Relationship of mother's fasting in the follicular phase of the last menstrual cycle and newborn's gender

For many reasons, having children with the desired gender has long been a concern for human societies. Some studies have shown the effect of a maternal diet pregnancy on gender ratios. Considering that during the holy month of Ramadan, women's diet is undergoing a major change, and studies about the association of such diet change, especially the mother's fasting, on the gender of the fetus are rare and the results have contradictory; the present study, was conducted, to investigate the relationship of mother's fasting in the follicular phase of the last menstrual cycle and gender of newborn. This descriptive - analytical study was conducted on 139 pregnant women who had started their last menstrual period before their pregnancy during Ramadan and referred to midwifery clinic of Sayyad Shirazi hospital or health centers in Gorgan city for prenatal care in 2016 and 2017. The data collection tool was a checklist containing the demographic characteristics of the pregnant mother, date of the last menstruation, gestational age, number of pregnancy and days of mother fasting. 86 pregnant women (62 %) were fasting and 53 non-fasting (38%). Frequency of newborn's gender in pregnant women who were fasting was 43 boys and 43 girls and in non-fasting women were 35 and 18, respectively. The frequency of boys in non-fasting mothers was higher than girls but this difference was not significant. In analysis of simultaneous effects of variables on baby's gender, none of the variables were statistically significant with the newborn's gender. Variables such as the number of pregnancies (P=0.051) and maternal fasting (P=0.083) non significantly reduced the ratio of boy born to 30%. There is no relationship between gender of babies and mother's fasting in the follicular phase of the last menstrual cycle.