The genetic make-up of a child is decided at the moment of fertilisation. Each parent contributes a blueprint that determines how your baby grows and develops. This information is stored in the chromosomes. Each cell has 46 chromosomes arranged in 23 pairs. Cells divide to multiply for tissue growth and repair. Before division, a cell’s chromosomes double, so each subsequent cell receives 23 pairs. But doubling does not occur in the sex cells that combine for sexual reproduction. Instead the male and female parent cells with 46 chromosomes divide to form sperms and ova with 23 chromosomes. A sperm and an ovum fuse to produce a fertilised egg with 46 chromosomes, 23 from each parent. So the resulting baby will inherit characteristics from both its mother and father.

A baby’s sex depends upon special chromosomes that it inherits. The cells from the mother include a pair of x-shaped sex chromosomes and the cells from the father include one x and one Y chromosome. A baby inherits only one sex cell from each parent. If the baby inherits two x-chromosomes, it will be female. If it inherits one x and one Y chromosome it will be male.

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Once you are pregnant, it appears that everything is reduced to odds. Nothing attracts more speculation than determining the sex of your unborn baby. In Australia figures show that 106 boys are born for every 100 girls. Many women claim to know instinctively the sex of their unborn child. Some women’s intuition proves to be reliable, however, other women’s intuition is proven wrong in the delivery room. An easy option would be to sneak a peak during the 18 week ultrasound scan to see if it’s a girl or boy. But then this isn’t always a reliable option either. Ultrasound operators say it is more difficult to confirm a girl baby than it is a boy. More mistakes are made with girls than boys.

Crystal gazing, dowsing, meditation, dream sequences, psychic readings, astrological charts and palmistry have all claimed to depict the sex of an unborn child. Is it possible to determine the sex of your child before you conceive? Here are some more thoughts to ponder, perhaps to be taken with a grain of salt? Or not?

For A Boy...

• Research reveals that the more easily conception occurs, the greater the likelihood of having a boy
• First babies are often boys
• More boys are born during the first 18 months of marriage
• A diet high in salt and potassium and low on dairy products is likely to produce a son
• To increase your chances for a boy you should have sex as close to ovulation as possible
• Full-on lusty sex produces a boy
• The more sex you have the greater chance you have of producing a son
• More boys are born following a reunion after a long separation
• If both partners are in occupations where the majority of their peers are men, they will be more likely to have a son
• More boys are born to couples who have come into contact with health hazards such as factory fumes containing iron, manganese or nickel.
• Scientific evidence shows that tea and coffee drinkers tend to have boys
• A stress-free work environment increases the likelihood of a son
• Statistics show that more boys are born during times of war

The 'Boy Diet' With Salt

The following diet is thought to increase your chances of having a boy.

• Most vegetables particularly celery and legumes
• Meat
• Chicken and turkey
• Breads, cereals, pasta and rice
• Fresh or dried fruits
• Sugar, honey, jam,
• Pastries
• Tea and coffee
• Wine, beer, cider

Avoid

• Dairy products
• Shellfish
• Egg yolks
• Cakes and pancakes
• Raw cabbage
• Raw cauliflower
• Silverbeet, spinach and cress
• Cocoa and chocolate
• Strawberries, raspberries and gooseberries
• Walnuts, hazelnuts, peanuts almonds, mustard

For A Girl...

• Girls tend to be born to older parents
• Girls tend to be born to parents with more children
• A low salt diet supplemented with potassium produces a daughter
• If you or your partner are in a stressful job you are more likely to have a girl
• Men who work in the alcohol industry have more daughters than sons
• If both partners work with more women, they will be more likely to have a daughter.
• Women who have been treated with the fertility drug Clomiphene are more likely to have a girl
• Women who smoke are more likely to give birth to a girl
• Slower sex usually results in a girl
• To increase your chances of a girl you should cease intercourse two or three days before ovulation
• Health practitioners are recommending diets high in calcium for parents-to-be wanting girls

The 'Girl Diet' Without Salt

The following diet is thought to increase your chances of having a girl.

• Milk
• Eggs
• Cottage and parmesan cheese
• Evian or Perrier water
• Occasional glass of wine
• Most meats but in small quantities
• Poached fish
• Cereals, pasta and rice
• Mostly vegetables
• Potatoes three times a week
• Cooked tomatoes
• Fruit
• Jam, sugar and honey
• All herbs (not flat parsley)
• Spices and mustards
• Oils and sauces
• A balanced calcium/magnesium supplement daily

Avoid

• Alcohol
• Coffee and tea
• Fizzy drinks and fruit juice
• Shellfish, fishpaste, smoked, tinned salted fish, fish fingers
• All hard or salted cheese
• Quiche/pizza
• Ice-cream
• Fresh pineapple, plum, peach, apricot, cherry, banana, melon, orange, grapefruit
• Dried apricots, dates and figs
• Raisins, chestnut, prunes, coconuts, currants
• Sweet corn, spinach, cabbage, mushrooms
• Zucchini, endive, avocado, fennel, raw tomatoes
• Soya beans, pumpkin
• Dried split peas, broad beans and lentil
• Chocolate
• Salted butter and margarine
• Tinned or sachet soups

Moonstruck!

