You Could Know Your Baby’s Gender Through Its Heart Rate. Really?
Image: iStock
As far as gender prediction tests go, none divides opinion as effectively as the heart rate test. The test is said to determine whether the unborn child is a girl or a boy, depending on the fetus’ heart rate.
But, is this test accurate? Can your child’s sex be guessed simply based on the heart rate of the fetus? If the general population were to be believed, then there is no clear answer.
This is what the theory says: ‘A fast fetal heart rate (over 140 bpm) indicates the unborn baby is a girl while a slow heart rate (under 140 bpm) indicates that the baby is a boy.’
In a poll of around 150 women, half claimed that the heart-rate gender-prediction test worked accurately for them while the other half mentioned that it didn’t help determine the unborn baby’s gender.
Thankfully, practitioners and experts of science do more than simply poll people on the Internet. They study cases, take surveys, revisit statistical data, and the like. So, it was only a matter of time before a research team decided to test the faster fetal heart rate means a girl, and a slower fetal heart rate means a boy.
The results, as had already been suspected, proved inconclusive. There was no defining link between fetal heart rate and the unborn baby’s gender. So, what it means is that heart rate cannot accurately predict the gender of the baby.
When you become pregnant, the first ultrasound is usually scheduled ten weeks into your term. While some doctors may offer an early scan at eight weeks, most prefer to wait, sometimes until the end of the first trimester as well.
In fact, the graph should give you an idea of how fetal heart rate changes over your pregnancy. While it does not, like we’ve probably mentioned before, prove that the theory is right, what it does tell us is that fetal heart adjusts according to the size of your baby.
Image source: obgyn
So, if a pregnant woman undergoes a fetal heart rate measure test before week 15, the unborn’s heart rate will be more than 140 beats per minute, and if the fetal heart rate measure test is taken after week 25, the rate is less than 140 beats per minute. So, your baby can be both a boy and a girl at different stages of the pregnancy.
The next time someone tells you that the heart rate gender prediction test worked for her, just smile and nod because there is no scientific proof to the theory, at least not yet.
What are your thoughts about this theory? Did it work for you? Tell us here.
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