Hedge Your Bets
May 24, 2010 § 1 Comment
I heard a story about an obstetrician who was always right at determining the gender of the foetus. He had a little trick up his sleeve.
I have two kids and we wanted to know the gender of both of them. The obstetrician and midwives that did the sonography were all quite cautious of saying anything conclusive. They’d say “It’s most probably a girl, but I could be wrong” and stuff like that. Very sensible, but you would seem more omnipotent if you could be certain and right every time, right?
This one obstetrician had it all worked out. If he thought it was a boy, he’d tell the parents “boy” and write “girl” in the medical record. If he thought it was a girl, he’d tell them “girl” and write “boy”.
That way, if he was wrong, he had it in writing that he was in fact right. He’d congratulate the parents with their newborn girl, just as he had told them. “No, you said it was a boy,” they’d say. “No, that’s not what I said. Look right here, it says ‘girl’ in the record.”
If he was right, no one would of course think of checking the record.
I don’t know if it’s true, but it’s still a good story.
The Sterile Eye 
Can’t say anything except that he is playing safe. Ehe. Though here, some people were able to guess it right by examining the mom and not the ultrasound results.