Wives Tales, Theories and Folklore

According to some interesting ideas, I can predict the gender of my baby without and medical intervention at all! Thank goodness, because I was thinking some people were going to start an uproar about Will and I's decision to keep it a surprise until birth. Here's a few of my favorite myths I've encountered thus far:
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If you have heartburn, your baby will be born with hair. Or, it's a girl

I actually would really like to hear the logistics behind this one. I mean, let's think about this for one second. Is your uterus even REMOTELY connected to your esophagus? Is there even a relative proximity between my throat and my placenta? If there were, I would probably be concerned about much more than heartburn. The truth is, heartburn comes down to a few simple physiological explanations. 1. Any lady that's been pregnant can attest to the fact that as our pregnancy progresses, our muscles, tendons and ligaments loosen- a lot. While it makes sense for our ligaments in the pelvic girdle to loosen later in pregnancy, it kind of makes for an uncomfortable time up until then (think sore back, knees, etc). This is the same phenomenon that is a main cause of heartburn. The valve between our stomach and esophagus, called a pyloric sphincter, is significantly looser than it was prior to pregnancy. This causes the acid from our stomachs to reflux into our esophagus, causing heartburn. 2. This one is a little more obvious. As the uterus grows to accommodate it's ever-growing tenant, it puts pressure on the stomach, thus pushing stomach acid up against the pyloric sphincter and into our esophagus. I know, you liked the explanation of hair much better.

If you've followed my blog for any amount of time, you'll know that I've been getting heartburn since about 12 weeks. Apparently it's going to be a hairy girl. 

Carrying low? Boy. Carrying high? Girl

Again, the logic is just not there. What is the rationalization behind this theory? If baby girls and baby boys are both born at the same 7.63 pound average weight, why would the gender change the position of the fetal growth? The only factors that truly effect the way a woman carries are muscle tone and body type. If a woman has strong abdominal muscles, she will tend to carry higher until late in pregnancy when the baby "drops". If the mother has had previous children, is older, or has, um, neglected her ab workouts, chances are she'll carry lower. The length of a torso will also effect the direction in which the baby grows.

I am carrying low and out front so far, so according to this wives tale, it's a boy. According to reality, I need to hit the gym.

Fetal heart rate: High is a girl, low is a boy

The first time we got the hear the heart beat, it was 165 beats per minute. The second time, it was 142. According to the wives tale, what does this say about our baby? In reality, if you were to take a fetal heart rate 10 times within an hour, you'd likely get 10 different rates ranging from both above and below 140 BPM. The variation has more to do with the developing fetal brain than the genitalia (what a thought, huh). While the nervous system develops, the baby's heart rate spikes when stimulated by the sympathetic nervous system and falls when controlled by the parasympathetic nervous system. Interesting, eh?

Judging by the heart rate theory, we're having a girl.

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Although I invest no weight into these wives tales, they are still kind of fun to hear about. I have had lots of women POSITIVE that I am having an XYZ because of so-and-so theory. It's kind of funny to hear their explanations. Cast your lots now, people. We'll see if these hold any truth come October!