Being able to prepare for either a little boy or little girl while pregnant is one of the many wonders of scanning technology – but should you make use of it? We asked our readers and here’s what they had to say...
YES:
“We couldn’t wait!”
“We found out firstly because we were desperate and way too excited not to! It also made my bond with Jacob so much stronger before he came into the world, and helped our families to bond and help us prepare too. I like to think if we have a second I’ll keep the gender a surprise, but not sure we have the willpower! — Cassie Gibson
“I wanted to sort the nursery”
“We found out because I wanted to get the nursery sorted in advance. I was able to fine-tune my style for my daughter Katinka and trawl the Facebook mummy and bargain groups to find exactly what I was looking for. I bought almost everything second-hand and kitted out her nursery with exceptional pieces at a fraction of the price. — Kirsty van Rooyen
“It helped me prepare for motherhood...but it has its downsides”
“I felt finding out helped me to mentally prepare for the arrival. I suppose it allowed me to have imaginary conversations with my (not so) imaginary little boys and helped me through the nausea and the discomfort and the usual pregnancy delights! It also helped me to prepare for motherhood, which in itself is a huge transition often overlooked by the majority of people, as I could picture myself with a baby boy. However finding out can have its downside... as happened in this pregnancy when at 15 weeks we were told it was a girl but at 22 weeks it was confirmed as a boy! You can’t imagine the look on my face! — Lynda McWalter
“It helped me get to know her before birth (even though ‘she’ turned out to be a he!)”
“My mother compared it to peeking at your presents before Christmas and then having nothing to look forward to. For us, however, the decision was not about waiting for a surprise, but about being able to bond with and prepare for our unborn child. From the 14-week scan we were told Baby McLean was a girl, and I felt that knowing the sex not only helped with names and buying clothes etc but I was also getting to know my little girl before birth. The fact that Baby McLean turned out to be a boy is another story! — Katie McLean
NO:
“Gender won’t be your child’s biggest surprise”
"I didn’t want to ruin the surprise and for me the health of the baby was more important than gender. I didn’t really worry about gender-specific things. I believe a child surprises us in so many ways...gender probably won’t be the biggest. — Ritika Rana
“The doctor told me even though I didn’t want to know!”
“I didn’t want to know the gender of my baby as we thought it would be a great surprise for us. Most of my check-ups in the first trimester happened in India, where finding out the gender of your baby is an offence and against the law. In my last trimester I had to do my test over here in Dubai and the doctor wasn’t aware that I didn’t know the gender of my baby. After three attempts of trying to get a good scan picture the doctor remarked “he just won’t turn”. And that’s how I came to find out it was going to be a boy!” — Amanda Dias
“We didn’t care about gender, we were just so happy to be pregnant”
“We did IVF to conceive and when we found out we were having twins we were ecstatic. We didn’t find out the gender of the babies as we wanted to keep it a surprise, and decided that no matter what the gender of the babies was we were not going to have more children. The gender of the babies wasn’t important to us, we were just so excited to be pregnant with twins. — Gurkamal Punia Dasani (Kamal), BSc OT
“I left it to fate”
“We adopted our beautiful daughter Darcie from Ethiopia. We could have chosen the gender when we were going through the adoption process. However, we chose to leave it to fate. Welcoming a child into the world is the most precious and delightful surprise you will ever get in life. Some things in life are best kept as a surprise. — Jen Morris
“The doctor wouldn’t tell me”
“I have no patience so I wanted to find out the gender initially. My husband didn’t agree. However, to my surprise, even in this part of the world, the doctors can be hesitant to tell you the gender, as some cultures value boys over girls. By my seventh month I didn’t really care about the gender. I just loved the feeling of that life kicking inside of me. – Navita Gupta
