Is it a boy or a girl?

As my body blatantly advertises the upcoming birth, this is the question that friends, family, and complete strangers use to strike up a conversation. My response? “That’s what we’re hoping for.”
It was not that long ago that discovering the gender of your baby was something that happened at birth. Now our society expects an early discovery through the technology of ultrasounds. Those who ask me if we know what we’re having are all well-wishers and I appreciate their attention to my belly. My comment here is about the overall shift our society has taken. It is interesting that the general population expects me to know what I’m having before it happens.
Guess what? I don’t know. I have never had an ultrasound, actually, and I’m planning on having a home birth like I did with my first two. Casually answering this way has been a great “missionary” tool for homebirth. It is non-confrontational, and creates awareness that there are other ways to give birth, and that somewhat normal looking people like myself are choosing it. If they are curious to find out more, they now know that I am someone that they can talk to, but there is no pressure for them to reply with anything but, “Ah, I see.”
In the meantime, I have now washed all of our neutral clothing, and there are boy and girl clothes standing by, waiting to be added as appropriate to the baby wardrobe after the birth. Peter is hoping for a boy.


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