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The Little Lilypad is a lifestyle blog mostly written by a mum to two beautiful, cheeky and entertaining daughters. It is sometimes written by the Man on the Pad or by one of our baby bloggers. Occasionally we accept guest posts too. There is frequently talk of sustainable living, saving money, lifestyle and travel. It is hopefully helpful, sometimes funny and always honest.
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What do you think about gender swaying?

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If you could choose to influence the gender of your unborn baby, would you?

I read a blog post this week about gender swaying on The Busy Mummy Diaries and I am delighted that she is pregnant with her much wanted baby daughter. I know that there has been a lot of press about gender selection and to my knowledge, PGD (preimplantation genetic diagnosis) is the only high tech method which can guarantee the gender of your choice with almost 100% accuracy, this is because embryos are tested for gender before being implanted in the mother's womb but what if you could influence it yourself?

thebusymummydiaries

Carly from The Busy Mummy Diaries used a "baby girl diet" and The Shettles Theory. Shettles theorised that the two different types of sperm, X-chromosome-bearing sperm and Y-chromosome-bearing sperm, had different properties. 

Y-Bearing Sperm
(Male-Producing)
  • Smaller, round-headed
  • Faster
  • More fragile, shorter-lived
X-Bearing Sperm
(Female-Producing)
  • Larger, oval-headed
  • Slower
  • More resilient, longer-lived

Shettles hoped that these properties could be used to choose a baby's sex.

  • Under ideal conditions, the Y-sperm's faster speed should prevail, winning the race to the egg and conceiving a boy.
  • Under less than ideal conditions, fewer of the fragile Y-sperm will survive. The X-sperm's resiliance and staying power should win the day, conceiving a girl.

I am totally conflicted about my thoughts on this whole subject. I can understand that some families would like to choose the sex of their baby for practical reasons, for personal reasons, even for health reasons but are we not defying nature by doing so?

I have two beautiful daughters and I haven't ruled out having a third but would I really want to choose? What if after doing everything you were advised to do, it didn't work, would you be disappointed? Would that child forever be the "wrong one"?

I am an old fashioned kind of girl, I never wanted to find out the sex of our baby at the hospital scan, as I genuinely believe conception and child birth is one of life's remaining miracles. Who am I to intervene. Would you?

Note: Shettles Method reference taken from In Gender, where you can find more methods and information on this subject.

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Comments

  1. I always wanted a girl but felt that by not interfering in any way then it was what nature had wanted for me, and the path I was meant to take.

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  2. I wouldn't do anything like this, i have 3 boys and i would love to have a girl but i would feel like its a snub to my boys or somehow ungrateful for what i have,if i start trying to influence things. also i doubt it really works reliably!

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  3. I wasn't worried what we had first time round but I knew she was a girl really early on. When I got pregnant again I really thought I wanted another girl but once my son arrived I loved him in a way I could never have imagined. I believe that we are gifted the children we need in order to help not just them grow, but to help ourselves become the parent and person we are meant to be. They all come with their own unique lessons to teach us and I would never interfere with that. However, if I knew that either myself or my husband carried a aserious illness which only affected one sex then under those circumstances that may put a different slant on things. Great discussion honey x

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  4. This is a really interesting subject for me. I already have a daughter. Because we have a chromosome imbalance in our family, I had to have a CVS test done when I was pregnant so I would have definitely known the sex - but chose not to find out (although I always believed I was having a girl). Now I am with my new partner and he DEFINITELY wants a boy, no matter what! I am much more relaxed and just want a healthy baby. An interesting subject for discussion. Thank you so much for linking up to PoCoLo. Definitely going to tweet this for discussion :) xx REPLY: Thank you x

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