Should You Try to Plan Your Baby Based on Astrology?

From early signs of pregnancy to pregnancy nutrition dos and don’ts, there’s no limit to the questions that pop up when you’re either trying to conceive or expecting. If you happen to be a future parent who’s actively studying or merely fascinated by astrology, there are even more conundrums. Like, should you schedule your C-section while the sun is in a sign you think may be more compatible with yours and your partner’s? Should you avoid conceiving in a particular month, because you know a birthday nine months later would be a sign you’ve always been wary of?

If you’re wondering about this, you’re far from alone. Plenty of aspiring parents will proudly say they’re holding off on trying to conceive until the timing checks out for the sign they’d like to welcome into the family. Nonetheless, as with anything in astrology, the rules of the road are far more nuanced than you might expect.

As an astrologer and author of the book “Raising Baby by the Stars: A New Parent’s Guide to Astrology” ($20), I’m here to share all the must-knows of attempting to plan your baby’s birth based on astrology.

Should You Try to Give Birth to a Particular Sign?

Truthfully, it’s a fool’s errand to attempt to avoid or try for a baby with a particular astrological sign. Annually, the sun moves through all 12 zodiac signs and shifts from one to the next on roughly – but not exactly – the same days every year. (That’s why a baby born on June 21 one year might be a Gemini, whereas one born on June 21 another year might be a Cancer.) More than 57 percent of babies in the US are born between 39 and 41 weeks, according to the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention, but just five percent of births happen on their due dates, per an Australian study. In other words, even if you give birth around your due date – which is rare – it’s far from guaranteed that your child will be born with the sun sign that correlates with your due date.

At the same time, your baby is so much more than their sun sign. Everything else that shows up in their birth chart (aka natal chart) – a snapshot of the sky at the exact date, time, and place of their birth – will influence their personality and life path, too. Those influences can be a lot harder to plan since the moon and all of the planets are moving at different rates through the zodiac. For example, the rising sign (or ascendant), which is the sign rising on the eastern horizon at the time of a person’s birth, changes every one to two hours, and speaks to the way your child shows up in the world and appears at first blush. It also influences their skills, talents, and pursuit of innermost desires. For example, you could be aiming for a fiery, unfiltered, adventurous Sagittarius sun baby, but depending on the exact hour of their birth, they could have a private, emotional Scorpio ascendant or sensitive, detail-oriented Virgo ascendant.

Even if you end up with a kid whose sun sign isn’t what you supposedly wanted, they might have other placements in the sign you were aiming for. Case in point: When they were trying to conceive, my parents were aiming for a cheerful, upbeat, positive, confident Leo, like my dad. They ran a little late, it seems, because I was born on Sept. 6, coming into the world with my sun (and moon and Mercury!) in Virgo. However, they still got their wish to some extent, because I have a strong Leo presence in my birth chart: my Venus, Mars, and rising signs are all in Leo.

All this is to say, your child’s sun sign does matter, as it speaks to your little one’s core identity and self-image, but it’s far from the whole astrological picture. Your child’s birth chart is entirely their own and can offer valuable insight into their perspective, motivations, personality, strengths, challenges, and more.

There Are No Good or Bad Signs – Only Opportunities For Growth

So you might have always had Scorpio bosses who scared the crap out of you and have turned you off of the fixed water sign forever. Or your friendships with Pisceans have always led to drama. By looking at your own chart, either solo or alongside a professional astrologer, you can begin to better understand why these patterns have popped up for you throughout your life. For instance, are you always butting heads with one of the fixed signs (Taurus, Leo, Scorpio, Aquarius)? Maybe you have a fixed placement that forms a tense square to other people’s fixed placements.

While the internet collectively loves to slam particular signs, the truth is that we all have all 12 signs represented in our birth charts. Even if you don’t have any placements in a particular sign, every natal chart is divided into 12 pie slices, or houses, and each house is ruled by one of the 12 signs. So if you’ve historically felt challenged by a particular sign, it can be helpful to look at your chart to understand where that sign falls and what lessons it might be linked to for you.

All of this self-awareness can be especially helpful when your little one is born with placements you’ve been challenged by in the past, because you’ll begin to understand what you’re meant to learn from them – and vice versa. Perhaps your chart is all fire and water, and your little one has a whole lot of earth in their chart. While that might be foreign territory to you, they could teach you quite a bit about the value of pragmatism and being grounded while you model emotionality and a flair for the dramatic.

Related: What Can Astrology Tell You About How Many Babies You’ll Have?

If You’re Going to Try Anyway, Here’s What to Know

Say you’re doing IVF or IUI, so you get to choose, theoretically, when you’ll get pregnant. You may be thinking, “Why not do it during the timeframe that will result in a baby with the sign that I want?” Or, if you’re due right around a cusp (the days bordering the sun’s move into a new sign), you might push to be induced early or wait a bit, so you can have your kid’s birthdate fall at the “ideal” time.

If that’s your intention, just bear in mind that the sun sign is just one detail in a complex blueprint. Even if their sun happens to be in the sign you were aiming for, their moon sign – their emotional compass and how they want to be nurtured – will likely be in a completely different sign, and perhaps even one you’re either unfamiliar with or biased against.

In short, you’re going to end up with the kid you’re meant to have, and there will always be so much more to their natal astrology than just one sign.

The Bottom Line on Trying to Plan Your Child Around Astrology

When trying to conceive or expecting, it’s easy to find yourself hoping that your kid loves hockey, like you do, or cooking, like your partner. You might daydream about them sharing your sense of humor or love of family history. But the truth of the matter is that while they’re sure to mirror you in some ways and learn from you in others, they’re always and forever going to be their own individual person. And their birth chart – which is entirely unique, as well – only serves to underline that point.

Similarly, your experience trying to conceive and then expecting a child is going to be truly your own – and is bound to be full of question marks. While it can feel comforting to have control over something, like your child’s astrology, it’ll usually serve you better to see where the journey takes you. From there, the best thing you can do is welcome your child into the world whenever they choose to show up, then hold space for them to grow into the radiantly distinctive person they’re meant to be.

Related: Your 2023 Horoscope Says You’re in Your Reinvention Era