Why You Got the Sex of Your Baby Wrong

It's hard to believe in this day and age, but it's possible to get the sex of your baby wrong? Why does this occur? Find out!

Some parents have had the experience where they planned on having a girl, but in reality, they were pregnant with a boy, or the other way around. This situation is quite common, but how is it possible to get the sex of your baby wrong? How long does this confusion last?

It’s hard to believe that with so many technological advances, such a mistake can still occur, but it does happen with some frequency. The main explanation is that although ultrasounds are an increasingly innovative procedure, they’re still a study that’s left to the interpretation of the human eye.

It’s not common for doctors to get the sex of your baby wrong, but it can happen more often than we think. However, this mistake doesn’t take long to be corrected; while it’s possible for there not to be a clear answer in the first ultrasounds, in the next ones, any doubts or errors should be dispelled.

Believing for a relative time that you’re expecting a girl or a boy, and then discovering the opposite, can cause a lot of emotions to surface in the family; but as long as it’s remediable, there’s nothing to worry about. However, there are cases where a couple is so sure of what the sex of their baby was that they choose a name, buy clothes according to their gender, and even prepare a baby shower according to the wrong sex.

Predicting the sex of babies in the past

A few years ago, it was more feasible to be wrong about the sex of your baby, as there were no scientific methods capable of revealing this information. Perhaps prenatal consultations were less regular or thorough, and it was common to use rather mythical prediction techniques.

In many cases, the experience of other mothers and also of midwives was useful in determining the sex of a baby based on aspects related to the pregnant woman’s body. The shape of her belly, the way the mother walked, or the cravings that were present were also used as clues.

For a long time, the myths about predicting the sex of your baby had a certain degree of success, which is why the mother could begin to make plans about her future child. But, despite this, there was no choice but to wait for the arrival of the baby to know for sure.

Being wrong about the sex of your baby in the past was very logical, could have gone unnoticed, and on many occasions, remained as an anecdote. We’ve all heard someone say “My parents thought they were having a boy and I turned out to be a girl” or “my room, my clothes, and my toy were all pink, but I turned out to be a boy”; it was easier to make mistakes, but it wasn’t always easy to cope with it.

Can getting the sex of your baby wrong affect you emotionally?

According to what families who’ve gone through this situation have to say, finding out after a long time that they’d made a mistake about the sex of the baby was an emotional shock. Besides the economic issue of having spent money on some things that they wouldn’t be able to use for their baby, it’s a loss that can touch the deepest emotions.

Some mothers refer to it as a type of mourning, because for them, it meant the loss of that daughter or son they were eagerly waiting for, who maybe already even had a name. Since that little piece of us begins to grow inside, it’s not only love that invades us, but also the expectation and desire of how we want our baby to be.

It can become frustrating, for example, if the couple has been trying for a long time to have a girl or a boy, and it never happens, even after numerous pregnancies. Other times the disappointment may seem transitory and without much effect on family emotions, but you have to be in the mother’s shoes to know the true feelings.