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How often is an ultrasound wrong (regarding sex of baby)?


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I lurk more than post but I figured this was a bunch with plenty of baby experience. I've heard plenty of stories of ultrasounds incorrectly predicting sex yet I have never met anyone this has actually happened to. How many of you here were told incorrectly? If I've been told twice that I'm having a girl (once by an us tech and once by my dr.), do you think I can count on that? They were done at 22 and 24 weeks, approximately.

 

This is my first girl and I've already painted :) And I am having a shower soon. And I am really getting used to the idea of a girl. And I've been given a closet full of hand-me-downs. And people keep telling me stories of girls that now have names like Patrick and Joe.

 

So what do you think? I either need some reassurance or a reality check.

 

Thanks,

Marie

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I think as long as the technician is truly experienced, you can be confident in what they tell you. I heard someone complain once of a tech saying the wrong sex...then found out the U/S was done at something like 14 weeks (maybe earlier)...when sex organs haven't even developed yet!

 

And with a girl, they don't just look for the absence of a penis...there is a clear pattern there too. So I think you can probably relax and look forward to your baby girl!

 

And I don't understand why someone would name a girl Patrick...you don't have to stick with your pre-planned name if it turns out to be for the wrong sex! They could have at least gone with Patricia!

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but it did happen to my bf. She had 2-3 ultrasounds done (she was rather sick with hyperemesis the entire pregnancy). The girl clothes were bought, pink baby shower given, etc......... lo and behold......."It's a Boy!" I still remember her husband calling me and when he said something about the baby being a boy--I thought he was mistaken but he wasn't! A boy it was! It's been 10+yrs ago but not an event that I'll forget! I've been wary of ultrasounds ever since.

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I would really like another girl to even up the score around here a bit (4 boys, 2 girls and the u/s said it was another boy!). BUT, both my dh and I saw the u/s and saw what the tech saw so we pretty much know it's a boy! I'm more concerned with how the u/s dated my pregnancy (it put me back a few weeks and said my due date was much closer to May than early April. I'd be pretty confident in the results if it was an experienced tech.

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I lurk more than post but I figured this was a bunch with plenty of baby experience. I've heard plenty of stories of ultrasounds incorrectly predicting sex yet I have never met anyone this has actually happened to. How many of you here were told incorrectly? If I've been told twice that I'm having a girl (once by an us tech and once by my dr.), do you think I can count on that? They were done at 22 and 24 weeks, approximately.

 

This is my first girl and I've already painted :) And I am having a shower soon. And I am really getting used to the idea of a girl. And I've been given a closet full of hand-me-downs. And people keep telling me stories of girls that now have names like Patrick and Joe.

 

So what do you think? I either need some reassurance or a reality check.

 

Thanks,

Marie

 

they are gonna be wrong in declaring a girl, from what I've heard. Since yours were done later, I'd probably roll with it, but given our history I personally wouldn't believe it until I saw it (uh, or the lack of it ;)) with my own eyes.

 

Congrats on your girl :D!

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It happened to me :) Not only was the tech from my first ultrasound wrong (told me a girl), but my obgyn that did several more ultrasounds (high-risk pregnancy) agreed with the the tech and never caught the mistake. I even had a level 2 ultrasound (I think that was what it was called) done by two specialists. Everyone in the operating/delivery room was surprised when a boy came out. A healthy boy, btw, despite the concerns.

 

Funny thing is I never believed I was having a girl. I left all of the tags on all of the girly gifts people had given us and had placed them all in a "girl" stuff box. As soon as I had recovered enough I exchanged everything.

 

The mistake happened because of a combination of the odd placement and anatomy of my uterus, extreme abdominal and pelvic adhesions, and an ambilical cord hiding the important parts. Not a combination of factors likely to happen to anyone but me.

 

He is six years old now. I love being the mom to boys.

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3 girls and 1 boy and they have never been wrong. I worried myself sick with my son because I was so afraid of getting my hopes up after being told it was a boy. But all was well. Most stories that were personally told to me about the sex being wrong was like another poster said......16 years ago or so. The only lady I know of in the last 8 years that was told the wrong sex (was told it was a girl and had a boy) was very, very over weight and had only one ultrasound.

 

I think nowadays, they are pretty cautious about telling you only if they are 100% sure. Even with my son, the tech told me she was positive and had never been wrong, but I still worried since I didn't personally see a good shot. But like I said, they were right all four times. Also, my best friend has 4 girls and they were right all four times. Of all the people I know who have children, I only know of that one acquaintance that had the wrong sex told to her.

