Christina Ficara - All Headline News Staff Reporter

According to a report by WCVB-TV in Boston, between one-half and three-quarters of all expectant parents now want to learn the sex of their baby before delivery. This latest home gender test will allow pregnant moms to know before they're even showing.

The Baby Gender Mentor promises 99.9 percent accuracy if it's a boy or a girl as early as five weeks into a pregnancy - much sooner than an ultrasound at 16 weeks.

The finger prick blood test is administered by the expectant mom in her home and sent to Acu-Gen Biolab in Lowell, Mass., where a DNA test of fetal cells within the blood determines whether it contains the male Y chromosome.

Within 48 hours, parents will know their child's gender.

There are skeptics, however, who fear this knowledge early on can effect the pregnancy in a negative way.

"Somebody who really wants a boy or a girl might include such information in their decision as to whether to carry the pregnancy or to terminate it," said Dr. Henry Lerner, an obstetrician/gynecologist at Newton-Wellesley Hospital in Newton, Mass.

"It's purely to find out the sex of the child, and that's a big concern in my mind because what's the disease? The disease in this case is having one sex or another," said Dr. Michael Grodin, a Boston University bioethicist.

While the gender test is controversial, doctors hope it can lead the way toward testing fetal DNA for chromosomal abnormalities such as Down's syndrome without invasive and potentially dangerous procedures currently being used.