Deciding whether you want to know the gender of your baby before they are born is a personal choice. Some parents like to be surprised and wait until the baby is born, while others prefer to plan ahead and find out as soon as possible. But if you do decide that you want to know your baby's gender in advance, there are several ways available for determining it.
The most reliable way of finding out your baby's gender is by having an ultrasound performed at 18-20 weeks gestation. During this scan, the technician will look carefully at the genitals and other parts of the body, such as hands and feet, which can indicate male or female features. Ultrasounds have been proven accurate in determining sex up to 99% of the time when done correctly by a trained professional.
Another option for knowing baby’s gender involves taking blood tests during pregnancy (at 10-13 weeks) that measure levels of hormones related to fetal development; these tests are known as noninvasive prenatal testing (NIPT). While NIPT does not provide 100 percent accuracy in predicting gender — since it relies on hormone levels — studies have shown that these tests are usually more than 95% accurate in identifying male or female fetuses with no risk posed to mother or child during testing procedure.
Although not considered scientific methods due to their lack of reliability, some old wives' tales claim they can predict a fetus' sex based on certain physical signs or symptoms experienced by mom during her pregnancy: Even though none has been scientifically tested or confirmed effective yet!