subject: Gender Selection - Picking Your Pregnancy [print this page] One of the most common questions that people ask an expectant couple is "What are you having?" Of course, no one is truly questioning whether the couple in question is having a toaster or a meerkat. They know that they are having a baby. What people are really asking is whether the baby is a boy or a girl. In the earliest days of pregnancy, there is really no way of telling, though there are those who claim that it is possible to determine and control the sex of your baby by controlling the conditions when you become pregnant. Some do seem to have some scientific backing, while others are nothing more than superstitious wife's tales
One popular yet unscientific gender predictor is the Chinese gender calendar. This chart uses general astrological principles to determine whether your child will be a boy or a girl. Using the age that you were when you became pregnant, and the month in which your child will be born, this chart claims to be able to accurately predict the sex of your child at least 50% of the time. Which makes sense, given that there are only 2 possible outcomes to any pregnancy. This chart does have its fallibility though; in that it makes no accommodation for those that will go on to give birth to boy/girl twins.
Another method of gender selection deals with timing conception just right. Known as the Shettles Method, this theory operates based upon the knowledge that the sperm which fertilizes the egg is what determines whether a baby will be a boy or a girl. All eggs possess only the X chromosome. Each sperm is either an X or a Y. Depending upon which kind of sperm reaches the egg, the resulting child will be either XX, a girl or XY, a boy. The Shettles Method hypothesizes that Y chromosome sperm are faster swimmers but are more fragile and will have their greatest success on the days of ovulation, as conditions are most favorable. Some people claim that this has been effective for them, though it is hard to really pin point a successful pregnancy on a method such as this.
There are other, much more high tech methods of choosing what gender your child will be, though many people have strong ethical and moral objections to them. Many people feel that pregnancy is a natural state and that man has no place deciding things such as gender.
by: Troy Truman
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