the head of the department, confidently told me that it would be a boy. A secondary ultrasound only confirmed this. However, when my gynecologist at the antenatal clinic began to listen to her stomach with a stethoscope during her next visit, she also confidently said: “You know, you have a girl, your heart beats quickly.” When I objected to her that two ultrasounds showed a boy, she just shrugged.

Ways to find out the gender of a baby by heartbeat

This technique relies on the doctor's keen and sensitive hearing. From the 20th week of an “interesting” position, auscultation becomes a mandatory procedure for routine examination of a pregnant woman. The baby's heartbeat is listened to and assessed using a phonendoscope or a special tube. The instrument is applied to the pregnant woman’s belly and the signals given by the fetal heart are carefully listened to. The hearts of girls and boys, as you may have guessed, beat differently. So, here are the main indicators, taking into account which doctors inform a happy mother about her son or daughter.

Beat frequency

Here girls are ahead of boys: their heart beats at a speed of about 140 - 150 beats per minute. For males, this figure is slightly lower and equal to 120 beats. However, there is still no single opinion regarding this diagnostic method. The fact is that some sources claim that the sex of a child can be determined by heart rate only up to the 20th week of pregnancy, while others insist that such an experiment is reliable until the last weeks of the “interesting” situation.

Heartbeat

Nature has decreed that the male heart be more powerful and resilient than the female, therefore the heart muscle of a male fetus contracts, as a rule, more rhythmically. The girl's heart beats out more chaotic and excited music. The tone of the heartbeat of boys and girls also differs: in boys, the heart beats clearly and loudly, in girls it is a little quieter and more muffled. In general, it is believed that a mother’s heart is dissonant with her daughter’s heart and beats in unison with her son’s heart.

Fetal location

Some doctors are convinced that the location of girls and boys in the mother's womb is fundamentally different. So, if the heartbeat is heard predominantly on the left, it is most likely a boy. When the heart beats on the right side, a girl is born. We do not undertake to say that this method can be considered reliable, but many specialists, nevertheless, use it and predict the sex of the child very successfully.

Of course, all of the methods listed above are not recognized by official medicine, which questions whether the sex of a child can be determined by its heartbeat. The fact is that the activity of a child’s heart muscle is determined by a number of certain factors. Here are the main ones:

period of activity and sleep (the baby’s heart beats more often when he is awake);
gestational age (at different stages of gestation the fetal heart beats differently);
the health status of the expectant mother (some diseases of the woman cause oxygen starvation of the fetus, so its heart beats at a slow pace);
psycho-emotional state of the pregnant woman;
the degree of formation of the baby’s heart;
the position of the mother's body while listening to the fetal heartbeat.

Taking into account all these factors, we can conclude that all characteristics of the baby’s heart cannot be taken as constant indicators. That is why official medicine treats attempts to find out the sex of a child by the fetal heartbeat with a great deal of skepticism.

No matter how much you would like to find out whether a daughter or son is hiding under your heart, remember that the method of determining the sex of a child by its heartbeat does not give a 100% reliable result! After all, even ultra-precise ultrasound equipment sometimes makes mistakes. Take all attempts to declassify the baby as entertainment; you will madly love your baby regardless of his gender, right?

Reliability of the method

Is it really possible to accurately determine the sex of a child based on the fetal heartbeat? Some married couples claim that their assumptions about who will be born to them have been confirmed. Other parents were unable to find out the answer to this question, and they refute the theory by saying that they gave birth to children of the opposite sex to the expected results.

Doctors call this technique ordinary entertainment that helps the expectant mother and father brighten up the time they have to wait for the moment when the gender of their baby becomes reliably known. The only accurate medical method for determining the gender of an unborn child is the study of amniotic fluid. However, it is performed only according to indications and not to find out whether a boy or a girl will be born, because amniocentesis in some situations poses a threat to pregnancy.

All expectant mothers undergo an ultrasound examination after 16-18 weeks, when the genitals of the unborn child can be seen from the image on the monitor. But even ultrasound tests sometimes make mistakes. Yes, and the baby can turn his back to the ultrasound sensor during the diagnosis.

The method of determining the sex of an unborn child by heartbeat is nothing more than entertainment and cannot give an accurate answer to the question of who lives under a woman’s heart.

