破解“生男魔咒”：英國家族二百年首次迎來女性后代

When little Myla Lawrie was brought home from hospital four months ago, a veritable sea of pink greeted her, with clouds of balloons filling the sitting room, along with cards, bunting and ribbons in every shade of girliness.

四個(gè)月前，小麥拉·勞里(Myla Lawrie)從醫(yī)院被抱回家時(shí)，迎接她的是一片粉紅色的“海洋”——起居室內(nèi)飄滿粉紅色的氣球，點(diǎn)綴著粉粉的卡片、幔幕和緞帶，到處洋溢著粉嫩女孩的氣息。

For this was a very special event in the Lawrie family. When Myla was born in October, she was the first girl to be born in her family since 1809.

對(duì)勞里家族而言，這是一件特別的大事件。小麥拉出生在十月，她是1809年以來勞里家族降生的第一個(gè)女孩。

The last time a midwife announced "It's a girl", the Napoleonic war was still being fought, the motorcar was yet to be invented, and "mad" King George III was on the English throne.

上一次產(chǎn)婆宣布“生了個(gè)女孩”的時(shí)候，還是拿破侖戰(zhàn)爭(zhēng)時(shí)期，那時(shí)候人們還沒發(fā)明汽車，“瘋癲的”君主喬治三世還在位統(tǒng)治英國。

 

 

No wonder her proud parents — Hannah, a 26-year-old midwife, and Mark, a 33-year-old professional golfer turned coach, from Maidstone in Kent — wanted to celebrate.

有了這些理由，小麥拉的雙親如此引以為傲，也就不足為奇了。她的母親是24歲的助產(chǎn)士漢娜，父親名叫馬克，是一名職業(yè)高爾夫球員，兩人都來自英國肯特州的梅德斯通。如今，他們想為這個(gè)新生命的到來慶祝一番。

"When Mark and I first got together, he told me how everyone in his family, for five generations, had produced boys," explains Hannah. "He warned me that the chances of us ever having a daughter were pretty remote."

漢娜說：“我和馬克剛在一起的時(shí)候，他就告訴了我他們家族成員已連續(xù)五代都只生男孩。他提醒我說，我們擁有一個(gè)女兒的希望十分渺茫。”

True to form, when Hannah became pregnant in 2012, no one was surprised when Mason, who's now three, was born.

事情不出所料，當(dāng)2012年漢娜懷孕時(shí)，毫無懸念地迎來了他們的兒子——馬森?，F(xiàn)在馬森已經(jīng)三歲了。

Looking back over the family tree, Hannah could see why everyone was so convinced. The last girl to be born in the Lawrie family was Mason's great-great-great Aunt Bessie, born more than 200 years ago in the same year as Charles Darwin.

回顧勞里家族的家譜，漢娜明白了為什么每個(gè)勞里家族的后代都對(duì)此深信不疑，勞里家族誕生的最后一名女性是馬克的高曾姑母貝茜，她生于200多年前，和達(dá)爾文同年。

Bessie and her brother had had sons, and so the pattern had continued, all the way down to Mark and his brother Glenn. Mark has two other boys, ten-year-old Ben and seven-year-old Zac, from a previous relationship, while Glenn had one son, Reece, who's 14.

貝茜和她的兄弟們生的都是男孩，于是這一現(xiàn)象開始流傳下去，一直延續(xù)到馬克和他的哥哥格倫身上。馬克和前任還有兩個(gè)兒子，十歲的本和七歲的扎克。格倫也育有一子，十四歲的瑞斯。

"I even questioned whether there could be a genetic condition that meant Mark produced only male sperm," says Hannah.

漢娜說，我甚至曾咨詢過，是否因?yàn)檫z傳的關(guān)系，所以馬克只能產(chǎn)生雄性精子。

 

 

"I asked numerous doctors and consultants in the hospital where I work if this was the case, but was told time and again that it wasn't. Every time a baby is conceived, the chances of it being a girl are 50/50, they told me — but in Mark's family, for some reason, it never was."

我還問了很多和我同院的大夫是否是這種情況，但每每得到的回答都是否定的。每一次受孕時(shí)，生男生女的機(jī)率都是各一半，但在馬克的家族，不知為何卻從來不是這樣。

Desperate to improve their chances of having a girl, Hannah came across the Shettles Method, developed by an American doctor in the Sixties, which claims the timing of conception can help determine the baby's sex.

為了提高生女兒的幾率，漢娜采取了“薛德思法(Shettles Method:由薛德思博士提出的一種幫助選擇嬰兒性別的懷孕方式)”。該方法是由一名美國醫(yī)生在六十年代提出的，主張懷孕的時(shí)間有助于決定嬰兒性別。

This is based on evidence that male sperm (Y chromosome) are faster, weaker and have a shorter lifespan than female sperm (X chromosome), which are slower but survive for longer. This means that having sex before ovulation, rather than during, should increase the likelihood of conceiving a girl, as only the female sperm will survive long enough to penetrate the egg.

