On pretty much any given day, I’m asked how to anticipate gender based on various factors from how a baby is carried to the rate of the baby’s heartbeat. Previously, there hasn’t really been any good answer, unless the pregnancy occurred via in vitro fertilization. We’ve know for a long time that there is a slight overall predisposition to the delivery of a male baby, which is present as long as the general population is healthy and unstressed; however, when the population undergoes significant stress, whether manmade or natural in origin (economic depression, terrorist attack, tsunami, etc.), there is an increase in the number of girl babies delivered. This is thought to correlate to increased spontaneous loss of “weaker” male fetuses. We’ll let you debate with your partner over whether that still applies ;) To an extent, though, it’s true, girl babies are generally tougher and do better with overcoming adverse pregnancy and delivery conditions. Personally, I’m not surprised because I’m pretty sure a Braxton-Hicks contraction would be the end of me!
Now let’s get down to the good stuff! Even though the sperm (thanks dad!) determines gender of the fetus, the researchers for this study wanted to figure out how the environmental factors above could affect the chance of moms giving birth to a boy or girl. That’s a fancy way of saying what makes some moms more likely to have boy or girl babies when they don’t have control over the baby’s gender. After examining about 1,500 women from 6 months before conceiving until delivery, it turns out that mom’s blood pressure is the only significant difference between mothers who had girl babies and boy babies. This study evaluated everything from BMI to medical history to cholesterol, but blood pressure at 6 months before conceiving (not during pregnancy), was the only measurable difference between moms for baby boys and baby girls. Essentially, the higher the blood pressure at 6 months before delivery, the more likely it was that mom would deliver a boy.
So you’re saying if I gain some weight and have my husband really make me mad (or more mad than usual), then I’ll have a boy, or if I diet and exercise to bring down my blood pressure, I’ll have a girl?! Unfortunately, it’s not that simple. This is the first study to show any link between mom’s blood pressure and baby’s gender, and it didn’t prove that the blood pressure caused the baby to be a boy or girl. While something like that may be possible in the future, changing your blood pressure hasn’t been shown to change the gender of your future baby, and there are other health concerns to think about when blood pressure changes. Still, it is exciting to know that scientist are learning more about the process that determines what moms deliver boys and what moms deliver girls, and for now, I’m sure you love your fifth little slugger just as much as you would your first little princess :)
Dr Nick
Now let’s get down to the good stuff! Even though the sperm (thanks dad!) determines gender of the fetus, the researchers for this study wanted to figure out how the environmental factors above could affect the chance of moms giving birth to a boy or girl. That’s a fancy way of saying what makes some moms more likely to have boy or girl babies when they don’t have control over the baby’s gender. After examining about 1,500 women from 6 months before conceiving until delivery, it turns out that mom’s blood pressure is the only significant difference between mothers who had girl babies and boy babies. This study evaluated everything from BMI to medical history to cholesterol, but blood pressure at 6 months before conceiving (not during pregnancy), was the only measurable difference between moms for baby boys and baby girls. Essentially, the higher the blood pressure at 6 months before delivery, the more likely it was that mom would deliver a boy.
So you’re saying if I gain some weight and have my husband really make me mad (or more mad than usual), then I’ll have a boy, or if I diet and exercise to bring down my blood pressure, I’ll have a girl?! Unfortunately, it’s not that simple. This is the first study to show any link between mom’s blood pressure and baby’s gender, and it didn’t prove that the blood pressure caused the baby to be a boy or girl. While something like that may be possible in the future, changing your blood pressure hasn’t been shown to change the gender of your future baby, and there are other health concerns to think about when blood pressure changes. Still, it is exciting to know that scientist are learning more about the process that determines what moms deliver boys and what moms deliver girls, and for now, I’m sure you love your fifth little slugger just as much as you would your first little princess :)
Dr Nick
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