Can I Tell Gender By Heart Rate?
QUESTION
Dear Ms Ultrasound,
What is a normal heartbeat for a baby? I am 15 weeks along right now. Can you tell the sex of the baby by the heartbeat? My baby's heartbeat is 145. I have heard that girls typically have faster heartbeats than boys (around 165).
ANSWER
Hi,
The normal heart rate for a fetus is 120 to 160 beats per minute. Your baby's heartbeat is perfect! The old story of determining sex with the beats per minute is just an old wives-tale. There has never been any scientific validity to determining the sex with heart-rate.
An added note: My interest is in dreams during pregnancy. I have found over many years of asking patients about their dreams and then looking to see what they are having, that dreams determining the sex of your unborn child are one of the most accurate ways of knowing what you are having. What have you or someone close to you dreamed of your unborn child?
-- Jane, RDMS
Jane Foley
Jane Foley has worked as a Sonographer (Ultrasound Technologist) since 1979. Jane has lived and worked in many parts of the world including Saudi Arabia. She is a Registered Diagnostic Medical Sonographer or RDMS. She pulls a wealth of information from her experience in the field of Radiology and her interactions with such a broad cross-section of cultures she has visited. She now makes her home on the island of Maui with her English husband, Michael.
