Ask a Question
or
Create a Poll
  1. Home /
  2. Questions /
  3. Kids
  4. / Pregnancy
  5. / Giving Birth

by Anonymous on February 10th, 2005

Anonymous

Question

Help answer this question below.

Does it take longer to give birth to a boy than a girl?

  • Like
  • Report
Share:
Other

Answers. Showing one answer.

  • by Joseph2493 on February 11th, 2005

    Joseph2493

    After carefull research it has been found infant boys are a lot more trouble than infant girls when it comes to having a baby. If you want complications, then boys win the battle of the sexes hands down, according to research published today.

    A team at The National Maternity Hospital, Holles Street, looked at more than 8,000 births, searching for an answer to something long understood by midwives - that boys cause more problems than girls. The results are published in the British Medical Journal.

    Now it's official - males really do cause more problems during labour, according to Dr Eogan's results. "We found that women who carried male infants had longer labours, more foetal distress and were more likely to require assistance during delivery" explained Dr Maeve Eogan, specialist registrar at Holles Street.

    "Some of these things can be explained because males are larger and have larger head circumferences" but this factor didn't fully explain the differences, she said. It may be that there was some "inherent vulnerability" in male babies. "They are more vulnerable to the effects of labour."

    The team looked at first-time mothers who went into natural labour between 1997 and 2000. Male births were much more likely to require the use of oxytocin, a hormone which stimulates contractions.

    "Of the women carrying male infants, 70 per cent of them had completely normal deliveries, compared to 76 per cent of females."

    Baby-boy labour averaged more than six hours, while average baby-girl labour lasted less than six hours. Forceps were needed in 23 per cent of boy births, but only 19 per cent of girl births.
    And while 6 per cent of boys were delivered by Caesarean section, only 4 per cent of girls were born this way.

    For more information see the article in the British Journal:

    http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/326/7381/0/b?maxtoshow=&HITS=10&hits=10&RESULTFORMAT=&fulltext=Eogan&andorexactfulltext=and&searchid=1108150057074_17820&stored_search=&FIRSTINDEX=0&sortspec=relevance&resourcetype=1

    Comments

    • Guess I got lucky-6 hours of labour and a beautiful baby boy-first child too! :)

      Kelly Masters

      by Kelly Masters on February 11th, 2005

    • I guess I was lucky too - my son (1st child) took less than 5 hours to be born naturally!

      Moodles

      by Moodles on February 11th, 2005

    • Guess I'm lucky I'm a boy :-)

      wickedwillie

      by wickedwillie on February 14th, 2005

    • Wow, what are the odds?! My first baby, a boy, was a quick and simple delivery, only 30 min.

      CynS14

      by CynS14 on February 14th, 2005

    • My mother gave birth to me in less than an hour without pains. My younger sister on the other hand was much more trouble.

      Jack Scotty

      by Jack Scotty on July 19th, 2005

    • I have two girls...and they were easy births...if this helps :-)

      Kate Walker

      by Kate Walker on November 8th, 2005

    • I guess I got lucky. I had a boy and I was in labor 11 hours and pushed for like 20 minutes.Didnt have to much pain either.

      Turtlegurl

      by Turtlegurl on February 15th, 2006

    • Like
    • Report

    7 comments | Post one | Permalink

Want to attach an image to your answer? Click here.

Did this answer your question? If not, then ask a new question or create a poll.

More Questions. Additional questions in this category.

You're reading Does it take longer to give birth to a boy than a girl?

Follow us on Facebook!

Related Ads

Related Questions

Professionally Researched

Answerbag

a Demand Media company