How thinking yourself rich can affect your baby's sex

Well a new study reckons (kind of) that you can do just that. Boffins at the Australian National University in Canberra found that just imagining yourself loaded - rather than actually being so - could mean you're more likely to have a boy.

O-k-a-y...

The study looked at a whole heap of maternal characteristics (like age, education, income and weight) of 5,000 births across Australia during a 12-year period, and when all the data was analysed, the only thing that was found to be a reliable predictor of a baby's sex was wealth.

And although the proportion of baby boys being born in the UK and Canada is declining in relative terms, it is as buoyant as ever in Oz.

One of the study's researchers, Dr Alison Behie, said that while other industrialised countries have a birth rate of around 105 boys to every 100 girls, Australia's is 110 to every 100.

And she reckons this could be down to people thinking themselves wealthy rather than actually being it.

"Our research shows this may come from perception. Having the perception of prosperity is potentially more important than actually having the money or resources," she said in a statement after the findings were published in the Journal of Biosocial Science.

So now you know what to do if you're desperate to have a baby boy... *peruses country estates on RightMove* *Browses Net-a-Porter*. *takes all research with large pinch of salt*.

(We'd love to know if you did use some weird or wacky method to try and choose your baby's sex though - let us know in comments or on Facebook).

Read more:

• Could your health have an impact on your baby's gender?
• Gender prediction test is 'misleading' says ASA
• Finding out the sex? Everything you need to know about scans