Have you heard of the nub and skull theory? Or any other gender prediction test for expectant parents?
If you're pregnant or have had a baby in the last few years, the answer's probably yes.
Because apparently there's a new craze for mums-to-be to post their baby's scan pictures online so that medical experts can guess the child's gender using the nub and skull theory.
The idea is that you can predict the gender of an unborn child by analysing the shape of its skill and the location of its 'nub' – otherwise known as a genital tubercle. Babies with nubs angled at 30 degrees are likely to be boys, while a nub angled below 30 degrees is likely to be a girl.
And when it comes to skulls, baby boys are supposedly likely to have square chins, a chunkier skull shape and more pronounced brow ridge, whereas girl’s skulls have a smaller brow ridge and more pointed chins.
According to ChannelMum, the skull and nub theory is now the fastest-growing gender prediction technique, and three quarters (72 per cent) of mums and dads say they want to find out their unborn baby’s gender.
But the most popular method is, unsurprisingly, asking medical staff the baby's gender at the 20-week scan.
The site reports:
Also fashionable is the ‘Chinese Gender Prediction’ calendar which guesses the sex based on the date couples conceive and is tried by over half of mums (57 per cent).
A further 48 per cent try to work out of they are having a girl or a boy by the size and shape of their bump and 45 per cent use the ‘heart rate theory’ which claims a foetus’ heartbeat above 140 beats per minute is more likely to be a girl.
Meanwhile 44 per cent analysed their food cravings and 30 per cent tried an old wives tale of dangling a ring on a piece of string above the bump, with a circling ring indicating a girl and side-to-side movement meaning a boy.
One in five even tried to guess their tot’s gender from the amount of morning sickness they suffered, with worse sickness believed to show a baby girl.
I'll admit to trying all of those gender prediction tests to work out if I was having a girl or a boy when I was expecting my third baby. I even recall peeing in a cup full of baking soda, and something about whether or not it 'fizzed' determining whether I was having a boy or a girl.
I'm typically a huge cynic about gender prediction tests but they're great fun to try when you're pregnant. Having had a daughter after two sons and not knowing she was a girl until she was born, I'm hugely in favour of the 'wait and see' approach to gender prediction.
And, of course, there's a lot to be said for the whole ' Why does it even matter?' approach to gender prediction theories.
How about you? Did you try any of these tricks to work out if you were having a boy or a girl? Or are you firmly of the view that there's nothing like the joy of a surprise after you've given birth? Leave us a comment here or come and join the conversation over on our Facebook page. And don't forget to take part in our poll.
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