I'm sure the first burning question in all your minds, on learning that the Duchess of Cambridge (i.e. Kate Middleton) is expecting, was: Does the hyperemesis gravidarum mean it's a girl?
The brief answer is no. It's still pretty close to even odds.
HG is associated with a very slightly elevated incidence of female babies - 53 or 54% rather than the usual 47-ish% of babies born were female. This bizarre and not very good study of only patients with HG shows that these people are more likely to be pregnant with a female baby. (This is a European registry study from 1987 purporting to demonstrate the same thing, but it only exists on paper in a basement somewhere.)
YOU'RE WELCOME.
My favorite conversation about predicting babies' gender is courtesy of Patrick's mom. "I can usually tell by looking at the way they carry the baby (blah blah blah description of method.)" Mom, you know that has nothing to do with gender, replies Patrick. "Well, I get it right about half the time." Yes, I'm sure you do, Mother.
ReplyDeletegood answer!
ReplyDeleteis there any similar study for twins (that seems to be the other speculation)?
I was a lucky ducky with nothing beyond slight nausea sometimes.
According to these people twin pregnancies are more likely to have nausea, but I didn't find any real studies on HG.
DeleteYou're going to think this is so silly. But I clicked over here from Bionic & Sugar's place solely because you called your child Tatoe -- with the E. We call our son Tatoe too and I just had to come over and send a virtual hug over a shared, silly, misspelled nickname. :)
ReplyDeleteNot at all silly! It's a lovely nickname. :)
DeleteSee, a friend of mine had HG with her first, a girl, but did much better with the second, a boy. But she also accepted "better living through chemistry" more readily the 2nd time. And, well, data is not the plural of anecdote.
ReplyDeleteI love that--"Data is not the plural of anecdote"
ReplyDelete--Neighbor Lady