My sonographer just said "clever boy"

[Anyflippingname]

About my baby at a 28 week scan (being monitored for closely in this pregnancy for various reasons).

I had hoped to keep the sex a surprise and had told her I didn't want to know when she asked.

She and her doctor colleague immediately said, oh no she doesn't mean it's a boy, she always calls babies "boy"🤔

She then found me later and apologised again and reiterated that she hadn't checked the sex so she definitely didn't know what it was.

I said both times that it was fine and didn't matter.

Is this as cut and dried as it seems? It seems such an unlikely slip of the tongue when she said it with so much certainty.

Does it matter? 🤷‍♀️ In the grand scheme of things it really doesn’t.

No it doesn't matter, as I said to her. But that's not what I'm asking.

You still don't know if it's a boy or a girl so I don't see the issue. What exactly do you want some about this?

Wow op, you need a reality check. Be happy to come away from the appointment with a healthy baby (I’m assuming).
She is a human, and humans make mistakes.

Mine was referred to as a girl at least once. It was a boy!

Did she make the comment early on in your scan? If so, she might not have had chance to even see what the sex is. ( I am not an expert so I may be underestimating how easy it is to determine the sex in a scan!) during a scan I had at about 36ish weeks pregnant, the lady scanning said "I'll see if I can get a picture of Her face" she assured me that she hadn't even looked at the genital area, she had only looked at baby's head to check the position and she sounded so genuine, I did believe her. I did end up having a girl! 🙈 I'll never know if she genuinely didn't know the sex, but in the moment I believed her anyway. I would assume she was telling the truth and try to keep yourself open for a surprise :-)

They don’t like to say “it” so often they of just go with calling them he/boy. The same way the majority of people will call an animal he if they don’t know the sex, or even refer to cars/boats/whatever object as he.

The sonographer could very well just say boy as a catch all. Or it could have been a slip of the tongue; you just won’t know.

I know the appointments are about checking for a healthy baby but they really should be more careful.

I have heard lots of professionals in this siutation use 'boy' umbiquitously so it could easily be that.

However, I think when PP said 'does it matter?' it was more of a pragmatic statement than a judgemental one. As in, you don't know whether it was an error or not, therefore you still don't know whether your baby is a boy or not. So, in reality, they've not let slip anything - because you still don't know anything.

It’s likely she didn’t even check unless that was the area specifically that needed checking. So very likely telling the truth. Every sonographer I’ve had has said either he or she even when the sex wasn’t known

This happened to me at 37w pregnant and i was really disappointed that the sonographer had let it slip - especially at such a late stage. At the time she said that it was because her first language was not english and in her language, babies are referred to as "he" as standard. But i did then go on to actually have a girl, so she wasnt right! So perfectly possible that it could have been a slip on the tongue 😊

I do feel sorry for them - must be so easy to slip up.
But I'd far prefer they used 'it' rather than default masculinity.

I didn't want to know the sex of my baby and the sonographer said that she wouldn't tell us, but that it was quite obvious what sex baby was. She showed us the "area" and I thought it was a boy. Then I had to have a late scan as baby was breech. Before the scan the doctor was saying "baby" and after said he. I said we don't know the sex and she apologised and said the same...

I now have a dd! She was a girl!

I've read on here about sonographers doing the opposite and calling babies she too.
It must be difficult to keep things gender neutral with they pronouns and unnatural to use it when talking about a human.

“Clever boy” does sound far more specific than calling the baby he or him. Tbh I would have just asked her to confirm it for you there and then, rather than fixating on it for the next 12 weeks (I’m not saying you will, but I would have).

I was also told that baby was a boy was at a scan. The doctor mistakingly thought I already knew.

I didn't want to know with mine. My consultant said he'll be playing football before you know it. Then apologised. These things happen. He was healthy, that was the most important thing.

I had a sonographer refer to one of my babies in a similar way, who ended up being a little girl! I wasnt bothered either way, but I think they probably just humanise the baby in their head as it would feel weird referring to the baby as "it" mentally. I think they are pretty careful not to actively check for sex if you don't want to know, they would have to go looking for it on the scan to know so I wouldn't read into it.

Also, I got really depressed thinking I was having a boy. I didn't want one. The reason for me not wanting to know before they were born was because I knew that if I didn't know what the sex was, when they were born and I was handed a boy I would have been happy. However, that period of thinking it was a boy and the having it confirmed (or so I thought) made me really upset.

On my anomaly scan, I wanted to find out the gender anyway. But before they checked, sonographer referred to baby using “he/his” so I wasn’t sure if I’m having a boy, or it’s just the universal pronoun. Then they checked, and baby girl it is!! 😅

I don't think you can assume from this that it's a boy. I know someone in the same situation, didn't want to know the sonographer said she when talking about the baby so they were convinced it had to be a girl, it wasn't!
I think it was just a turn if phrase and meant nothing

I wouldn't assume it means anything, mi e were called he sometimes even after we knew they were girls.
Maybe there is a proper reason but I don't know why they don't use 'baby' as a pronoun. Like, baby is a good size, were just looking at babys left kidney, your baby has good heart function etc. It would make it less confusing

When our sonography returned checked the sex for a surprise for us later on she asked us to look away. They have to properly have a look between baby’s legs and it’s pretty obvious what they’re looking at when they do this. Also pretty sure they don’t look at that but if baby for any other reason than to find out the gender.

It’ll have been pretty obvious basically if she was looking for the sex of the baby. If you google gender scans online you’ll see what I mean. My nhs sonographer never had to look in this area.

That's exactly what they did with me (I'm not finding out the sex).

I have understood that textbooks used to refer to foetus then baby as 'he', so as to less clumsily distinguish from the mother.

But why are you posting if it doesn't matter? Or are you saying it does matter enormously to you, but you were just being polite to the sonographer?

I mean, boy/girl never seems like that much of a 'surprise' to me -- it's about as surprising as heads or tails on a coin flip.