If you already have a houseful of baby girls or naturally prefer batting practice to ballet lessons, you may be wondering is there a way to conceive a baby boy. If you have your heart set on having a boy, the good news is that the odds are in your favor as for every 49 baby girls that are conceived there are 51 boys.  Apparently, this is Mother Nature’s method  of insuring an even sex distribution as the male of the species is more fragile.  

IS GENDER SELECTION UNETHICAL?

There are those that believe  that attempting to give birth to  one gender over another is wrong . However, in a recent survey of mothers and fathers  who were either trying to get pregnant  or were expecting  the findings were that nearly three fourths of all surveyed stated  they had strong hopes for either a baby boy or girl. 

First time fathers  generally have hopes of having a boy  while first time mothers are hoping for a daughter .  Parents who already have a child of one gender may wish for their expected baby to be of a different gender than the one from a previous pregnancy.

TIPS TO CONCEIVE A BOY NATURALLY

If you have your mind set on having a son and dreams of  a baby boy nursery in blue, here are a few suggestions  that may (or may not) insure you have a boy.  One such method is the Shettles Method.  Dr. Shettles indicates that male gender selection is possible because sperm containing Y chromosomes are faster  than sperm carrying the X chromosome. Taking this into consideration, his theory is that if a man and woman are  trying to conceive a boy they should have sexual intercourse  no more than 24 hours before ovulation and no later than 12 hours past the time of ovulation.  Dr. Shettles also believes  that  depositing the sperm closer to the cervix will give the speedy  Y sperm an opportunity to get a head start in the fertilization process.

If you would like to read more about  how to conceive a boy using the Shettles method of gender selection you can read his book titled “How to Choose the Sex of Your Baby: The Method Best Supported by Scientific Evidence”. 

The next method, The Whelan Method, came about as a rebuttal to the previously mentioned method .  Dr. Whelan’s belief  is that timing is everything in determining the sex of babies  and that if you want a son  having intercourse  early in your monthly cycle will give you a better chance of producing a a son.  She  has researched the numbers and has determined that her method helped couples get their boy  68% of the time.  

To get more details on when in your cycle to start trying to conceive a boy , you can read all about it in her  book, “Boy or Girl?”

 IS THERE A SUREFIRE WAY TO CONCEIVE A BABY BOY?

When it comes to attempting to have a baby of a certain sex , I would place my bet  on science before relying on  Chinese Conception charts and old wives’ tales even though there are plenty of moms  who swear  they conceived their baby boy after a string of daughters  only because they took a particular vitamin  or waited until a certain month of the year before actively trying to conceive .  But the facts are that as things stand today, other than using artificial insemination, you have about a 50/50 chance  to have a boy (or a girl) so I would recommend waiting for proof  before decorating the nursery  in colors desirable for a boy.