Chinese gender prediction chart - can it predict your baby's sex?
The Chinese gender prediction chart can apparently be used to see whether you're pregnant with a boy or girl - but how accurate is it?
Perhaps one of the most fun ways to guess whether you're going to have a boy or a girl is the Chinese gender prediction chart (also known as the original Chinese birth calendar).
There's no scientific evidence behind it, but hey, it's got a 50:50 chance of being right!
How does the Chinese gender prediction chart work?
The Chinese gender prediction chart claims to predict a baby's sex based on:
- the month of conception (the black row along the top).
- the mother's lunar age at conception (the black column running down the far left). Your lunar age is your age plus 1 year, as in Chinese tradition you're 1 year old when you're born.
Where does the Chinese gender prediction chart come from?
Word goes that the chart was invented by a Chinese scientist around 700 years ago, in the Ching Dynasty, and written originally in the Manchu language, but was buried in an ancient tomb.
It found its way into British hands in 1900 where it was translated, later being printed in Austria and then by a Chinese scholar who printed it in Taiwan.
To this day, it appears in the Chinese Farmer's Almanac every year.
How accurate is the Chinese gender prediction chart?
Well, it's right at least 50% of the time, we reckon! And Missy in our MadeForMums Community has found just that. "I've just done it for my 2," she says. "It predicted Isla would be a boy! But it was right in predicting Maya would be a girl."
While it's likely there was some method when the chart was put together, it's not clear what that was and it would have been based on ancient, rather than modern, science methods.
We'd say it's fun to do with friends but if you do want to name your baby chickens before they've hatched, we still reckon waiting for the 20-week scan is the safest bet...
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Authors
Helen is author of the classic advice book Parenting for Dummies and a mum of 3. Before joining MadeForMums, she was Head of Community at Mumsnet and also the Consumer Editor of Mother & Baby.
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