Pregnant women start thinking and dreaming about their baby’s sex almost from the moment they see the positive pregnancy test. 

A baby’s gender is something that we try to predict by looking at baby bumps, listening to old wives’ tales, dangling a wedding ring over the belly, baby’s heart rate, and even belly shape.

This article is for each pregnant woman who just can’t wait to find out the baby’s gender, who may wonder if their pregnant belly, wedding ring trick, or baby heart rate can predict the baby’s sex.

Baby girl belly vs baby boy belly

Everyone loves a good baby gender prediction. 

We play games to predict it at baby showers. Grandmothers look at your pregnant belly and decide they can tell the sex of your baby, and everyone in the office makes predictions and even places bets on your baby’s gender.

If it’s your first pregnancy, it can be hard to know whether what people say as their proof to prove if you’re having a boy or girl has any merit or if it’s just another of the endless wives’ tales that circulate.

Pregnancy myths that still exist today…

When it comes to figuring out or predicting the gender of a baby, the only real indicator is an ultrasound when you’re far enough along in your pregnancy – for baby girls to have an obvious vagina and for baby boys to have a visible penis on the monitor.

Another way to tell the baby’s sex is through a blood test that can isolate the gender with fantastic accuracy. Everything else, unfortunately, is simply a tale.

But that doesn’t mean that trying will hurt anything. If nothing else, it’s a fun way to pass the time while you wait to find out for sure.

1. Belly shape

According to the lore, if you’re carrying a boy, your baby bump will be higher and tighter, like a ball. It will be lower and more widespread if you’re having a girl. 

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Does carrying a little girl make the difference in where your bump spreads? Sadly, no.

In truth, how your baby bump presents itself has much more to do with your height than with a gender prediction. 

Taller women tend to have more space above their pubic bone for the bump to appear. So tall women carry higher, and the bump is more round and defined.

Shorter women have less room above the pubic bone, so the baby bump tends to be more widely distributed throughout the midsection, making it appear as though the mother carried lower. It has little, if anything, to do with gender.

It should also be noted that if it’s your first time being pregnant, your abdominal muscles are less likely to be loose; therefore, you will most likely have a higher, tighter bump. 

Tight abdominal muscles that have never had to stretch to accommodate a growing baby bump simply carry a bump higher. So your fitness level can also play a part in how you carry your baby.

2. Heart rate 180 at 9 weeks boy or girl

Your baby’s heart rate is another supposed method of predicting the gender of your baby. This can be done with a fetal doppler, which measures the baby’s heart rate at various pregnancy stages.

Supposedly, girls have faster heart rates. So if you have a fetal heart rate over 140 beats per minute, the wives’ tale declares that you are having a girl.

What they don’t tell you, however, is that your baby’s heart rate can and likely will change as the pregnancy progresses. It’s not any indication that you’re having a boy or a girl.

3. Dark Areolas

Pregnancy hormones change some women’s bodies either temporarily or permanently during pregnancy. While this is simple science and biology, it doesn’t stop people from making predictions that are not at all scientific.

Supposedly, if your nipples or areolas darken during pregnancy, you’re having a boy. If they stay the same color they have always been, it’s a girl.

4. A dark line on the belly

Called the linea nigra, and caused by hormones, it’s said that if this dark line that some women get on the belly that travels vertically along the belly button stops above the belly button, you’re having a boy.

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However, if the line doesn’t quite make it to the navel, it’s a girl. 

This is really something that has no fact base to it at all, but watch out if your grandmother or great aunt sees you in a bikini and you have linea nigra. They’ll be telling you all about what gender your baby is.

5. Morning sickness

Morning sickness can happen to anyone, but the myth states that you’re carrying a boy if you don’t get hit with this unpleasant pregnancy symptom. If you do end up with nausea as a pregnancy symptom, you’re supposedly carrying a girl.

6. Chinese Prediction Chart

As old wives’ tales go, this is one that some women swear by. 

It’s an old, supposedly Chinese chart that takes the mother’s age and the month of conception and tells you what sex your child will be.

While many women who swear by this chart miss out on the fact that the odds are pretty good that this birth chart gets it right sometimes, there’s a fifty percent chance every single time.

7. Cold feet

This is a bit of an odd one. 

If your feet are cold (most likely due to poor circulation), then it’s a boy. If your toes feel just as warm as they ever did, it’s a girl. 

There is no merit to this one at all, but there’s a chance that someone will ask you about the temperature of your feet as early as the first trimester.

8. Food cravings

Soon-to-be moms can crave specific foods in the first trimester and completely change by the third trimester. 

However, the myth is that you expect a boy if you crave salty foods. If you are craving sweet things, it’s a girl.

This probably derived from some form of that old saying, “Sugar and spice and everything nice.”

9. The wedding ring test

One myth that has little to do with belly size or shape instead calls for a ring. You suspend your ring either over the hand of the husband or over your belly. 

If the ring swings in a straight line, it’s a boy. If it swings in a circle, it’s a girl.

10. Your breasts

If the right breast is larger than the left, it’s a boy. If the left breast is larger than the right, it’s a girl. Most women have a slightly larger breast than the other, but this is more likely connected to your dominant hand than the gender of your little one.

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12-week ultrasound girl vs. boy

Your first ultrasound is usually done between eight and ten weeks of gestation. 

However, during this first ultrasound, your doctor is not at all concerned with the gender of your baby. Instead, babies are checked for development and well-being.

If you are high risk or have frequent ultrasounds, you may wonder if an ultrasound at 12 weeks is more accurate in letting a new mom know whether she should buy pink or blue. Well, only sort of.

At twelve weeks gestation, your doctor or ultrasound technician can sometimes see the genitals of babies. This depends on several factors, such as your child’s positioning.

In about 90 percent of 12-week sonograms, the sex of a fetus can be determined with accuracy.

Your bump

Carrying high doesn’t necessarily mean anything during pregnancy. 

Carrying baby higher probably only means that your abdominal wall is longer because you are tall. The same can be said of where you have extra weight, whether you get stretch marks, and how the baby is lying in the womb.

Transverse babies lie sideways in the belly, meaning that you look like you are carrying much lower. 

If you carry low, it doesn’t mean you should go buy pink stuff. It simply means that you’re short or your baby is swimming around in their amniotic fluid in a weird position.

Welcome the surprise!

Some women choose to wait until their due date or when they give birth to find out the gender of their little ones. Others want to know as soon as possible. 

Whatever category you fall into, remember that these myths can be fun, but they are also not scientific. Don’t buy baby products that are girlie or boyish based upon these tales alone.

If you want to have fun with it, though, you can find many more tales, such as the ones in this article. You can make fun predictions while you relax, stay hydrated, and eat lots of balanced and nutritious food. 

Then see if the predictions come true!