Boy or Girl??

Can science discover the sex of the child in its mother's womb??
And what is the feeling of a woman with four daughters
if she learns that her fifth child is—a girl?
This article is drawn from The Woman's Voice's readings in the world press.

Since the dawn of mankind, woman, whenever she has conceived, has spent her mind's efforts in anxious search after the sex of the child she carries between her ribs: is it male or female? And in times past science was powerless to fathom this obscure secret, for all the theories and conjectures that turned about it.

Astrologers, sorcerers, and men of religion played a great part in drawing back the veil from this secret, and they claimed to have pierced it. They boasted that the cases they guessed rightly fell no lower than a rate of fifty in a hundred—and it escaped them that these were coincidences and nothing more.

Some peoples went further still, claiming that the male fetus is stronger of nerve than the female and therefore moves more; that the female's place in the mother's womb lies higher than the male's; that a male causes a swelling of the right breast! and a female a pain in the left side of the belly! Modern physicians, for their part, treat these beliefs with mockery and derision, counting them superstitions with no tie whatever to science, baseless from the root and not to be relied upon. In their view, the only method recognized until now that can be trusted comes only a few minutes before the mother gives birth.

But today the miracle has come to pass, and men of science have succeeded in ascertaining the sex of the fetus, after a small operation, guessing it rightly at a rate of 70 to 90 in a hundred; and they have built their experiment upon purely scientific evidence. If the expectation proves sound, it will lie within the power of every woman with child to call at a maternity hospital, give a small sample of her blood, and return to the hospital a few days later to receive the answer to the question that has so often kept her wakeful and troubled her rest: "Is it a boy or a girl?"

This is the first time that men of science have announced important results in this line of inquiry, and the first time these results have been published in the pages of the world's magazines.

The first question that springs to mind is this: "Is knowing the sex of the fetus a desirable thing or not?" The subject is now laid upon the table for discussion, and it is expected that this development will give rise to psychological problems that formerly left no trace.

Let us suppose that a woman with child learns that her unborn baby is a girl, and she already has four daughters: what will be her feeling toward this fetus she does not want? Today she cannot be certain of the child's sex until the hour of birth, when the infant comes down into existence—a world in which it knows no one but its mother—and settles into her arms, surrendering itself wholly; and then the miracle happens, the feeling of motherhood plays its part, and the mother presses her child to her weary heart—for it is dear to her even if it be of the unwanted sex!

But if it should be granted this mother to learn, when four months of her pregnancy have passed, that her unborn child is a girl, then a feeling of rancor and hatred toward this innocent fetus is born in her breast, and she will not shrink from an effective resolve to be rid of it—a course carrying all its evil effect upon the spirit of the mother and of the family alike.

The first researches in this field were made at the hands of Russian specialists, in the year 1942. From these researches the Russians arrived at preliminary findings; and these findings, slight as they were, lit the road toward a weighty scientific discovery. But the late war willed that the specialists' hands be stayed from pursuing the inquiry, turning their efforts to war production—and the curtain fell upon the subject while it was still in its cradle. Yet it was destined to live anew: American physicians of the medical college in the state of Georgia took note of it, a year since, and resumed these researches, devoting to them their zeal and their energy... And here they are, after a year and more of continuous investigation, announcing for the first time the news of their triumph

in this field. And this triumph of theirs is built upon firm scientific foundations.

Our inquiry bears closely upon the pituitary gland, which is perhaps the most important gland in the human body: it hangs like a cherry from the middle of the underside of the brain. Besides its absolute rule over bodily growth, it holds authority over the secretions of certain glands, and above all the sex glands. After the fourth month of pregnancy, the hormones of the pituitary gland multiply in the mother's blood; and these hormones are of two kinds: a male kind, which multiplies with a male fetus, and a female kind, which predominates with a female fetus. So when the blood of the expectant mother is examined, the kind of hormone that has multiplied shows itself, and it is known whether the fetus is male or female!

The American specialists believe that this result they have reached is decisive; but its application has not yet gone beyond rats and rabbits, and it is hoped that the application of these experiments to the human race will begin soon.

Nor can we help, at this stage of the inquiry, touching upon a subject that has long occupied mankind, leaving them standing before it baffled and helpless!

"Is it possible for parents to have a choice in selecting their children of the sex they desire?" This is the second subject that will be opened for research once the first is concluded. But one matter is settled, and scientifically established: that the forming of a male or a female in the mother's womb depends upon the man's hormones—he alone is answerable for what children he is granted, whatever their sex. So let people leave off blaming the woman for everything that is unwelcome—for the woman's hormones have no influence whatever in deciding the sex of the child.