The telltale carry.

Well there is a 50/50 chance of this one being correct! The tale goes that if you’re carrying out to the front it’s a girl and if you carry behind it’s a boy. Sorry ladies don’t paint the nursery yet but this one is definitely a MYTH. How you carry your bump all depends on the muscle tone in your stomach.

The more babies you have the less tone there is and therefore you will inevitably carry more to the front.

Baby heart-rate.

So the tale goes a fast heart rate means you’re having a girl and a slower heart rate means it’s a boy! Well don’t rely on this one either.

A baby in the womb has a heart rate between 110 and 160 beats a minute. Babies, just like ourselves have rest periods so the heart rate will be slower and when they are kicking the daylights out of you will be faster.

Also like us grown ups our heart rates are very different.

Cravings.

Sweet for a girl and sour for a boy! for a girl and sour for a boy! I’m going to spoil this one for you as well. When it comes to the sex of your baby cravings mean nothing! Cravings in pregnancy are very individual and no two pregnant women are the same. Cravings are sometimes our bodies way of alerting us to a deficiency in our body, for instance if a tall glass of milk is your craving perhaps your body needs that extra bit of calcium.

Experts are of the opinion that cravings are all in our head but we’ll let that one slide.

Umbilical cord drama

I first came across this old wives tales when my mother gave my (7 month pregnant) sister a lecture, on how the baby could become tangled in the umbilical cord if she continued to stretch for things above her head height.  DEFINITELY NOT TRUE!

During your pregnancy your baby will somersault and perform acrobatics with the cord, this is all they have to play with in there! How you stretch and lift when pregnant will not cause your baby to become tangled in the cord.

Heartburn = Head of hair

This is an Old Wives Tale that carries through the centuries, unfortunately the heartburn you experience during pregnancy will not result in a shiny mop of hair. The amount of hair your baby will have when he/she is born is purely down to genetics.