20 week ultrasound - sonographer slips out the sex!

I had my 20 wk u/s and we told the sonographer we didn't want to find out the sex of the bub.

He then made reference to the baby being a 'he' and when we looked at him he said "I don't know the sex but often refer to the babies as being 'he's".

Has anyone had the sonographer slip up on the sex before? We are happy for either as long as the little one is healthy - but we really wanted it to be a surprise so now I think my hubby is really excited thinking it might be a little man....

Would be interested to see if this has happened to others and then you've actually delivered the opposite sex?

at ny 12 week scan the sonographer reffered to the baby as she all time, obviously he couldnt tell at that point....he ended up being right though lol

I've never had that, but imagine your suprise if that is what he does & you end up having a girl..!
I guess its either find out for sure, or don't get your hopes up either way. Stick with the don't know. When working with this stuff it could just be a habit instead of saying 'it' or 'the baby'. It could just be easier for him :dunno:

I used to refer to Liebling as "he" all the time in utero - just because it's the correct gender neuter pronoun. I prefered "him" to "it" anyway. Every now and then I'd throw a "she" into the mix because people thought I knew I was having a boy.

Unless the sentence was "well, he's certainly not got to worry in the changing room" or something along those lines I wouldn't take anything by it.

I have heard that quiet a bit actually.

When we had V we found out her sex adn the sonographer kept saying he and apologising because she said its just something that she does no matter what. Yep V came out a girl :)

BUT

We were told at 4 u/s that M was a girl (we had asked) and it wasnt until an emergency u/s at 37 weeks that we actually found out that he was a boy. That was very shocking!

I had that happen with my first pg. I had a scan at 27wks because he'd not moved for nearly 2 days and the Dr kept saying 'here is his arm/leg' etc and at the time I wondered if he said that because that's what he really was or if it was just a better alternative to saying 'it'. I always knew that he was a boy anyway and clung to that as some sort of sign LOL

I have also had a sonographer refer to bubs at an early ultrasound as being a boy, but like a previous poster said they wouldnt have been able to tell so early into the pregnancy ....but she was correct in referring to bubs as a boy!

It's probably just a habit for the sonographer, instead of calling bub 'it'. To find out the gender, the sonographer has to actually look at that part of the body. It's not part of their routine checking, unless parents ask for it.

I'm with the others... our sonographer said 'he' a couple of times. I totally missed it, but DH noticed and was left convinced we were having a boy. However, she is most undeniably a girl!

Different example but I do the same thing when I am refering to other peoples dogs. I have always had boy dogs so automatically say "oh he's so gorgeous" when I dont even know if its a boy or girl. Just comes out.

I would just take it as it could be either

Yep we had the same thing happen with ds1. the sonographer said 'he' then kind of went 'eerrr, arrrr, ummmm' and then paused....very obvious stuff up.
and yes...'he' is a boy.

Most of the ultrasound I have had, the technician has refered to them as either him or her. I have also found when discussing things about the baby, some midwives and Ob's have refered to the baby as he or her too.

Happend to us at DD#2's u/s, well the sonographer didn't slip, but kept referring to bub as 'he'. We ended up calling him after to see if he did see the gender, but he said the same as your sonographer...

yeah at my scan the lady said 'he' and we thought it was a boy and then when we asked what the sex was she looked and sais it was a girl

My GP here always refers to babies as he and DH also got a little excited for a few days because she was saying he. But yep our bubba was a girl.

I think it's probably more respectful to refer to your baby as 'he' or 'she' rather than 'it' IYKWIM? So probably a work habit ;)

With DD2 the sonographer pointed out there is "her" stomach. I didn't want to say anything out of fear it would be confirmed as we wanted a surprise so I didn't say anything. DH didn't think he was referring to bubz been a girl just saying that instead of it but she came out a DD and from that moment I had a strong feeling I was having a girl. My Aunt also was told she was having a boy when she didn't want to know with her first.
As a midwife I always refer to the bub inutero as a he or a she especially in labour when I don't know but I make sure to call it he and then she a few times so I don't favour one or the other IYKWIM. Much nicer to say he or she then it if you don't know.

With my 2nd pregnancy, the sonographer kept saying 'bubs' when referring to the baby...'here is bub's heart', 'here is bub's brain', blah blah...Then he said 'Here is his ....' a couple of times, before slipping back into using 'bub'. I was thinking 'ok, has he slipped up?' or was it just a generic term? We wanted to know the sex, so eventually asked him, and yes, he was a 'he'!

