Can your belly button reveal your unborn baby’s gender?
One of the first things everyone asks a pregnant woman: Is it a boy or a girl? While most parents rely on modern technology to accurately determine the answer, it may be as simple as looking at your belly button to see if it is ‘smiling’ or ‘frowning’.
That’s according to Healthy Mummy community member Jess McLeod’s midwife during her recent check up. Or… maybe, well.. very likely, she is just pulling Jess’s leg. Fact or ‘old wives tale’, it’s had the Healthy Mummy HQ pondering the question.
We have therefore asked some of our community members to share their experiences with us.
Gender Prediction Traditions From Around the World
Finding out the gender of your unborn baby is a very personal decision and one that has divided camps. Those that are desperate to know so they can start buying blue or pink items IMMEDIATELY and others that are desperate to hang on to the ‘element of surprise’ (much to the annoyance of all their friends and family!).
And while modern technology guarantees a pretty high degree of confidence in accurately identifying your babies sex, in past generations mothers would try less scientific methods.
Take the Distaff Gospels for example. This collection of medieval European women’s medical lore recorded in the late 15th century has some clangers.
First foot forward
“Walk with your right foot first, you’re having a boy; the opposite, you’re having a girl”.
A sprinkle of salt
“When a woman is carrying a child and she wishes to know whether she is carrying a boy or a girl, you should sprinkle salt on her head while she is sleeping, so gently that she is unaware of it. When she wakes, note what name she says first. If she says a man’s name it will be a boy and if she says a woman’s name it will be a girl”.
The foods you crave
“Because girls are naturally sweet, if you’re carrying one, you’ll crave sweet foods; boys, on the other hand will have your craving sour and salty foods”.
Urinating on wheat
In Ancient Egypt, the sex of an unborn child was predicted using wheat and barley. The mother-to-be would urinate over seeds of both barley and wheat. If the barley sprouted then the woman was carrying a boy and if the wheat sprouted she was carrying a girl.
Fathers weight
If the father-to-be gains weight while his wife is pregnant, it’s a girl. If he doesn’t gain weight, it is a boy. A study was carried out in Denmark with 100 fathers-to-be who were suffering from such symptoms, and the results were quite alarming. Off the 100 dads who gained weight, 95 of their partners gave birth to a girl and just five to a boy.
Many of these popular gender reveal ‘wives tales’ have carried on to today’s generation. Though never proven, there is always a 50/50% chance of being accurate. Here are some more Myths re guessing the gender of your baby.
Belly button – gender reveal
The belly button ‘frown’ or ‘smile’ is a new concept to us and pregnant mum Jess McLeod (above).
After going for her regular check up today she says:
“I had a new midwife today and she asked if we knew what we were having. I told her we are having a surprise.
She said if your belly button is a smiley face it’s a boy and if your belly button is a frown it’s a girl! She was so serious when she said it. I was thinking – is she having me on? I have never heard of this one before! And particularly not from a midwife “.
What do you think of Jess’s delightful bump? Boy, girl? According to this myth – looks like a girl to us!
Alisa Nyquist shares her beautiful 23 week baby bump with us. That looks remarkably like a smiling belly button to us. But according to modern technology, Alisa is having a girl, not a boy! Or maybe Alisa is just in for a big surprise?
Kirstie Anderson says of her gorgeous 37 week bump here “Not sure what you call this… but we had a girl!” Hmmm … Looks very much like a frown to us Kirstie! Another successful result with the belly button method!
The Healthy Mummy Pregnancy Smoothie
*Please note that The Healthy Mummy Pregnancy range promotes healthy weight gain in pregnancy*
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Key Nutrients Needed For Pregnancy
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