A boy's foetal heartbeat is slower than a girl's - fact or old wives' tale?

[Gateau]

Hi, hope you are all keeping well.
I am 36 weeks pregnant. When the midwife listened in to my baby's heartbeat last week she thought I was having a boy because the heartbeat was more like a 'train'; whereas a girl's is apparently more like a 'galloping horse.'
She did say this was not proven but friends have since said the heartbeat is a good indicator of gender.
Has anyone else heard this theory and if so, is it a fact?

Yes, quite a common theory. No idea if it is 'proven' but everyone I know (n=4 so scientific!) whose midwife has told them that their baby is a boy judging by the heartbeat went on to have a boy. Including me.

My DS3 had a very fast heartbeat so the theory didn't work out there. I was hooked up to one of those machines that trace the heart rate every day for 6 weeks and he always had a high heartrate and midwives all said he'd be a girl.

fiction

the baby's heartbeat changes depending on if it is sleeping/moving etc

Old wives' tale here.

DS had a fast heartbeat, DD had a slower one. The day before DD was born, I had a sweep and when the midwife took her heartbeat, she told me how nice it would be to have two boys with a small age gap

My stepmum was told it by her midwife. She apparently said something like this: "If you get up on the couch we can have a listen to Freda... ...or should I say Fred? Oops! You do know the sex...?" Luckily she had opted to be told at the scan. The midwife was absolutely convinced it worked as she genuinely said she didn't mean to spoil the surprise.

At my 20 week scan, I was told my baby's heartbeat was twice the pace as my own and that this was good. Baby is a boy. Don't know if this is a train or a galloping horse...

Seems to be a connection with high heart rate = girl over 140 beats per minute but it needs to be done more than once to take into account activity and sleep patterns of the baby ...it's the resting rate that may be indicative (was a midwife!)...but now the seed is sewn...nothing left to be done!! good luck Diana x

Worked for me Both dd's heart beat were above 150 beat per minute where as ds was always around 135

At 15 weeks my midwife listened to DD's heartbeat and said definitely a girl because of speed, but she did have a 50/50 chance I guess.

complete nonense in my opinion, i (and all midwives who listened to it) were convinced DC2 was a boy. i now have a beautiful little DD!!!!

The fetal heart should vary according to sleep, movement etc as a previous poster said, but should also vary from beat to beat. The normal range is from 110 to 150 and every baby will fall between this range at some point, so how you could tell the sex from 60 seconds of auscultation I don't know. In addition to this the heart rate changes depending on gestation. Also, from my experience the fetal heart sounds like a train or a horse depending on where you position the sonicaid as the sound you are hearing is not actually the heart beat, but a sound wave. A lucky guess would be my opinion.

Worked for me..but i'm basing it on the base heart rate after being monitored for a long period of time. DS was 120 beats per min, DD was 140!

Think there's more truth in this one that there is in the shape of bump, that one was a load of rubbish for me

slow heart , smaller belly then carrying a girl, more morning sickness and more pain,heartburn after eating certain foods, more craving, quicky with the DH - i dont care im just glad i saw the his bits on the screen like a beacon of joy!!!!!!

Two identical pregnancies but DS's heart-rate definitely sounded slower to me than DD's. Everything else was old wives tales

My midwife got both of mine right by that method

my mw said she knew which i was having from heartbeat. but she didn't say so can't tell you whether she was right or not.