Two Sides to Discovering Your Baby’s Gender

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After revealing to people that you are pregnant you can expect two questions to be posed: when is the baby due and do you know if you are having a girl or boy. Like with most discussions that pertain to our children, opions will vary. The topic of discovering a baby’s gender before birth is a personal one. Tere (A Mom, A Blog, and the Life In-Between) and Caitlin (Healthy Tipping Point) share their different perspectives.

two sides headshot tereWants to Know
Tere (excerpt from A Baby’s Gender is Known, But Not By Me).

I’m excited to find out, mainly because I can NOT wait any longer to buy baby things. It’s been torture to see so many cute things and not be able to buy anything! It’s also pretty amazing how very little there is available in neutral themes or colors; I’m convinced that in the seven-and-a-half years since my last pregnancy, infant clothing and accessories have become ever more genderized. More than this, knowing what Baby F is will make him/her more real to me.

Continue reading A Baby’s Gender is Known, But Not By Me to learn more about Tere’s reasons for discovering her baby’s gender before birth.

 

two sides headshot caitlinWaiting to Find Out
Caitlin (excerpt from Waiting to Find Out: Boy or Girl?).

There were multiple reasons for waiting: I liked the mystery of waiting; I thought waiting would be a good motivator during labor; and, to a lesser degree, I was interested in keeping my thoughts about the baby ‘gender neutral.’ Side note: gender concerns the social differences between men and women while sex is a biological distinction. Anyway, I once read a study that described how moms who know their baby’s sex tend to use gender generalizations to describe them in utero (“My girl kicks like a dainty ballerina!” v. “My boy is strong like football player!”). I liked the idea of not conferring personality characteristics on the baby simply because I knew their sex (not that you’re psychologically harming a child by doing this, of course – it’s just an interesting theory!).

Continue reading Waiting to Find Out: Boy or Girl? to learn more about Caitlin’s reasons for waiting until delivery to discover her baby’s gender.

When trying to gather different opinions for this piece I was surprised by the number of posts advocating keeping baby’s gender a secret versus finding out right away. This surprised me mainly because there seem to be so many posts on gender reveal parties, like this one shared over on Chelsea Davis Photography’s site. Perhaps most people do discover their baby’s gender and therefore people don’t feel the need to write about this aspect of pregnancy? I have no facts to back this up of course, I just thought it was an interesting difference.

When you were expecting, did you discover the gender of your baby and why? Did anyone make you feel bad about your decision? Have you ever attended or hosted a Gender Reveal party?

Images and excerpts reprinted with permission from original authors.

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