Seventy percent of pregnant women have an ultrasound during their pregnancies. The ultrasound is a good diagnostic tool for certain problems in pregnancy. It also has an added benefit, you may get a peek at your baby. If you choose to have an ultrasound, the technician may ask if you want to know the gender.
Some couples choose to find out and others prefer to be surprised. I like to know what I am having. I mean, the information is RIGHT THERE! It’s just too tempting for me. For us and many other couples, there are many benefits to learning your baby’s gender when you are still pregnant. Here are some of my reasons for finding out:
1. It’s easier to focus on a name. When you know the gender, you can focus on one name. For some couples, there is a lot of negotiating over the baby’s name. It’s easier to stick to either boy or girl names.
2. Bonding with the baby. For our family, we feel a closer bond to the baby when we know the gender and use the baby’s name. Our kids have talked about their new sibling and called him or her by name. For the little ones, I think it helped them visualize the baby and prepare for the baby’s arrival. When we found out our last baby was a boy, the advance notice gave our three year old time to get over the fact that the baby wasn’t another girl!
3. The baby shower was great! I don’t want to sound selfish. The shower would have been amazing even if we didn’t know her gender. But, there were definitely benefits to knowing we were having a girl. We got so many cute outfits. The towels, blankets and bibs were for girls, rather than yellow or neutral bibs.
4. Decorating the nursery is easier when you know the baby’s gender. A decorated nursery certainly isn’t necessary. Our last baby’s room still isn’t completed. With the first baby, we had a lot of fun decorating the nursery together. Knowing she was a girl was a nice benefit. We stuck with a classic pooh theme to be on the safe side. It was definitely feminine, but could have been changed in case the ultrasound was wrong.
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