There's an old wive's tale that says that a long labour makes a baby boy. It's a pretty weird one, but it turns out that it could well be true. Nobody is quite sure why, but women giving birth to baby boys are more likely to suffer a longer labour with an increased risk of complications. In a study of over 8,000 births, boys would, on average, take over six hours to make their grand entrance, whereas the girls would take slightly less than six. Boys were also much more likely to require interventions such as forceps and even caesareans. They also suffered more distress in the womb and require intensive care post-partum. Nobody is really sure why this happens, as the physical differences between the sexes aren't really striking enough to produce such a battle of the sexes. Old Wives: 1 Doctors: 0
