We have all pretty much heard the myth that having a firstborn daughter can increase your chances of splitting from your partner, right?
Initial theories cited the corker concept as the reason for this, claiming that dads are more likely to save a marriage if their child is the same sex as them - rude.
However, new research has revealed that this theory of the 'firstborn daughter hex' may actually have scientific merit, based on hormones, of course.
Researchers Amar Hamoudi and Jenna Nobles, reckon that female embryos may actually be stronger than male ones, and more likely to withstand tough times. Male embryos have a lower survival rate.
Basically, if a mother is experiencing difficulties in a relationship from the outset of a pregnancy, her female foetus has a better chance of surviving the full term.
The studies determined that couples experiencing conflict are more likely to have a firstborn daughter - putting the theory down to stress hormones that potentially ‘weed out’ male embryos during the early stages of pregnancy.
Hamoudi and Nobles found that nearly all of the links between daughters and divorce can be accounted for by stress-related dynamics during pregnancy.
Amar Hamoudi spoke to The Huffington Post about his findings, stating that he "didn't prove that girls don't cause divorce."
"What we proved was that it would be hasty to look at the daughter-to-divorce association and say, 'Aha, girls must cause divorce,' because we now have another explanation for why that association might exist."
Digging a little deeper into what happens to our babies pre-birth is the key to getting to the bottom of this firstborn daughter-divorce correlation.
