Rose, I totally agree with you! My generation of men and women had to struggle so hard to accept women in the workplace and in politics as equals. Your generation has had to deal with civil and human rights for those of different sexual orientation. To have the sex of the child revealed in an Oscar style envelope is demeaning and objectifying in the extreme!

When you were in gestation ultrasound was a brand new technology and we expressly told the technician and the doctor that we did not wish to know your sex before you were born. Same with your brother (although we found out at the hospital a few hours before he was born as he was a C-section baby and it was, by then, quite obvious on the image used to make the final decision to proceed with surgery.

The mystery of gestation and birth, the bonding with your child before they are born are far too intimate and sacred to be reduced to a pink or blue onesie and a cake with purple frosting. I also have to say that both you and your brother were fully formed personalities way before you were born and figured out how to operate in incarnate form. That was really quite the most wonderful part about waiting for you to be born - getting to know you and love you so tremendously way before you arrived in that tiny body! We are far more than the body, that's for sure! - Your Mum who loved you well before day one