As a mom of 4, I've been asked this question by my friends that are new moms.

So what are the pro's and the con's of finding out your child's sex before he/she is born? 

Being able to better prepare a room that is gender specific ahead of time is definitely a great thing! Being able to decorate a room prior to the birth with the specific gender related decor is great, and you are not going to have the energy to really decorate after your baby comes home from the hospital. Face it, new parents are so exhausted from being awake with baby when he/she is not sleeping all night, that the last thing you want to do in your spare time is work!

Let's not forget picking out a name! If you want to be really prepared for baby, knowing what you are going to name him/her is a great way to ease up on frustration while you are in the hospital. During your stay you will be filling out paper work for birth certificates and social security numbers and many other things. Having to take that paper work home to decide on a name when you are already exhausted is not the smartest idea in my opinion.

Clothing is also a factor, before you bring baby home, you need to have clothes! If you don't mind buying all neutral clothing, that's fine. Personally I enjoyed knowing what I needed to buy! I did not get to find out the gender of my first 2 children, which was ok but I really wished I would have known what I was having. With my last 2 children I found out the sex at my 20 week appointment and was excited to be able to go out and buy girlie clothes or little boy clothes.

If you want surprise, that's great, but there are other factors that you can see that might make it easier on new moms and dads to know the sex of the child that's going to be coming home from the hospital with them. I think it can help with pre birth bonding as well. Sometimes it helps dad get more involved or more interested to know if they have a name picked out already.

Ultrasounds are not fool proof as some will tell you. You can think you'll be coming home with a girl, only to find out in the delivery room that your the proud new parents of a bouncy baby boy! Granted that does not happen as much as it used to but there is still always that factor to consider as well.

So finding out the sex before birth does have advantages to consider. I'm the proud mom of 2 boys and 2 girls, so this comes from personal experience, not just opinion.