What determines the gender of a baby?
The sex of a baby is determined by the two sex chromosomes inherited from the parents. A baby will normally inherit one sex chromosome from the mother, and one from the father. A woman has two X chromosomes, so she can give either of her X chromosomes. The father can give either his X or Y chromosome. Since the egg already contains an X chromosome (from the mother), the gender of a baby is determined by the X or Y sex chromosome of the sperm cell from the father (thus adding one more thing to the “blame it on the husband” list if things don’t go as planned). A girl baby will result if the final arrangement is XX, and a boy will result if it is XY. As you would expect, about half of the sperm cells contain an X chromosome, and half contain a Y chromosome. It is possible to have an abnormal number of sex chromosomes, however, this is extremely rare. Realizing that gender is dependent on the Y-bearing and X-bearing sperm cells, scientists have attempted for years to separate these two pop
