There are dozens of old wives' tales promising to predict whether you're going to have a boy or a girl. The "clues" include how much the baby is kicking, where the baby is kicking, what foods you've been craving and other physical symptoms (like hairier-than-usual legs).
There's one gender predictor that relies on hard numbers. The Chinese gender predictor, also known as the Chinese birth chart, uses two data points - the age of the mother at conception, and the month of conception - to predict whether you're carrying a boy or a girl. There are many Chinese birth charts on the web to try for fun, like this one. But keep reading to make sure you first know how to use them correctly!
"I always had a very strong feeling that my firstborn would be a boy," says Chantal Pine, of Montclair, N.J. "When I looked up my age and month of conception on the Chinese birth chart, not to my surprise it stated we would have a boy, and a sonogram later confirmed it. I was a happy mom-to-be, and it sealed the fact that my gut feeling and the Chinese birth chart were correct."
What's more, the chart promises to predict the gender of the baby - before you even conceive. So if, like the parents-to-be in patriarchal China, you wanted a boy, the chart is supposed to help.
How was the chart conceived (pun intended)? It's based on the idea that women the same age seem to have babies the same gender. An accuracy rate of more than 90 percent is flaunted.
The trick, however, is to use lunar (not solar) dates - because after all the Chinese were using the lunar calendar at the time this chart was apparently devised seven centuries ago. The lunar calendar is based on the phases of the moon, making one lunar month shorter than our solar month and the lunar year nearly two weeks shorter than our solar year. So you'll need to calculate your lunar age and the lunar date of your month and approximate date of conception (past or planned).
Confused? Don't worry! Some say the chart is no more accurate than flipping a coin, but at least it's way more appealing than mixing your urine with Drano to predict your baby's gender!
Check out more great articles on your pregnancy: