Some parents want to learn their baby's sexual activity ASAP. Others opt for surprise, choosing to wait until babe'south arrival to find out if they're welcoming a son or a daughter.

If you autumn into the one-time campsite, you'll likely look forward to your 18-20 week ultrasound, the routine 2nd trimester ultrasound, which is by and large when your OB/GYN is able to investigate and determine a baby's sexual activity. Other parents detect out baby'due south gender a niggling sooner through noninvasive prenatal testing (NIPT), which tin can be washed after calendar week 9.

Of course, you may likewise be itching for data much before in your pregnancy, which is why the "ring gender test" — a superstitious method that has been passed down from generation to generation — sounds so intriguing.

What is the band gender examination?

The ring gender test is an onetime wives' tale that claims to determine the sex of a pregnant woman's babe. According to the believers in this test, the manner a band that's attached to a piece of string moves when held over a mom-to-be'due south belly can indicate whether the baby she's carrying is a boy or a girl.

How to practice the ring gender exam

If you desire to try the ring gender test, all y'all need is a piece of thread attached to a ring (traditionally the expectant mom'southward wedding ring) and some other person to concur the thread for you.

  • Lie on your back and accept another person dangle the thread over your baby bump, allowing it to motion in whatever move comes organically.
  • If the ring moves back and forth like a pendulum: the baby is a male child.
  • If the ring moves in a circumvolve: the baby is a girl.

Does the ring gender test really work?

Although some expectant parents swear the band gender test tin provide on-bespeak results, this is another gender prediction superstition that'southward just for fun doesn't have the scientific discipline to back information technology up.

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Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health actually did include the gender band examination in one 1999 report. Researchers asked 104 pregnant women to use whatever method they liked ("folk adages, dreams, hunches," and including the band gender test) to guess the sexual practice of their babies. The result: Moms guessed correctly 55 percent of the fourth dimension, which the report pointed out is "a charge per unit no amend than mere guesswork could provide."

Predicting Your Infant'due south Gender

Meliorate alternatives to the ring gender exam

If you desire to know your baby's sex prior to your 2nd trimester ultrasound, in that location are several sexual activity-prediction testing options. Over-the-counter gender prediction kits claim to accept an accuracy rate of anywhere from 80 to 90 percent, but they toll anywhere from $xl for a urine-based test to a few hundred for a blood-sample test and oft enhance more questions than answers.

In that location are two other testing options that are more than formal and loftier-tech:

  • NIPT. As early as 9 weeks into your pregnancy, you can learn the sex of your baby through a simple blood test, noninvasive prenatal testing (NIPT). Studies show it's more 99 per centum accurate at predicting a baby's sex activity, plus information technology offers a rundown of a baby'south risk of sure chromosomal abnormalities including trisomy 21 (Down syndrome), trisomy 18 (Edwards syndrome) and trisomy 13 (Patau syndrome). Information technology'southward suggested for moms whose age or genetic history indicates in that location might be a risk of nascency defects, and it's not invasive — meaning there'southward no risk for you or your babe. If yous're interested in having NIPT to notice out your baby's gamble of chromosomal abnormalities in addition to finding out his or her gender, talk to your doctor.
  • CVS and amnio. Both chorionic villus sampling (CVS) and amniocentesis are invasive diagnostic tests that clarify a baby's genetic makeup and screen for chromosomal abnormalities (between calendar week ten and 13 of pregnancy for CVS and typically between week 16 and 18 for amnio, though it can vary). Once again, these tests are usually recommended for moms who are higher risk, peculiarly since they're invasive (which slightly elevates your risk of miscarriage). In other words, they're not designed for parents who are only curious about their baby's gender. But if your practitioner recommends you accept one or the other (and yous're itching to find out the sexual practice of your baby-to-be), the results can tell you the infant's gender with 100 percent accuracy.

The bottom line: At that place'south no damage in doing the ring gender test. After all, plenty of moms are fatigued to it, if only for the amusement value. But for a more accurate reply, wait for the results of your NIPT exam, twenty-week ultrasound, or CVS or amniocentesis test.