破解“生男魔咒”：英國家族二百年首次迎來女性後代
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.
四個月前，小麥拉·勞裏(Myla Lawrie)從醫院被抱回家時，迎接她的是一片粉紅色的“海洋”——起居室內飄滿粉紅色的氣球，點綴着粉粉的卡片、幔幕和緞帶，到處洋溢着粉嫩女孩的氣息。
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.
對勞裏家族而言，這是一件特別的大事件。小麥拉出生在十月，她是1809年以來勞裏家族降生的第一個女孩。
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.
上一次產婆宣佈“生了個女孩”的時候，還是拿破崙戰爭時期，那時候人們還沒發明汽車，“瘋癲的”君主喬治三世還在位統治英國。
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爲傲，也就不足爲奇了。她的母親是24歲的助產士漢娜，父親名叫馬克，是一名職業高爾夫球員，兩人都來自英國肯特州的梅德斯通。如今，他們想爲這個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候，他就告訴了我他們家族成員已連續五代都只生男孩。他提醒我說，我們擁有一個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2012年漢娜懷孕時，毫無懸念地迎來了他們的兒子——馬森。現在馬森已經三歲了。
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.
回顧勞裏家族的家譜，漢娜明白了爲什麼每個勞裏家族的後代都對此深信不疑，勞裏家族誕生的最後一名女性是馬克的高曾姑母貝茜，她生於200多年前，和達爾文同年。
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，於是這一現象開始流傳下去，一直延續到馬克和他的哥哥格倫身上。馬克和前任還有兩個兒子，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，我甚至曾諮詢過，是否因爲遺傳的關係，所以馬克只能產生雄性精子。
"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，生男生女的機率都是各一半，但在馬克的家族，不知爲何卻從來不是這樣。
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.
爲了提高生女兒的機率，漢娜採取了“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生在六十年代提出的，主張懷孕的時間有助於決定嬰兒性別。
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.
該觀點基於雄性精子（即Y染色體）與雌性精子（即X染色體）相比遊動速度更快，但生命週期更短且活性更低。雌性精子雖然遊動得較慢，但存活時間更長。這就意味着，排卵之前而非排卵期進行房事，會提高生女孩的機率，因爲只有雌性精子具有足夠的存活時間與卵子結合。
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排卵，只在她排卵前進行房事，一旦試紙顯示漢娜開始排卵，這個月的其餘時間就禁止性愛。
Hannah admits it was far from romantic, but says she wanted to give it their best shot.
漢娜承認這樣做一點都不浪漫，但爲了生個女兒，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，儘管採取了這種方法，但她仍認爲該方法不會奏效。這對夫婦甚至已經開始把馬森的衣服按年齡分類，爲下一個兒子的到來做準備了。
Then, at the 20-week scan, they received the astonishing news that they were expecting a girl.
而後，在20周的B超檢查時，他們得到了令人驚喜的消息——他們將擁有一個女兒。
"I was in a state of disbelief," says Hannah. "I kept asking the sonographer if she was sure."
漢娜說：“我簡直不敢置信，反覆問超聲波性別檢驗師是否確定這回事。”
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.
在三個哥哥的照料下，小麥拉一點都不缺人照顧，漢娜說，三個哥哥都對麥拉照顧有加，尤其是馬森，一有誰把他妹妹抱起來，馬森會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.
現在漢娜最大的顧慮就是怕她的女兒會長成一個“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，麥拉一定會接他的班，當一名職業高爾夫球手。不過，漢娜早已有了培養計劃，她已經預備在女兒兩歲後就送她去學芭蕾舞。
"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.
漢娜也期待着當馬克和兒子們打高爾夫的時候，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，漢娜的心願已經達成，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."
“要是這胎還是一個男孩的話，我也依舊會努力生個女孩，可現在，我已經兒女雙全了，我的夢已經圓了。”
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。但科學也好，運氣也罷，重要的是，200年來，勞裏家族的“生男魔咒“終於被打破了
Vocabulary
veritable: 真正的，名副其實的
midwife: 助產士，產婆
ovulation: 排卵
intercourse: 性交
sonographer: 超聲波檢驗醫師
tomboy: 假小子
be bound to: 必然
