h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

OK here goes on the pregnancy old wives tales:

If you are carrying the extra weight out front, it's a boy.

If the hair on your legs is growing faster during pregnancy, it's a boy.

Girls are carried high; boys are carried low.

Sleeping in a bed with your pillow to the north indicates that you will be having a boy.

Your feet are colder than they were before pregnancy. You are having a boy.

If the Dad-to-be is gaining weight along with Mum-to-be, it means that you'll have a boy.

If the maternal grandmother has gray hair, it will be a boy.

If the sum of the mother's age at conception and the number of the month of conception is even, it will be a boy.

If a needle on a thread held over your belly moves in circles, you will have a boy.

If your urine is a bright neon yellow color, you will have a boy.

If your nose has been spreading, it indicates a boy.

If you have been craving meats or cheeses, it will be a boy.

If you refuse to eat the heel of a loaf of bread. You are having a girl.

If you had morning sickness early in pregnancy, you are expecting a girl.

If you are looking particularly good during pregnancy; it must be a boy, because girls steal their mother's looks (a particularly paranoid OWT).

If your chest development has been quite dramatic during pregnancy; You should expect a girl.

If you are craving sweets, it means that it is a girl.

If your baby's heart rate is 140 or more beats per minute, it's a girl.

Anyone got any more?

My mother hates cheese but had a strong craving for it during both pregnancies. Result? Two girls.

Just proves that some old wives' tales are complete bollocks.

And there I was convinced that the "heel of the bread" method had it's grounding in solid scientific evidence. Bugger...

What is the 'heel of the loaf of bread'? Is it the hard bit of crust at the end? I won't eat that bit unless the bread is really fresh.

I would believe so. Obviously it'd have to be your farmhouse granary, rather than your Tesco's medium white slice. I suppose on traditionally made bread it looked a bit more like a heel and a bit less like a brake pad.

I had morning sickenss from the start right to the end of pregnancy and a boy it was for me.

And apparently, if it's really hot when you conceive, it'll be a boy.

I saw an Equinox (or some such program) a few yers back which showed that during the first six weeks of the embryos life it has no gender and has the propensity to be both, and that it the gender is based on very fragile temerature differentiation within the mother's womb. They were talking about this in relation to transexuality, and why if there was a sudden temp change, the body goes rattling off building testicles, while the brain is firmly fixed on developing a sugar and spice fixation.