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Ways to Tell a Baby's Gender

Finding out your baby's gender before you give birth allows you to choose names, pick out colors for the nursery and purchase gender-specific clothes. You can visit your doctor for different clinical testing procedures to find out if you're having a boy or girl. If it's too soon in the pregnancy to find out the gender for a doctor, you can utilize the methods of old wives' tales.

  1. Ultrasound

    • If you're between the 18th and 26th week of pregnancy, an ultrasound can determine the gender of your baby. During an ultrasound, a doctor or technician rubs a hand-held device over your stomach. This device emits sound waves that pass through your uterus and results in a picture of your baby on a monitor. The health-care practitioner can then examine the picture of the fetus for signs of a penis or vagina. Keep in mind that the accuracy of an ultrasound depends on the equipment, age and position of the fetus, and the knowledge of the technician.

    Amniocentesis

    • Doctors generally perform an amniocentesis, a genetic test, on pregnant women to test for certain genetic diseases and birth defects. Because this test looks at the baby's genes, it can also determine the baby's gender. Amniocentesis involves a doctor using a needle to gain a sample amniotic fluid from your uterus, usually between your ninth and 18th week of pregnancy. Doctors then analyze this fluid. This test is considered 99 percent accurate in determining gender, but the procedure carries a 1 percent chance of miscarriage. You will receive the results in two to four weeks.

    Chorionic Villus Sampling

    • Generally, only women who run a high risk of giving birth to a baby with a chromosomal abnormality are allowed to undergo chorionic villus sampling, or CVS. Sometime between the eighth and 11th week of pregnancy, a doctor collects cell samples from your placenta using a catheter inserted through the vagina or thin needle inserted into the belly. Doctors analyze these cells for genetic problems and to determine gender. The results are 99 percent accurate, but you are subject to a 4 percent risk of miscarriage, premature labor and fetal damage.

    Old Wives Tales

    • In the absence of medical technology and expertise, you can attempt to determine the sex of your baby using old wives tales. For example, if you're expecting a boy, you might expect the lack of morning sickness early on, a belly that looks like a basketball, dark areola and bright yellow urine, according to such urban legends. Women expecting girls may experience morning sickness early on in the pregnancy, bellies that resemble watermelons, hair that develops red highlights or dull yelllow urine. In the final analysis, you have a 50-50 chance of any of these methods being right.

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