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Comment by bryanlarsen | Hacker News Reader

The first thing that I noticed about the box is that all the baby clothes are sex-neutral. Here in North America it's almost impossible to find baby clothes that don't immediately scream "I'm a boy" or "I'm a girl".

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To my understanding, parents in Finland don't normally know the biological sex of the child before birth. If the box is given before the actually birth, then it makes sense to make the colors gender neutral.

The option to know (during the second ultrasound exam) is there, we for example did know. Some people choose not to know and many more keep the gender a secret from others until the baby is actually born.

Interesting, I understand not wanting to know and I also understand wanting to know, but why would people keep it a secret? (Just in case I'm not judging, just curious)

Because some people basically go batshit crazy when they find out and start getting you super-strongly gendered stuff, and you want to put off having to deal with that crap for as long as possible is one reason. For example, if you have a baby shower _before_ the birth (yes, ok, you're having a baby shower to start with) and you haven't told people the gender, there's only so much bad they can do along those lines...

Interesting perspective, thanks!

No problem. :)

Note that my experiences with this are all in the US. Now that I think about it, in cultures where there is more pressure to have kids of the "right" gender, there are other really good reasons to not tell people the gender even if you know...

No, most parents in Finland do opt to find out. I presume it's just easier to mass-produce a box of unisex clothing, and as the article says you can then easily reuse the clothes for siblings.

I live in Sweden, so I assumed Finland had it similar. Here, parents are not always offered to know the sex. This is sometimes because of hospital policy, or because the ultrasound did not make it clear enough.

Thanks for giving a definitive answer.

Why would there be a hospital policy against gender disclosure?

In China there is.

Im not sure. The best indication I can find is that such identification is seen as unnecessary from a medical viewpoint. Doing a quick search, the only other information I could find on the matter is that not identifying the sex is viewed as standard practice.

To prevent parents from aborting children of the "wrong" gender. It has sadly happened, apparently.

By the time you can tell, you can't have a legal abortion. Black market ultrasound is probably not the limiting factor in illegal abortions in Sweden or Finland.

They can't really tell with 100 % accuracy until birth, but by week 18 they can tell with a very high level of accuracy. And Sweden permits abortions until the end of week 18.

During the prenatal checkups here in Finland, they also do ultrasounds (2-3 times if I remember correctly) and they will ask you if you want to know.

The box contents is neutral mainly for logistical purposes. It's cheaper to have all the boxes with same content than to carry two lines of blue and pink boxes :)

It has been a long time since I purchased any, and I notice only so many, but what exactly is macho or feminine about a white onesie?

True, but that is a cultural item for us. From the article, the clothes color signifies year child was born. I would imagine that would substitute pretty well here if done for years.

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