Fertility & Conception

Made of sugar and spice and all things nice, baby girls are a delight. And wanting to have a daughter, whether it’s for your first child, or because you only have sons in your family is a dream for many women. This article will go over how to conceive a girl and put the odds in your favor that you’ll be buying pink for the nursery.

But first I think a little biology lesson is in order. You see it’s the male who is responsible for the sex selection of your baby; it’s his sperm will either contain a Y chromosome (for a boy) or an X chromosome (for a girl). And since your aim is to have a little girl then you need to make sure that the X chromosome sperm reaches the egg first.

So how do you do that?

Well the good news is that science knows that the X sperm is quite strong and can last for up to 5 or so days in the uterus waiting for the egg to come along. The Y sperm on the other hand is fast – it will reach the egg first in a race – but doesn’t last as long (only around 2 days). So now that we know this we can use it to our favor.

Using The Shettles Method of Ovulation Timing

The most well known method of choosing the sex of your baby has to be The Shettles method by Dr Landrum Shettles. While some people swear this method is fool-proof, anothers question whether it really works at all. Dr Shettles claimed his method has a 75% – 90% success rate, however others who have studied this method claim it only has a 60% – 65% success rate.

If you want to try this method, you first you need to pinpoint when you ovulate within your cycle. It’s a myth that every women ovulates on day 14, it actually varies from person to person. You can use ovulation predictor kits or other methods for determining when you’re regular ovulation day is within your cycle.

Once you know when that is, then you need to plan to have sex starting around 5 days before you are due to release the egg, stopping at around 2 days before you ovulate. That way the X sperm (the stronger sperm) will have made it to the fallopian tubes and will be ready and waiting for the egg to appear, whereas the Y sperm will have died off before fertilization can take place. According to The Shettles Method, this increases your chances of falling pregnant with a baby girl.

Of course timing sex isn’t the only thing that you can do to put the odds in your favor. There are also different positions (shallow penetration is better for making a female) and acidity levels of the vagina which you can influence by your diet which will all give Mother Nature a boost in getting the baby of your dreams.

The Shettles Method for how to conceive a girl also recommends that the mother should avoid caffeine, not have an orgasm and use shallow intercourse positions such as the missionary position.

He says that the vagina environment should be as acidic as possible and while Shettles himself advocated vinegar douches, many other doctors say that this is unnecessary and even harmful to fertility.

Other Popular Methods for Conceiving a Girl Baby

The O+12 method is another popular method used for conceiving a girl and was developed by a New Zealand mother who after trying The Shettles Method unsuccessfully five times (she ended up with 6 sons using the Shettles method to conceive a girl) found that there was more successful evidence of falling pregnant with a baby girl if you had sex approximately twelve hours after ovulation.

This method relies on knowing the precise moment that you ovulate and having intercourse 8 to 20 hours after it happens.

Many people claim that this method has a higher success rate than the Shettles method however no conclusive studies have been done using the O+12.

It all sounds complicated, but it isn’t really. I’ve told you how to conceive a girl baby so relax and time your sex at the right place in your cycle and you’ll be knitting pink booties in no time.

Good luck and baby dust to you.