Baby’s Sex by Heartbeat – What Determination Options Exist

Determining a baby’s gender by heartbeat is still used in medicine and has quite a few supporters. And this is despite the fact that today’s modern methods can accurately determine the gender of the future baby who is in the mother’s womb, and at the current level of medical development, women don’t need to rack their brains over how to determine the baby’s gender by heartbeat to find out who is in their belly — a daughter or a son. After all, sometimes as early as 12 weeks 

An ultrasound can provide a comprehensive answer to this question. However, sometimes impatient parents can’t wait to find out whether they are going to have a boy or a girl. Or, as if on purpose, the baby turns its back to the sensor. It is in such situations that determining the baby’s gender by heartbeat comes into play.

When the embryo and fetus begin to have a heartbeat

First and foremost, it is important to understand that a developing child up to 10 weeks is an embryo, and after this period of pregnancy, it is considered a fetus. As soon as the embryo appears in the gestational sac, its heartbeat immediately begins. During an examination in the 5th week of pregnancy, when the gestational sac measures 10.0 mm, the embryo size reaches about 1.7 mm. Heart contractions in such an embryo are recorded visually, meaning they can be seen. In the conclusion drawn up by the doctor, a note is made that the embryo’s heartbeat is “+” (plus) – it exists. 

From the 6th week of pregnancy, heart contractions are already visible, and it is possible to measure the heart rate of the embryo. Typically, the rhythm and beats per minute are evaluated. From the 6th to the 10th week of pregnancy, the normal heart rate is 110-150 beats per minute, and from the 10th week, the normal rate is considered 160-170 beats per minute.

The Relationship Between Baby’s Gender and Heartbeat Rate

There are certain differences in cardiological parameters between males and females, which form the basis for the method of determining the sex of the child by fetal heartbeat:

• Characteristics of heart rhythm. A future woman is characterized by a chaotic heart rhythm, as the female heart is more sensitive to various changes in external factors. The heart of a future man beats more evenly and smoothly, as the male sex is less susceptible to external irritants. In addition, girls have more muffled contraction tones, whereas boys have quite a loud heartbeat. Perhaps, by nature, the male heart is designed to be more powerful than the female heart.
• Connection with the mother’s pulse. The sex of the child is determined by the heart rate, where the future boy’s heart contracts with the same rhythm and in unison with the mother’s pulse, while a girl’s heartbeat does not have such a connection with the mother’s heart.

What else is considered in determining gender

When determining the baby’s gender by heartbeat, other factors related to the contraction of the future baby’s heart muscle are also considered. Observations and statistics highly suggest the possibility of determining the gender of the baby expected by a particular woman by establishing:

• Position of the heartbeat in the woman’s abdomen. If the heartbeat is recorded on the left, it is more likely a boy is expected; if on the right, it is likely a girl.
• Based on pulse count – heartbeat frequency. It is believed that boys tend to have a calmer pulse, around 120–140 beats per minute. Girls generally have a quicker heartbeat, ranging from 140–160 beats per minute.

What are the fetal heart rate norms

To attempt to determine the baby’s gender by heartbeat frequency, you need to know the current normal heart rates according to gestational age, measured in beats per minute. It has been established that up until a certain point, specifically until the 9th week, the embryo’s pulse gradually accelerates. Once the pregnancy reaches this stage, the baby’s heartbeat smoothly decreases and remains approximately at the same level during the second and third trimesters. 

The dependence of fetal heartbeat frequency (in beats per minute) on gestational age (in weeks) looks as follows:

• start of week 5 — 80–85;
• week 5 — 80–103;
• week 6 — 103–126;
• week 7 — 126–149;
• week 8 — 149–172;
• week 9 — 155–195;
• week 10 — 161–179;
• week 11 — 153–177;
• week 12 — 150–174;
• week 13 — 147–171;
• week 14 — 146–168.

By the second trimester, the fetal heart rate stabilizes at 140–160 beats per minute and remains until the end of the third trimester.

What increases the likelihood of correct determination

To make an accurate prediction of a baby’s sex by heartbeat, a doctor can combine several methods. The pulse can be determined using different techniques. For example,

using a stethoscope – manually after 20 weeks. For this, the doctor needs to have sharp and sensitive hearing, and certain experience. It is also possible to listen to the heartbeat even at early stages during a standard ultrasound.

Doppler can help in determining the baby’s gender by heartbeat. This device is usually used after the 15th week and is essentially a miniature ultrasound machine. It allows not only for the clear listening of the fetus’s heartbeat but also for assessing the condition of the umbilical cord vessels. Determination is also possible with a cardiotocography device already in the third trimester. The procedure evaluates not only the fetal heartbeat but also its motor activity, the frequency of uterine contractions, and the baby’s reaction to them. 

Method Reliability

Women who, for some reason, do not want to use other methods to determine the gender of their future child choose this method because of its harmlessness to the body and its long-standing use. However, the method of determining the baby’s gender by heartbeat is questioned and criticized by representatives of official medicine as unreliable and dependent on numerous factors affecting the result. 

It is also criticized by women who attempted to determine the child’s gender by the fetal heartbeat during pregnancy, having tested this method themselves and received results that later proved to be incorrect. Some criticisms have a real basis, as medical science claims that the characteristics of the heartbeat of a child in the womb depend on many factors. Therefore, it is very difficult to accurately determine the child’s gender by heartbeat.

What affects heart rate and the result of determination

The heart characteristics of an unborn baby in the mother’s womb depend on, and the accuracy of determining the baby’s gender by heartbeat is influenced by many factors. One of the main ones is the gestational age. At different stages of gestation, the baby’s heart beats in different modes. 

For instance, in the early weeks, the heart of the baby, whether a girl or a boy, beats steadily, slowly, and rhythmically. The number of beats per minute does not exceed 100. Starting from the 18th week, the number of heartbeats for boys increases to 150 per minute, for girls to 140 per minute. Additionally, the determination of the baby’s gender by fetal heartbeat is influenced by:

• the baby’s state of sleep or wakefulness;
• uterine muscle tone;
• the development features of the baby’s heart;
• the emotional and physical condition of the mother, her position during the fetal heartbeat listening;
• placement of the child in the uterine cavity.

Modern Ways to Determine the Gender of a Child

Modern medicine is highly skeptical about determining a child’s gender by heartbeat, considering it extremely unreliable, and regards any positive results obtained by this method as mere coincidence. Unlike the method of determining a child’s gender by heartbeat, getting truly reliable fetal heartbeat results and determining the child’s gender, for example, is possible through ultrasound. This method rarely gives erroneous results or failures – its accuracy reaches 97%.

Unlike attempts to determine the baby’s gender by heartbeat and even alongside highly accurate ultrasound, the baby’s gender can be determined with one hundred percent accuracy by conducting invasive diagnostics, which is prescribed by a doctor for specific indications. Chorionic villus sampling, where a sample of cells is taken from the placenta, and amniotic fluid analysis are conducted only when there is a risk of serious diseases dependent on the child’s gender.