Can you tell the gender of a baby by taking the pulse during pregnancy?

Pregnancy is a very big thing for every family. For the elderly, when the younger generation just gets pregnant, they really want to know whether the child is a boy or a girl. After all, in our long-standing Chinese culture, the view that boys can inherit the family line has never changed. So here comes a question, can taking the pulse really tell whether the baby in the belly is a boy or a girl? Let’s learn about taking the pulse today!

In the TV series "The Miracle Doctor Xilaile", there is a saying that "a smooth left pulse means it's a boy, and a smooth right pulse means it's a girl." Does Chinese medicine really predict the gender of the baby by taking the pulse?

Traditional Chinese medicine determines the gender of the baby mainly based on the pulse of the pregnant woman. It is inaccurate to determine the gender of the baby based on the pulse. If you are very serious about this, then Chinese medicine pulse diagnosis cannot be used as a basis for predicting the gender of the baby.

What is pulse?

Before understanding the specific methods of Chinese medicine pulse diagnosis in predicting the gender of the baby, let’s first look at what the pulse is. Pulse is a special term in traditional Chinese medicine, which refers to the pulse feeling felt with fingers. When we suffer from a certain disease, our pulse will often change and react accordingly. Therefore, pulse is one of the important bases for Chinese medicine to diagnose and treat diseases.

Traditional Chinese medicine practitioners need to diagnose the pulse to determine the gender of the baby. When a Chinese medicine doctor takes your pulse for diagnosis, the doctor will use the pads of his index, middle and ring fingers to touch your radial artery pulse at the bowl end, using different levels of finger force to diagnose your pulse. In ancient times, pulse diagnosis was usually performed in the morning or early morning to avoid the influence of other factors such as emotions, diet, medication, and exercise. When taking your pulse, you and the doctor also need to maintain standard postures. The doctor needs to keep his breathing calm, and usually adopts the "Four-level Pulse Diagnosis" method of one breath flat and one inhalation, while you usually lie flat or sit. The doctor's finger pressure when pressing the pulse should be moderate, and the pulse can be divided into three categories: floating, middle and sinking. What will a pregnant woman’s pulse look like?

The qualitative, positional and quantitative diagnosis of pulse refers to first determining the floating, sinking, slowness and number of pulses, the left and right inch, guan and chi, and then determining the nature of the pulse. When taking a pulse, the positions of Cun, Guan and Chi must be accurate. First, determine Guan. The point before Guan is Cun and the point after Guan is Chi. The pulse of a normal person is called a "flat pulse", which means that there are pulses in the three parts of Cun, Guan and Chi, with regular rhythm, coming and going calmly and slowly, and being full and powerful. Generally speaking, women's pulse is slightly weaker than men's. Traditional Chinese medicine believes that "Men are based on Qi, while women are based on blood." Modern medical research has also proved that pulse is related to cardiac output. The cardiac output of men and women is different, so the pulse patterns are also different. The pulse of a woman during pregnancy usually appears around the 6th week of pregnancy. The pulse becomes smooth and strong or slippery and rapid, and the radial pulse is continuous when pressed.

Traditionally, Chinese medicine practitioners have used pulse diagnosis to determine whether or not you are pregnant. The slippery pulse that appears after you become pregnant is one of the important bases used by Chinese medicine to check whether you are pregnant. The book "The Heart of Pregnancy and Childbirth" written by Yan Chunxi of the Qing Dynasty points out: "When a woman is pregnant, her blood remains and her qi gathers, and the uterus is full, so the pulse of the chiyin must be slippery and rapid." In clinical practice, we find that the pulse of women after pregnancy is mostly slippery, but conversely, if a slippery pulse is diagnosed, it does not necessarily mean that the woman is pregnant. Because when you have a full meal, your pulse tends to be slippery; when there is dampness in your body, your pulse also tends to be slippery.

In fact, traditional Chinese medicine is the treasure of our Chinese nation, so we should be able to trust the act of taking the pulse. But just like a pregnancy test stick, we can't blindly believe this. Therefore, we should wait until we can confirm it before making further confirmation. After all, pregnancy is not something to be joked about.