Although for every mother, hearing the heartbeat of her baby in her stomach for the first time is a long-awaited, exciting and unforgettable event. In most cases, it is not so important for a pregnant woman whether she gives birth to a girl or a boy, as long as the child grows and develops normally.

Author: Violeta Kudryavtseva, doctor, especially for Mama66.ru

Determination by ultrasound

There are many versions. Official medicine does not recognize this approach. Therefore, determining the sex of a baby by heart rate or using other unconventional methods is more in the realm of fortune telling.

Only an ultrasound examination can give future parents a more reliable answer to their question.

This is only possible if the child is positioned correctly to be detected by the sensor. The sex of the child can be determined from the 16th week, but most often the genitals are clearly visualized only at the 20th week. In some cases, parents are in the dark until the birth.

Perhaps intuition will tell you the correct answer. One of the listed methods will allow you to listen to her more strongly. It happens that a couple chooses one of the listed methods to determine the gender of their baby. But even after receiving a specific result, one of the parents is confident in the opposite answer. Perhaps you should listen to your premonition. But the gender of the child is actually not that important. The main thing is that the baby is healthy and happy!

How can you calculate your heart rate?

So, you already know how to determine the sex of a child by heartbeat. The options proposed above can be grouped and combined with each other.

However, to draw any conclusion, you must first calculate the baby's heart rate in the womb. This manipulation can be carried out in several ways:

using a stethoscope (this option is suitable for measurements after 12 weeks of pregnancy, when the reproductive organ leaves the pelvis);
using a tube (this method is used after 20 weeks of pregnancy, when the fetus is already quite large);
cardiotocography apparatus (research and measurements are made after 30 weeks of pregnancy);
using Doppler (the device is used after 15 weeks of child development and looks like a miniature ultrasound machine);
during an ultrasound (diagnosis can be carried out in the earliest stages of pregnancy).

The first faint knocks can be heard already on the fiftieth day from conception. And the cardiac system begins to form much earlier. The heart of the unborn baby begins to form already on the 25th–26th day from the moment of conception. And starting from the sixth week, the first contractions already appear.

We repeat the initial rhythm of the small heart as the mother. Therefore, distinguishing these sounds can be incredibly difficult. Throughout the first trimester of pregnancy, heartbeats have different tone, speed and other indicators.

This is due to the fact that the rudiments of the nervous system are formed in the body of the unborn baby. Only by the end of the third month do the fetal heart sounds become clearer, more confident and regular.

In addition, it is by the beating of the child’s heart that doctors determine the condition and correct development of the fetus. For example, a slowdown in heart rate may indicate the presence of any pathologies.

ultrasound examination of the fetus;
echocardiography;
cardiotocography.

Ultrasound is the very first and most common research method. With its help, the doctor can not only calculate the sex of the baby by heartbeat at 12 weeks, but also conduct an examination of all internal organs.

An echocardiogram is performed when the doctor notices disturbances in the functioning of the baby’s heart. The baby must grow to 18–28 weeks, then such a procedure will become possible. For preventive purposes, echocardiography is prescribed for the following indications:

mother over 38 years old;
a pregnant woman has diabetes mellitus;
the family already has children with heart defects;
the expectant mother suffered an infectious disease;
The doctor suggests intrauterine growth retardation.

CTG is prescribed no earlier than 30 weeks. Until this point, the results of the study are difficult to decipher. Indications for CTG are:

scar on the uterus;
the presence of late toxicosis (gestosis);
suspicion of fetal growth retardation;
various infections;
deviations in the amount of amniotic fluid;
chronic diseases of the mother;
premature aging of the placenta;
post-term pregnancy.

There is an opinion that future sons and daughters are placed in their mother’s belly in completely different ways. Boys most often prefer the left side. And if the fetal heartbeat is heard on the right side of the mother’s belly, there is reason to think that there is a daughter there.

Of course, most of these theories can be classified as guesswork, but some of them often work. The reliability of such diagnostics is significantly influenced by many factors. Here are some of them:

degree of fetal heart formation;
duration of pregnancy (during its duration the fetal heart rate changes many times);
period of sleep or activity (if the child does not sleep, the heart beats faster);
indicators of the mother’s health (if there is a lack of oxygen, the fetal heart beats faster);
mental and emotional state of the expectant mother;
the location of the body of the expectant mother at the time of the research;
other factors.