How accurate are ultrasounds when predicting a baby's gender at 20 weeks?
by admin on Monday, May 31st, 2010 | 13 Comments
I’m 20 weeks pregnant with my second baby and we found out after our ultrasound this week that we’re having a boy. They were accurate in predicting that our daughter was a girl, but my husband is worried that this is wrong (because he really wants a boy!). Can you point to some facts on how accurate 20-week ultrasound gender prediction is?
Are they more often wrong when predicting boys or girls? I’d love to hear your stories about your friends who had babies of the opposite sex than they expected, but I’m really looking for some hard facts or online news articles on this subject. Thanks!
Baby Gender Sites
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- 20 Week Ultrasound Pics and Registries « sarahweber.org
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It depends on the skill of the tech, the resolution of the ultrasound machine and the position of the baby.
You can get "overall" statistics (like, 90% of whatever) but it really is a combination of the 3 things above.
We have a tech in our referral hospital who has an almost 100% strike rate, especially when she is sure. In the last 5 years I have only ever seen her be wrong twice, and on both of those occasions she did admit up front that she wasn’t sure. However, when he’s sure, she is sure.
However, they are more often right than wrong if you can understand that, especially when it comes to boys.
they were accurate with both of mine. Actaully my second one was done at 18 1/2 weeks.
Fairly accurate but ultrasounds in themselves are not 100%. If they say its a boy it is more likely to be correct as there is nothing "hiding" to miss. Whereas if they say a girl, sometimes they make that call simply because they don’t see a penis.
not very i didnt find out i was having twins til i was 8 1/2 month pregnet!
I think they are pretty good at being able to see the baby’s gender at 20 weeks.
I had the same problem when I was pregnant though. I was told I was having a girl and I didn’t believe them because I wanted a girl so bad. All of my friends who have kids also want girls and they all have boys, so I thought for sure I was going to have a boy. I was a high risk pregnancy so I had a lot of ultrasounds to make sure I was definitely having a girl though!
i don’t know if I’ll be much help but i know that they are more accurate when its a boy. if they see a penis then its a boy. for girls its a little harder, just because they don’t see a penis doesn’t mean there isn’t one hiding.
one of my friends was told she was having a girl (she desperately wanted a boy) she bought all pink stuff. she ended up having a boy.
You can never be to sure.
However, I have heard that if the babies hands are above its head its more than likely a girl and vice versa for boys.
They’re pretty accurate. I would say that if they say it’s a boy, it’s more likely to be a boy because they see something down there (although it could be the umbilical cord). A friend of mine had her baby this February and she had an ultrasound done at about 5 1/2 months and they told her she was having a boy, she had an all boy baby shower and I was shocked to get that phone call at 7am saying "It’s a girl!, she’s a girl!, not a boy!", so they can never be 100% accurate. Have a few more done and see what they say! Good Luck! Congrats!
I think that if they say it’s a boy then it’s more likely a boy. But if they say you are having a girl there is always the chance that it’s just hiding!
They are more wrong with predicting girls in my opinion because the umbilical cord can get in the way and it may look like a penis. But you can never be too sure with ultrasounds unfortunately. They said i was having a boy, and i did ! But they do say, not to buy just blue or just pink…because unfortunately they can be wrong. But i do hope that you have a boy, and you will have to let us know. Congratulations, and tell your hubby boy or girl….doesnt matter as long as the baby is healthy. Good luck
The ultrasound was correct with all 3 of mine. My sister was supposed to be a boy though. According to a poll being taken by Babycenter.com 62% of ultrasounds are correct at determining the sex of the baby.
I think it really depends more on the accuracy rate of the person reading the ultrasound, rather than the accuracy of the ultrasound equipment…. Of course, OBs have a better rate detecting the sex since that is what they do, but an ultrasound specialist can really be beneficial. For my second child, my doctor sent me to a specialist (no concerns or anything- that is just the way the doc preferred to have them read). The specialist I saw had a 98% accuracy rate, which is fairly high for reading/predicting the sex of a baby. Of course, it does happen that a specialist can be wrong, too! Pick a name in both genders just in case (so you aren’t thrown for a loop in the delivery room!) and get some clothing and stuff that can be used for either gender. Don’t take the tags off anything until the baby is born. No matter how prepared you are, it won’t help if the baby is not the sex you expected! Good luck with your new family member!
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