# Do British couples prefer not to find out the sex of their gestating baby? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Tags:** tv-shows-scripted\ **Created:** [April 30, 2025, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-british-couples-prefer-not-to-find-out-the-sex-of-their-gestating-baby/1017678 "2025-04-30T01:40:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![yendis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/ed8c4c/32.png) [@yendis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yendis)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2025, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-british-couples-prefer-not-to-find-out-the-sex-of-their-gestating-baby/1017678/21 "2025-04-30T13:58:51Z")
> [@PatrickLondon](#): > > How long before there are parties at the conception? It’s been done. [Bedding ceremony - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bedding_ceremony) Assuming conception occured on the wedding night. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2025, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-british-couples-prefer-not-to-find-out-the-sex-of-their-gestating-baby/1017678/22 "2025-04-30T16:09:21Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > hold them for months before they deliver them with 24 hours’ notice Is this because there’s no point in crowding your home with baby stuff before the baby is born? Or is this because of the possibility that the pregnancy will end in a miscarriage or a stillbirth or an early death? That way the parents could avoid the events in the famous, but never actually published, world’s (supposedly) shortest story: > **[For sale: baby shoes, never worn](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/For_sale:_baby_shoes,_never_worn)** > > "For sale: baby shoes, never worn." is a six-word story, and one of the most famous examples of flash fiction. Versions of the story date back to the early 1900s, and it was being reproduced and expanded upon within a few years of its initial publication. > The story is popularly misattributed to Ernest Hemingway; this is implausible, as versions of the story first appeared in 1906, when Hemingway was 7 years old, and it was first attributed to him in 1991, 30 years after his death. > The story i... ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2025, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-british-couples-prefer-not-to-find-out-the-sex-of-their-gestating-baby/1017678/23 "2025-04-30T16:15:24Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > Is this because there’s no point in crowding your home with baby stuff before the baby is born? Or is this because of the possibility that the pregnancy will end in a miscarriage or a stillbirth or an early death? The latter. The last thing anyone wants is to clean out an unused baby’s room. ---
**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2025, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-british-couples-prefer-not-to-find-out-the-sex-of-their-gestating-baby/1017678/24 "2025-04-30T16:49:50Z")
My niece is pregnant right now, and I just recently learned that there are new techniques for determining the sex of a baby without an ultrasound or amniocentesis. Just with a blood test from the mother. It works like this: The placental barrier is not perfect, so a tiny amount of fetal cells makes its way into the mother’s blood. With modern techniques those fetal cells can be identified and their DNA analyzed. ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2025, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-british-couples-prefer-not-to-find-out-the-sex-of-their-gestating-baby/1017678/25 "2025-04-30T17:11:21Z")
Sounds like it might be more expensive than an ultrasound. At least, they always talk about DNA testing as being expensive. I have a good friend from Iran but of Armenian ancestry. When she was pregnant I told her I wanted to organize her shower. She didn’t know what that was and thought we were going to bathe her. Heh. But she said in Iran people never give you baby gifts until after the baby is born with similar thinking to what @Alessan described. ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2025, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-british-couples-prefer-not-to-find-out-the-sex-of-their-gestating-baby/1017678/26 "2025-04-30T17:25:08Z")
If they’re just looking for Y chromosomes, that could be cheaper. If there’s a Y in a mother’s blood, it’s not hers. If you say that no Y means a girl, you’re really counting on chromosomes mixing. Back when microchimerism was first discovered, they were postulating that the mixing happened during birth. ---
**Author:** ![DemonTree](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/demontree/32/8646_2.png) [@DemonTree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DemonTree)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2025, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-british-couples-prefer-not-to-find-out-the-sex-of-their-gestating-baby/1017678/27 "2025-04-30T17:26:42Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > It is. It’s so common that the system is set up for it - the infant retail chains will let you make all your purchases, and then hold them for months before they deliver them with 24 hours’ notice. I can’t decide whether if the worst happened it would be harder to come home to a house full of baby stuff, or to an unchanged home with no sign your baby ever existed. 💔 ---
**Author:** ![Die\_Capacitrix](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/die_capacitrix/32/9_2.png) [@Die\_Capacitrix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Die_Capacitrix)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2025, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-british-couples-prefer-not-to-find-out-the-sex-of-their-gestating-baby/1017678/28 "2025-04-30T17:27:16Z")
In Switzerland baby showers are unusual. People wait until the baby is born to celebrate the baby’s birth. It’s also considered unlucky to wish somebody a happy birthday before the actual day. Most couples will know if it’s a boy or a girl long before the birth, and will even share the information with grandma (at least), even if they might not tell their friends. So I knew my neighbor was expecting another granddaughter months before the baby was born. Anybody else read the OP as, “Do British couples prefer not to find out the sex of their gesticulating baby?” ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2025, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-british-couples-prefer-not-to-find-out-the-sex-of-their-gestating-baby/1017678/29 "2025-04-30T17:31:49Z")
> [@Die\_Capacitrix](#): > > Anybody else read the OP as, “Do British couples prefer not to find out the sex of their gesticulating baby?” That would be an Italian baby. ---