According to a Czech psychiatrist Dr Eugene Jonas, the positioning of the moon at the time of conception will help determine the sex of your baby. Dr Jonas bases his theory on the lunar cycle and claims a high success rate. The moon travels from one astrological sign to the next within two and a half days and in doing so, effects the acidity and alkalinity of the womb lining. This changing environment within the womb in turn affects the male or female sperm.

In theory he says it is possible to plan the times for female or male conception around the nature of the signs through which the moon passes. When the moon is in a positive zodiac sign of fire or air, a boy is more likely to be conceived. When the moon is in a negative zodiac sign of earth or water, the baby will be a girl.

Male Signs

Aries, Leo and Sagittarius (fire)
Aquarius, Libra and Gemini (air)

Female Signs

Taurus, Virgo and Capricorn (earth)
Cancer, Pisces, Scorpio (water)

Good luck!

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We inherit aspects of temperament and physical appearance from our parents. Each type of gene occurs in pairs, and each pair that we inherit contains one gene from our mother and one gene from our father. Our genes determine every factor of our being including eye and hair colour, personality, facial features, sporting ability, intelligence and resistance to diseases among many other things.

In an inherited pair of genes a dominant gene will overpower a recessive gene. For example, brown eyes dominate over blue in four out of five occurrences.

Recessive genes can pass through several generations before they reappear as shown with the gene that makes hair red. This is because the brown-hair gene dominates the red-hair gene.

Generations of two families of brown-haired people can unknowingly hand on a red-haired gene. Only when an individual inherits two of these recessive genes will that person have red hair. Therefore, it is possible that a child resembles its grandparents or great-grandparents more than its parents.    

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At birth, the ovaries of every baby girl contain almost half a million single-cell eggs, each of these is a potential human life. These eggs do not ripen until the menstrual cycle begins at puberty. During ovulation, an egg is released from an ovary and is drawn into the fallopian tube to travel towards the womb. When a man ejaculates during sexual intercourse he deposits semen, that contain millions of sperm, into the woman’s vagina.

The sperm must be vigorous enough to be able to leave the vagina for the cervix and uterus as soon as possible. In the acid environment of the vagina, they can perish quickly. In the cervix, they can survive in the mucus for five or six days. Only 2,000 or so sperm survive the journey up through the vagina, cervix and womb into the fallopian tubes.

Only one sperm can penetrate the outer layers of the egg and fertilise it. When this occurs, chemical changes triggered by enzymes prevent the entry of any other sperm.

As the nucleus of the sperm fuses with the nucleus of the egg to make one single cell, your baby’s entire genetic coding is determined for life.

This one cell, called a zygote, contains 23 chromosomes supplied by the egg and 23 chromosomes supplied by the sperm. As the cell begins to rapidly multiply it becomes a cluster of cells called a morula, the Latin word meaning “mulberry”. It travels towards the womb and floats about for a few days before it is ready to embed itself in the endometrial tissue of the womb wall. Here it will stay for nine lunar months, miraculously developing into a tiny human in preparation for birth.

During each lunar month in a menstruating woman’s life, her body prepares for pregnancy. As an egg is released and travels down the fallopian tubes towards the womb, hormones instruct the lining of the womb to thicken and blood flow to increase in anticipation of receiving a fertilised egg. Most women become aware of this as the abdominal area and breasts swell and emotional levels fluctuate.

Throughout a woman’s childbearing years, she may carry as many as 4,000 ripe eggs, but usually only one a month reaches maturity and is capable of being fertilised. Only some 375 eggs mature throughout a woman’s lifetime.

If the egg is not fertilised within a few days, it is shed, along with the lining of the uterus, during menstruation. Usually, eggs are released from alternate ovaries each month although sometimes one ovary may become more active for a few months. Occasionally, one ovary may not be functioning, or perhaps an ovary or part of the fallopian tube has been surgically removed. In both these cases, the other ovary will take over.    

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Menstruation is a woman’s monthly “period” when the vagina discharges blood and mucus. This happens as part of the 28-day menstrual cycle of egg production controlled by a hormone feedback system run by the hypothalamus and pituitary gland in the brain.

From day one in the cycle, the follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) helps a new egg form in an egg follicle. From day four, the follicle produces oestrogen, a hormone that promotes growth of the womb and breasts, and encourages the release of luteinising hormone (LH) that blocks FSH output. From day 12, LH bursts the follicle, releasing an egg (ovum) and transforms the follicle into a corpus luteum, yielding oestrogen and progesterone.

From day 14, progesterone prepares the uterus (womb) wall to receive a fertilised egg. If fertilisation fails to occur, the corpus luteum shrinks, LH, oestrogen, and progesterone output fall, the uterus lining breaks up, and its bloody fragments escape in the monthly menstrual bleeding. Essentially, every month a menstruating woman's body prepares for a pregnancy that may, or may not occur.

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