A friend of mine went for a scan for her 2nd preg and did NOT want to find out the sex. They had a 2 year old son, who they did not take to the scan. As they were leaving the sonographer said 'So, how old is your other son? :o oops!

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A friend of mine went for a scan for her 2nd preg and did NOT want to find out the sex. They had a 2 year old son, who they did not take to the scan. As they were leaving the sonographer said 'So, how old is your other son? :o oops!

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:doh: Now that is a bit of a give-away! What did your friend say?

hmmm yes that one was an obvious slip up!

I went for my 20 weeks scan recently, we didnt want to find out the sex and our sonographer was actually very good.. He said "the babies" in reference to all body parts and then he turned and asked us "so do you have a little boy or a little girl at home?" We realised then we hadnt yet asked him not to tel us and made it clear at that point we didnt want to know but told him we have a DS at home.. He just smiled and said "ahh ok I did see something but lets leave it for a surprise then!" So I think he did really well, left me so curious and kept us guessing all the way home! Still no idea, find out in 18 weeks!

I would take it as a general term.. besides, even if he did slip up, they can sometimes get it wrong anyway, so best off letting it roll off your back ;)

I had my 20 week u/s last thursday. We wanted to know the sex ~ I did ask the sonographer if he had 'ever' slipped up. He stated never, he doesn't go near the 'bits' of the baby and if he does see it, he wipes it all from his mind! Well trained sonographer I'd say!!!

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I had my 20 week u/s last thursday. We wanted to know the sex ~ I did ask the sonographer if he had 'ever' slipped up. He stated never, he doesn't go near the 'bits' of the baby and if he does see it, he wipes it all from his mind! Well trained sonographer I'd say!!!

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Very very smart!!!!:D

Our ultrasound guy just says "baby" for everything - "there's baby's stomach" or "here's baby's arm" etc.
He actually seemed disappointed when we told him we weren't finding out, I think he was looking forward to it :lol: He asked twice, the first time as "was there anything else you wanted me to look at?" then straight out "are we finding out the sex today?" ;)

Now, here's hoping when we have our 30 week u/s we don't have a slip up! ("Baby" has a cyst in his/her brain, we have to check if it's grown, gone away, or stayed the same size at 30 weeks :))

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at ny 12 week scan the sonographer reffered to the baby as she all time, obviously he couldnt tell at that point....he ended up being right though lol

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You think that they can't tell at 12wks, but our sonographer was able to tell us at 12wks with what he said was 80% accuracy what the gender was and he was right!

We found out Tiger was a boy when the Sonographer went looking for his leg, and there was definitely dangly bits between them! DH and I just looked at each other and said ''A boy!''. Good thing we'd planned on finding out anyway!

Our sonographer told us at the beginning he would refer to the baby generally as a "he", but that didn't mean the baby was a boy... we did find out the gender in the last 30 seconds of the scan though (we asked).

HTH, PX

yeah I have heard of people referring to the baby as a he so you know he is talking about baby & not mother.
Our guy always says "baby" though. But I am finding out for sure on thursday. Was told at 13 weeks at a guess, boy.

When we had our 18wk scan with DS, I'm pretty sure the u/s person used "baby" or "it's", but apparently let slip "his". Only DH heard it, but he reckons he heard it pretty clear. Very annoying as we didn't want to know. I still maintained I didn't know what I was having... but there were a lot of signs pointing to a boy...

This time round I walked in and said "I don't want to know what baby is" and she just called the baby "baby" and referred to "it's" legs etc. we'll be seeing her again in just under 10 weeks, so here's hoping she uses the same terms.

It's funny, this is something that I'd never even thought about. I think last u/s we had they said baby. But with DS we said we didn't want to know, and at one point while they were checking things, they said to turn away from the screen, just in case baby moved and showed us some bits...

But I'm one to call inanimate objects "him" generally, and MIL told me after we had DS that I'd said it at one point. She thought we must have known. I didn't even realise!!

Yeah I have heard that they refer to them as 'he'......:)

I just recently had a scan and told the sonographer I didn't want to know (until DH was with me). He then referred to bub as "he" a few times and I commented on it, even though he was looking at the head circumference, kidneys etc so I knew he wasn't actually telling me what "it" was. He said he always refers to them as a he :) so I wouldn't worry!