I Was Devastated to Learn I Was Having a Baby Boy. I'm Far From Alone.

A doctor called to reveal the baby’s sex using a blood test available around ten weeks into pregnancy. The narrator already expected a boy and felt resigned to that outcome. The narrator describes ambivalence about having children and a desire for more than health alone, including wanting to preserve a “girl family” pattern seen in childhood and in an older sister’s experience. Historical survey data showed women more often preferred boys for carrying on family names and providing companionship for husbands. More recent trends show a shift, with fertility clinics seeing demand for guaranteed girls through in vitro fertilization and adoption costs influencing preferences.

"“What do you think it is?” my doctor asked me on the phone. He was calling to reveal the sex of my baby, which expectant parents can find out these days via a blood test about 10 weeks into pregnancy. Call it a mother's intuition or a penchant for pessimism, but I already knew. “A boy,” I replied stoically, resigned to my fate. I could feel it in my bones, or, more aptly, in my uterus. And now science had confirmed it: The thing I had long feared was coming true.”"

"“As someone who was ambivalent about having kids, I never connected with the All I want is for them to be healthy sentiment. I wanted more than that if I was going to upend my life and devote it to another being. When I was a teenager, I would joke that if I had a boy, I would give him away, which is the kind of bit that really lands with the right crowd and is incredibly off-putting to everyone else. After my older sister started having kids, I watched as everything worked out perfectly for her. She had two beautiful daughters, replicating the makeup of our family growing up, in which my father was outnumbered and all our vacations included a good amount of shopping. I was from a girl family. I wanted to keep that streak alive.”"

"“Historically, my preference would have been out of step: A 1978 survey by the Population Reference Bureau found that women were far more likely to prefer having a boy ‘to carry on the family name and to provide a companion for the husband.’ It's only in recent years that there seems to be a flip in gender preference. Now fertility clinics see an influx of parents-to-be making sure they are guaranteed a girl through in vitro fertilization. Last year, the Economist ran a cover story illustrated with a pink balloon that read, ‘ Phew, It's a Girl!’ The story explains that Americans will pay more to adopt a girl than a boy, an”"

Read at Slate Magazine