**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2025, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-british-couples-prefer-not-to-find-out-the-sex-of-their-gestating-baby/1017678/30 "2025-04-30T18:26:36Z")
That’s true. As I understand it, they detected Y chromosomes in my niece’s blood and that’s how they were able to determine that her baby will be a boy, way before any of the traditional tests were possible. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2025, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-british-couples-prefer-not-to-find-out-the-sex-of-their-gestating-baby/1017678/31 "2025-04-30T23:33:37Z")
To make the plot of the sitcom work it’s not necessary that the majority of the British don’t want to know the sex of their baby - it’s only necessary that the majority of British sitcom watches _know somebody_ who would prefer not the know. (My wife and I (American) chose not to go out of our way to find out the sex of our little one (back in the late 90s) - if some doctor inadvertently told us I wouldn’t have been too upset) ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2025, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-british-couples-prefer-not-to-find-out-the-sex-of-their-gestating-baby/1017678/32 "2025-05-01T00:15:04Z")
> [@suranyi](#): > > That’s true. As I understand it, they detected Y chromosomes in my niece’s blood and that’s how they were able to determine that her baby will be a boy, way before any of the traditional tests were possible. Does that work for second children? I thought that a few fetal cells lingered in the mother for the rest of her life, and it was hypothesized that this was one reason women have a higher rate of auto-immune disease than men – because it’s often not an immune response to “self” but to “my child’s lingering cells”. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2025, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-british-couples-prefer-not-to-find-out-the-sex-of-their-gestating-baby/1017678/33 "2025-05-01T00:21:04Z")
Oh, please tell me this is true. I beg you. ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2025, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-british-couples-prefer-not-to-find-out-the-sex-of-their-gestating-baby/1017678/34 "2025-05-01T00:27:40Z")
LOL. I hadn’t heard this. Does this means as one of those no-good horrible non-birth-giving women I’ll be spared autoimmune diseases? ---
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2025, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-british-couples-prefer-not-to-find-out-the-sex-of-their-gestating-baby/1017678/35 "2025-05-01T01:08:37Z")
> [@UDS1](#): > > With the first baby, as the date approaches you buy the essentials — a cot, bedding, a stock of newborn babygrows, an enormous pile of muslin puke-rags, etc. Huh. Chalk this up to another difference between the King’s English and American English. To my ears, a cot is a low bed that one would sleep on if, say, camping in a tent, or a soldier on bivouac. A quick Google search reveals that you’re talking about is what we would call a crib. ---
**Author:** ![UDS1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/e47774/32.png) [@UDS1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS1)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2025, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-british-couples-prefer-not-to-find-out-the-sex-of-their-gestating-baby/1017678/36 "2025-05-01T01:25:07Z")
> [@HeyHomie](#): > > Huh. Chalk this up to another difference between the King’s English and American English. To my ears, a cot is a low bed that one would sleep on if, say, camping in a tent, or a soldier on bivouac. A quick Google search reveals that you’re talking about is what we would call a crib. It’s a crib if the baby in it is Baby Jesus; otherwise it’s a cot. (Fun fact; the earliest sense of the word in English is “a receptacle for animal fodder”. The infant Jesus was, of course, laid in just such a crib, and was so depicted in art. I’m guess that the extended meaning of a bed for any baby that is popular in US Eng but I think not so much in other dialects comes from this.) The low bed that you sleep on in a tent is usually a camp bed, the defining feature of which is that it’s collapsible. ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2025, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-british-couples-prefer-not-to-find-out-the-sex-of-their-gestating-baby/1017678/37 "2025-05-01T03:59:54Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > Does that work for second children? According to old articles I read awhile ago, your second and subsequent children will also contribute chromosomes to you, their mother. And the chromosomes that were contributed by the first child (and subsequent children) can be passed to the second child (and subsequent children) through you, their mother. The further down the line a child is, the more genetic material from previous womb-mates they’re likely to have been born with. Not sure how much first children and others are likely to get from their mothers. Mothers mostly don’t have the Y chromosomes that are so cheap to look for. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2025, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-british-couples-prefer-not-to-find-out-the-sex-of-their-gestating-baby/1017678/38 "2025-05-01T04:29:51Z")
> [@carrps](#): > > LOL. I hadn’t heard this. Does this means as one of those no-good horrible non-birth-giving women I’ll be spared autoimmune diseases? Men get auto immune diseases too, just not as often as women. So… Maybe your odds of avoiding it are a little better. ---
**Author:** ![Frodo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/frodo/32/302_2.png) [@Frodo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frodo)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2025, 5:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-british-couples-prefer-not-to-find-out-the-sex-of-their-gestating-baby/1017678/39 "2025-05-01T05:53:16Z")
🤌 ---
**Author:** ![bengangmo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@bengangmo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bengangmo)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2025, 6:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-british-couples-prefer-not-to-find-out-the-sex-of-their-gestating-baby/1017678/40 "2025-05-01T06:20:54Z")
> [@HeyHomie](#): > > > [@UDS1](#): > > > > With the first baby, as the date approaches you buy the essentials — a cot, bedding, a stock of newborn babygrows, an enormous pile of muslin puke-rags, etc. > > Huh. Chalk this up to another difference between the King’s English and American English. To my ears, a cot is a low bed that one would sleep on if, say, camping in a tent, or a soldier on bivouac. A quick Google search reveals that you’re talking about is what we would call a crib. A crib is a bach, definitely not something you’d leave the demon spawn alone in… Finding out the sex is normal in both Singapore and NZ - my partner had about 10 or so ultrasounds before birth. And on edit… a bassinette would normally be a cot you can pick up and carry around [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-british-couples-prefer-not-to-find-out-the-sex-of-their-gestating-baby/1017678.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-british-couples-prefer-not-to-find-out-the-sex-of-their-gestating-baby/1017678.md?page=3)