Don't get Chrissy Glen wrong.
After four years spent coping with the heartache of infertility treatments that didn't work, she considers herself blessed to have a healthy baby girl finally conceived through in-vitro fertilization.
Jenna is a gift, she says, but if they are lucky enough to produce another child, Glen and her husband, Tim, hope for a boy to balance the gender ratio in their family.
Two years ago, 16 of her eggs were mixed with his sperm in a laboratory dish, yielding seven embryos. Two were transferred into her uterus (only one implanted successfully), leaving five available for another shot at IVF.
Using a technique that tests the gender of their remaining embryos before they are placed in the womb, the Glens could all but guarantee themselves a boy next time.
"We would really like to have one of each," says the 34-year-old stay-at-home mom from Richboro, Bucks County. "So that is definitely something we are going to consider."
It's a brave new world in childbearing, where advances in reproductive technology mean Mother Nature doesn't necessarily determine whether the nursery gets painted blue or pink. By spending thousands of dollars, parents can now fulfill any secret desires they may have to choose their child's gender.
And, as access has increased to procedures that can nearly guarantee the sex of a child, so has the freedom of parents-to-be to say what they really want. It's no longer "I just want a healthy baby," but "I just want a healthy baby girl." Or boy.
In a time when elective cesarean sections are scheduled like conference calls and parents outsource everything from baby-proofing to potty-training, it's not surprising that women are turning to science to gain even more control over procreation, says Vicki Glembocki of Westmont, mother of two daughters and author of The Second Nine Months: One Woman Tells the Real Truth About Becoming a Mom.
This newfound power could help to break the silent taboo in our culture about gender preference, she says.
"You are only allowed to say that you want a healthy baby," Glembocki says. "It is almost viewed as being superficial or insensitive to care about gender - but a lot of people do."
Amy Jo Bader, a mother and writer from Bala Cynwyd, says she understands the drive some parents have to meddle in biological fate.
