Baby gender confusion

Imagine carrying a child, knowing you are about to have a baby boy – then surprise! You have a baby girl. That is what happened to one local family.

Danielle Akey had an ultra sound 24 weeks into her pregnancy. She said the sonographer told her it was going to be a boy. Months later, she delivered a beautiful baby girl. Danielle loves her daughter, Marley, but said she suffers emotionally from the erroneous gender prediction.

“Everybody looked at it and she’s like oh I’m sure it’s a boy she said look at this it is so obvious it’s a boy,” said Akey.

They even named their baby Vincent Michael.

“I was just like hi little Vinny Hi little guy just talking to him like he was my little boy and I was so excited to have my little guy running around have my two boys,” Mrs. Akey said.

The delivery day came, and surprise, the Akey’s had a little girl.

Akey said, “I love her to death she’s such a sweet heart but it was just hard for me to connect the pregnancy with the little girl I had in my arms. There was a loss there even to the point of a loss of losing a family member.”

The false prediction was not only emotional, it was expensive. The Akey’s spent thousands of dollars on little boy toys, bedding and clothes.

“After we found out we were having a little girl we couldn’t return anything,” Akey said.

After baby Marley was born, the Akey’s went back to the sonographer and showed her the sonogram picture again.

“When she saw it she said that really does look like a little boy but it could have been the umbilical chord or her little hand in her way. She said she’s sorry and that it was the first time it ever happened to her that she knew of, said Akey.

The Akey’s are planning on having another baby, but next time they will be doing things a little differently. They will get a second opinion, or maybe no opinion at all.

Akey said, “I think that maybe the next time we have a baby I don’t think we’re going to try and even find out if we’re going to find out if we’re having a boy or a girl.”

We spoke with the manager at the Forum Diagnostic Center where Danielle Akey received her ultra sound. The manager said the gender predictions from sonographers are only opinions, and they’re not 100 percent accurate. She also said since gender readings are merely predictions – no statistics are kept on how accurate those predictions are.