Is it possible to determine the sex of the fetus by heartbeat?
The desire of future parents to quickly find out who settled in the mother's belly is understandable. The appearance of a new family member is expected, and it is very interesting to all who he is: a boy or a girl. This is especially important for families that already have same-sex children: sisters or brothers. Among the many popular methods that are proposed for determining the sex of a child, the method of determining the sex of a fetus by its heartbeat deserves special attention. However, not everyone knows whether to trust him.
About baby heart
The heart is one of the first organs that appears in the embryo. The formation of the heart begins even before the woman begins to delay, that is, in fact, before she learns about her new position. By the 7th week of pregnancy, the structure of the heart is fully formed.
The fetus begins to listen to the heartbeat at 5-6 weeks of pregnancy, but only with an ultrasound with a good acoustic sensor. Doctors measure the baby’s heart rate to see if the fetus is alive, viable, how it feels (there are signs of hypoxia, placental disorders). It is by changing the heart rhythm that the fetus responds to all changes that occur and can occur in the woman’s body and his own body during 9 months of pregnancy.
Heart rate can tell how correctly the heart crumbs, but can not indicate the sex of the fetus.
Embryos do not have sex hormones yet: the development of female-male or male-type genitals will begin later. Science has not found any reasonable confirmation of the popular version of the identification of boys and girls solely on the frequency of the heartbeat.
Boy or girl
Nevertheless, despite the lack of clear scientific data and numerous denials of gynecologists, the method of determining sex by the frequency of the fetal heart beat is very popular among expectant mothers. Thematic forums on the Internet are filled with messages, guesses, assumptions. Popular rumor indicates that girls have a heart beat more often than boys. So, "experienced experts" from the Internet are saying that The heart rate of future boys, at 10–12 weeks of gestation, is in the range of 140–165 beats per minute, while girls have a heart beat with a frequency of 165 to 170 and higher.
In order not to reassure yourself in vain, it should be clearly understood that the heart rate and the sex of the child are in no way connected. And the values that are indicated in the popular method are just normal fetal heart rate values in principle (upper and lower bounds).
The following factors influence the frequency with which the baby’s heart will knock:
- wakefulness phase or sleep crumbs;
- the absence or presence of anemia in the expectant mother;
- being pregnant (vigorous or sick, suffering from toxicosis, there are complications of pregnancy);
- child's state of health.
Information that girlish hearts pounding is chaotic and dull - a dangerous and harmful delusion. Chaotic, uneven, confused and dull beats of the heart in fetuses with the defects of this organ, with congenital genetic abnormalities, in children suffering from hypoxia. In healthy boys, as in healthy girls, hearts always beat clearly, rhythmically.
How to find out exactly?
The accuracy of sex determination by heartbeat can be estimated at 50%.This means that guessing the floor turned out with just such a probability: either in the tummy is a boy or a girl. The sex is not formed during pregnancy, it is known at the time of conception. Immediately after the merger of the sex cells of the mother and father, the set of sex chromosomes of the unborn child is determined, which so far is only one cell. After 13 weeks on the ultrasound with a probability of 75% it will be possible to know the sex of the child, if it is located conveniently research. After 16–18 weeks, the accuracy of determining sex on ultrasound is about 90%.
The prenatal non-invasive DNA test (more than 97%), as well as invasive methods (chorionic villus biopsy, 99% amniocentesis), can more accurately provide an answer. But invasive methods are prescribed for strict medical reasons. There are home tests for the determination of sex in the analysis of urine, but their reliability is extremely low: almost as in the method of determination of heartbeat.
The most reliable way to determine gender is childbirth.
During pregnancy, all techniques allow certain errors. In the womb, sometimes babies do not want to be exposed at all, and to the last they mislead both ultrasound doctors and obstetricians who are listening to the heartbeat of the fetus.
Is it possible to determine the sex of a child by its heartbeat in the womb? The answer to this question, see the following video.
