Finding out the sex of your baby: Reasons to wait and see
If you're debating whether to find out the sex of your baby, here's nine reasons to hold off
If you can find out something so exciting, so life-changing, at 20 weeks pregnant, why wouldn’t you? Well, here are 9 good reasons NOT to find out the sex of your baby at your 20-week scan.
1. You get to hear people’s silly theories
Like if your bump is high it’s a girl or low and round it’s a boy, or that if you were very sick in the early days it’s a girl. Or if you crave sour foods it must be a boy (sweet for a girl). Or if its heartbeat is over 140 beats a minute or your skin is bad during pregnancy it’s a girl. All complete tosh. But hugely fun to speculate about.
2. You get better baby shower presents
If you know the sex, you’ll get a mountain of clothes (and probably very clichéd pink vs blue ones at that). If you don’t know, you’ll get more fun stuff – and, most importantly, gift vouchers. Yay.
3. You won’t be exposed to lazy stereotypes
Once people know you’re having a girl or boy they start making assumptions: ‘oh, she’s going to be such a princess’ or ‘ooh, he’ll soon be wanting to play with swords and guns’. Well, maybe but maybe not. Who knows what your baby will truly be like until you meet them? Why give people (or ourselves) the chance to pigeon-hole them before they’re even born?
4. It helps in the delivery room
OK, so the excitement that you’ll soon know the sex of your baby won’t exactly carry you through labour on a wave of ecstasy. But some mums say it can help your motivation a bit during the tricky times.
5. A gender neutral nursery – bring it on
Embracing beige, white, yellow, red and green has its benefits: you can re-use it for your second child if you have one, and if you have a girl it’s good to delay the pink phase: you’ll be heartily sick of pink and its insipid cousin purple by the time she’s seven.
6. It’s a test of your patience
You’re going to need every ounce of that when your child – boy or girl- turns two…
7. You won’t be disappointed on the day
Some mums want to find out in advance so they won’t be upset on the day if their baby turns out to be the ‘wrong’ sex. It feels like it will ruin all your dreams. But here’s the thing: most mums say any hint of disappointment quickly melts away when they hold their new baby in their arms.
They’re amazed, blown away – and grateful just to have a healthy baby.
8. The scanner might get it wrong
Technology is amazing- but sonographers can’t ever give a 100% guarantee of the baby’s sex, especially if it’s lying in an awkward position. Apparently girls are slightly more difficult to spot than boys.
9. It’s a last bit of mystery in life
We know so much about everyone and everything these days, with instant access to almost any information we want. That’s all good, of course. But isn’t it just a bit more, well, fun and slightly mischievous to choose NOT to know something?