Mothers and boys

Mothers in a stable relationship are more likely to give birth to a boy, reveals a new study.

Mothers in a stable relationship are more likely to give birth to a boy, reveal a study conducted by US National Bureau of Economic Research which has found that the living arrangements of parents at the time a baby is conceived may play an important role in determining its sex.

According to the BBC, the findings published in Proceedings of The Royal Society, supports the biological theory which predicts that offspring sex might vary according to environmental conditions.

The study found that 51.5 per cent of babies born to couples living together at the time of conception were boys, compared to 49.9 percent among parents who were not.

"The finding supports a biological theory that predicts that offspring sex might vary according to environmental conditions, if these conditions have different effects on sons and daughters," researcher Karen Norberg. Was quoted as saying.

"There are several possible mechanisms that could explain the effect. Factors operating at conception could include the mother's or father's hormone status, or the timing or frequency of intercourse; factors operating later in pregnancy could result in sex biases in risk of miscarriage," she added.

The researchers claim that their finding could explain the fall in the proportion of male births in some developed countries over the past 30 years as well, as there has been a hike in number of women who are not into stable relationships..