該觀點(diǎn)基于雄性精子(即Y染色體)與雌性精子(即X染色體)相比游動(dòng)速度更快，但生命周期更短且活性更低。雌性精子雖然游動(dòng)得較慢，但存活時(shí)間更長。這就意味著，排卵之前而非排卵期進(jìn)行房事，會(huì)提高生女孩的機(jī)率，因?yàn)橹挥写菩跃泳哂凶銐虻拇婊顣r(shí)間與卵子結(jié)合。

Hannah used ovulation kits to work out when she was ovulating. Love-making was allowed only early on in Hannah's cycle. As soon as the kit showed she was approaching ovulation, intercourse was banned for the rest of the month.

漢娜用排卵試紙來確定自己何時(shí)排卵，只在她排卵前進(jìn)行房事，一旦試紙顯示漢娜開始排卵，這個(gè)月的其余時(shí)間就禁止性愛。

Hannah admits it was far from romantic, but says she wanted to give it their best shot.

漢娜承認(rèn)這樣做一點(diǎn)都不浪漫，但為了生個(gè)女兒，他們不容有失。

 

 

Hannah fell pregnant straight away but was convinced the technique hadn't worked and that she was expecting another boy. The couple even sorted out all Mason's clothes into age order ready for when the new baby was born.

漢娜又懷孕了，盡管采取了這種方法，但她仍認(rèn)為該方法不會(huì)奏效。這對(duì)夫婦甚至已經(jīng)開始把馬森的衣服按年齡分類，為下一個(gè)兒子的到來做準(zhǔn)備了。

Then, at the 20-week scan, they received the astonishing news that they were expecting a girl.

而后，在20周的B超檢查時(shí)，他們得到了令人驚喜的消息——他們將擁有一個(gè)女兒。

"I was in a state of disbelief," says Hannah. "I kept asking the sonographer if she was sure."

漢娜說：“我簡(jiǎn)直不敢置信，反復(fù)問超聲波性別檢驗(yàn)師是否確定這回事。”

 

 

With three big brothers to look after her, Myla is never going to be short of protectors. Hannah says they are all very protective, but especially Mason, who tells people who pick up his precious sister to put her back immediately.

在三個(gè)哥哥的照料下，小麥拉一點(diǎn)都不缺人照顧，漢娜說，三個(gè)哥哥都對(duì)麥拉照顧有加，尤其是馬森，一有誰把他妹妹抱起來，馬森會(huì)讓他馬上放下小寶寶。

Hannah's biggest worry now is that her daughter will turn out to be a tomboy.

現(xiàn)在漢娜最大的顧慮就是怕她的女兒會(huì)長成一個(gè)“假小子”。

Mark teases her, saying she's bound to end up a professional golfer, but Hannah already has plans to sign her up to ballet classes on her second birthday.

馬克打趣她說，麥拉一定會(huì)接他的班，當(dāng)一名職業(yè)高爾夫球手。不過，漢娜早已有了培養(yǎng)計(jì)劃，她已經(jīng)預(yù)備在女兒兩歲后就送她去學(xué)芭蕾舞。

"I really enjoyed dancing when I was a child, and I'd love for Myla to do the same," she says.

“我小時(shí)候，真的特別喜歡跳舞，所以我希望麥拉也能這樣。”漢娜說。

Hannah is also looking forward to the days when Mark and the boys go off to play 18 holes, and she is able to enjoy shopping trips with her daughter.

漢娜也期待著當(dāng)馬克和兒子們打高爾夫的時(shí)候，女兒能陪她一起購物逛街。

One thing she's certain of, though, is that her family is complete.

如今，漢娜的心愿已經(jīng)達(dá)成，她的家庭是圓滿的了。

"If I'd had another boy, I might have had another shot at a girl. But now that I've got one of each, I've got everything I've ever wanted."

“要是這胎還是一個(gè)男孩的話，我也依舊會(huì)努力生個(gè)女孩，可現(xiàn)在，我已經(jīng)兒女雙全了，我的夢(mèng)已經(jīng)圓了。”

Hannah will never know if her ovulation kits did the trick. But whether by luck, or science, the 200-year Lawrie family boy spell has finally been broken.

排卵試紙到底有沒有起作用，漢娜已不得而知。但科學(xué)也好，運(yùn)氣也罷，重要的是，200年來，勞里家族的“生男魔咒“終于被打破了。

Vocabulary

veritable: 真正的，名副其實(shí)的

midwife: 助產(chǎn)士，產(chǎn)婆

ovulation: 排卵

intercourse: 性交

sonographer: 超聲波檢驗(yàn)醫(yī)師

tomboy: 假小子

be bound to: 必然