 

So, I bet you've got a little girl in there! Congrats!

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Well it has not happened here and we have 2 boys and 2 girls. This baby is our first surprise because they truly could not see both times when we had an ultrasound. Each time the baby had his/her legs crossed. The second u/s the baby did uncross its legs briefly, then decided to quickly put its hands down there to cover up. God is teaching me patience. :)

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However I did still get a wardrobe for boy and girl for the just in case and returned what I didn't need. When they told me #4 was agirl the us lady took her time because my 3 boys and dh were in the room with me and she showed me exactly what we needed to see to know the gender. My mother was creating the doubt.

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My sister had two ultrasounds with her last baby. They said it was a boy both times. You can imagine my sister and BIL's shock when SHE came out! They had the hospital staff all in a kerfuffle as surprises in this direction are less common nowadays!

 

All of my ultrasounds were correct in their gender predictions.

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We had an ultrasound around 20 weeks (done by an u/s tech) and were told our first baby was a girl (which wasn't a suprrise. We only have girls in our family). So of course people bought us pink. We told them not to that you never know (plus, I am just not a big pink fan). A week before our baby was due, our ob/gyn himself did an ultrasound because he was worried our baby was breech. He was a little perplexed and asked us "Uhh...the ultrasound tech said you were having a girl right?". Well, that clued us into something. Yep, she was really a he. We told no one (well, we did tell the dog, but he wasn't saying a word).

 

Our little baby is born and we have my parents come into the room. We introduce our baby to them by name and my mom's mouth drops open. She proceeds to pull down the diaper to check the anatomy. Then she takes out her cell phone, calls her mom and says "They lied to us! They had a boy!" I have 3 sisters, no brothers. My parents had at the time only 2 girl grandchildren. They were quite happy.

 

So it happens. Umbilical cords get in the way, babies close their legs, or they just want you to be surprised ;)

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but it happened to me! My doctor did the first sono at 20 weeks, and another doctor in the practice did one closer to delivery. Both said we were having a girl. Subconciously I had a hard time accepting that news. I didn't care which we had, but my brain just couldn't seem to buy into the pink and girlie stuff. I decorated the nursery in green, yellow and blue, and I had a horrible time agreeing on a girl's name. When our SON was born we were shocked! It took us over a day to name him because we were so surpised. But if this helps calm your nerves, I've never met anyone else this happened to, and none of my friends have met anyone with this experience either. Obviously it happens, but it must not happen all that often these days!

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We never wanted to find out the sex of our children in utero, so these things didn't happen to us. However, my friend brought a boy home to a pink room. They were "positive" they saw labia.

 

I had a couple students in my childbirth classes get surprised on a gender mistake.

 

But, I have also had students get induced for "large" babies who ended up being under 8 lbs, get emergency c-sections for low amniotic fluid and bad FHR only to find a TON of amniotic fluid and a vigorous robust baby. I have also had a student who was told that her baby was dead after a level two U/S. She refused a D & C and went on to have a healthy baby at term.

 

U/S is a screening tool, not a perfect window into the womb.

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I didn't have an u/s with the first two. I had two each with the next two and they couldn't tell the sex any of those times. I had two with the fifth child. One said boy (12 weeks) and the other (5 months) said girl. I felt pretty strongly that they were correct the first time and just missing it the second time so I did not have a girl name picked out. Of course, it was a girl. I had one u/s with the last one and it was correct. I am patiently waiting for the 20week u/s for my first grandchild to find out what it will be.

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Baby #4 was supposed to be a girl. However, when the baby popped out, it was placed directly on my chest without anyone checking the sex. My dh wanted to make sure that it was a girl. I can still hear his surprised voice, "It's a boy!"

 

BTW, I've had 5 dc. #4 was the only time we 'found' out what we were having. We figured that we would always doubt what they told us with #5 so we didn't ask the u/s tech to tell us. (#5 was a girl.)

 

Amy

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More so in the old days. I had a very special US as I was older and not having amnio...by a British tech who was looking for subtle things associated with Downs (this isn't done much in the States). So, it was longer and with more views.

It was not hard to tell it was boy. "The turtle on the log".

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It happened to my cousin. She was told the baby was a girl and everything at her shower was for a girl. But she delivererd a baby boy! (this was almost 10 years ago.)

 

 

Ditto for me, but it was about 16 years ago. Another cousin had a girl and they knew it was a girl because, as it was put, she flashed the US tech. It looked like she was sitting on the copy machine. Her bottom was plastered against mom's belly. There was NO doubt to anyone that she was a she. Fortunately, she is alot more modest now :D

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