Study suggests a possible link between baby's gender and mum's cardiac disease
Pregnant women heart disease are more likely to give birth to girls than boys, a small study has found.
The study, which had its findings presented at the World Congress of Cardiology in Dubai last week, looked at 216 babies born to 200 women, all who had been diagnosed with heart disease. It found that 75% of the babies were girls.
Although the study, conducted by a university in Iran, is small in scale the researchers hope that their findings will lead to more studies.
"We believe that this is the first study looking at the relationship between gender and the mother's cardiac disease," said A. Alizadehasl of Tabriz University. "We hope that this will lead to further investigation into this area."
"Chromosomes in a man's sperm are responsible for the sex of a baby," said Dr Kathryn Taubert from the World Heart Federation. "But this study does suggest that there may be a relationship between the heath status of the mother and the sex of the babies that she is able to carry to full term," she said.
