The official 'Young Ben's sibling's first appearance" thread

[bunny67]

yw hun do you know what sex the baby is or you having a surprise?

[Skweeky]

It'll be a surprise

We wanted to find out, but the local hospital has this ridiculous policy of not telling you

[megabyteme]

Congrats for making it to 39 weeks, Skweeky! Excellent job of sticking to the plan.

Also, strange policy from the hospital. I have to assume it is to curb parents from "gender selection".

[cinephilia]

another fst member in the making. congrats.

[Skweeky]

Congrats for making it to 39 weeks, Skweeky! Excellent job of sticking to the plan.

Also, strange policy from the hospital. I have to assume it is to curb parents from "gender selection".

Well erm, I believe the law here is that you can abort up to 14 weeks, or 26 if something is wrong...
I had my last scan at 22 weeks and everything was fine, so I don't get why they just won't bloody tell me.
I hate the fact that I am not even allowed to know information about what is inside my body
It makes no sense.

[megabyteme]

I'm sure your baby will be AMAZING whichever gender it is.

That does seem like a law destined to be overturned. Gotta be other women (rightfully) angry about it as well.

[Skweeky]

It's not even a law mate, it depends on what hospital you go to.
Since everything is government owned though, you don't really get a choice; so unfortunately the hospital I went to go my scans has this stupid policy.

[megabyteme]

Seems like the last thing they would want is a bunch of angry pregnant women on their hands.

Here, I believe government run means unified rules. At least either on a State or Federal level.

Did they give a particular reason for the rule?

[Skweeky]

Nope, the sonographer got a bit cross when we pressed her on it.

They actually have signs up everywhere asking you not to push the staff on the matter. It's ridiculous.

[P2PDog]

When my wife was pregnant the technician explained to us that they don't give out sex determinations due to the fact that it can sometimes take considerably longer (if the baby isn't facing the right way, e.g.) and was using up too much time and creating long waiting lists and backlogs. There were also apparently cases where the the sex was determined incorrectly, which caused obvious problems as well.

Around here we have private clinics that specialize in determining the sex of your baby... for a fee $$, of course.

Personally, I didn't want to know the sex of the baby. It was nice being surprised each time.

Good luck, and congratulations