When it comes to being parents, there must be a majority of those to whom the sex of the baby gives them a little equal. There is always someone who would like to be more funny than a girl or a boy, but the final choice is left to chance or fate.
Some couples, on the other hand, are more clear about the sex they would prefer for their next child and do their best to get it based on diet, customs, etc. recommendations.
Well, to all known methods, or to all the factors we knew that are related to the sex of the baby, another one is added: stress. And is that a study conducted by the Department of Public Health at the University of Oxford found that Mother's stress may be related to the sex of the baby.
How stress affects the sex of the baby
According to the researchers, women who have a higher level of long-term stress, that is, those who are most stressed normally, before pregnancy and during, are more likely to have girls. They also take longer to get pregnant.
The study was conducted with healthy women from the United Kingdom who were trying to have a baby. The objective was to know the factors that help a pregnancy to end well, in a healthy way, and in return, to know which were the ones that can affect negatively. Likewise, knowing the appropriate customs or habits to achieve a pregnancy and the inadequate ones, which can delay the moment of conception.
They saw, as I said, that stress was one of the factors that could cause problems in pregnancy and in the development of the baby. Incidentally, and without looking for it, they observed that women with higher levels of alpha-amylase and cortisol (this hormone is linked to long-term stress) before pregnancy tthey end up having more girls.
Of the 338 women, 58 boys and 72 girls were born, but we talked about all the women in the sample, those who had stress and those who did not. When it came to separating them, those with the most cortisol (long-term problems) had a 75% more likely to have a girl than those without stress. If they had more alpha-amylase (increases when we have specific problems), they had 69% more Probability of having a girl.
Is there a causality?
Now, as the researchers say, the sample is very small and may not be a real causal relationship. Even if the sample were large, stress could be the consequence of some factor that would actually be the cause of having more daughters, such as occupation, food and / or other problems.
If we think about the survival of the species, it has a certain logic. Elevated stress levels may be "telling" the body of women that life is not easy outside and that humans may have trouble maintaining the population. As most species have evolved throughout life to have as a first objective the survival of the species, the most logical thing, in times of danger to humanity, is that more women are born, which are what can give birth to babies.
Now, something is wrong in my theory: why do they take longer to achieve a pregnancy? Shouldn't it be the opposite, that More stress, more ability to procreate? Or perhaps the limitation also has to do with all this, because the stress of the mother can be detrimental in her work as a mother and it is interesting that she has few children, to be able to take care of them, but that they are girls?
When in doubt, whatever the reality, I have only to emphasize that the methods to try to select the sex of the baby are not effective one hundred percent, that being stressed can affect many things and that it is not a state that We must voluntarily seek to try to have a daughter and, consequently, to avoid further disappointments, it is best not to make many cabals or inventions in this regard, be clear that both can be a boy or a girl, and that, Whatever it is, it must be received with the same joy.
