Proud parents, Hollie and David have welcomed the first baby girl into the Allen family after 100 years thanks to "boring sex".
Desperate to break the mould of boy only birth's running for four generations in her husband's family, Holly, 30, opted for the unusual method of not enjoying sex.
After extensive research, dismissing old wives' tales such as elevating your legs after intercourse and eating acidic oranges to kill of male sperm, the couple settled on the scientific method.
Hollie, a trained Hypnotherapist, said: "There were so many theories and old wives' tales but we dismissed those and thought we would go with science and use the Shettles Method.
"The theory is, if you have sex two to three days before you ovulate, the sperm which gives you a boy dies off quicker so gives you the chance to have a girl.
"As well as the time of having sex, they also say that if a woman enjoys the sex and has an orgasm it can release the egg early. So you basically have to have boring sex.
"So we had boring sex to give us the best chance."
The Shettles Method is based around a woman's ovulation to give the girl sperm the best chance of reaching the egg.
Hollie, who is also mum to two-year-old Jacob, said: "We never thought it was possible to have a girl to be honest.
"It was at the 20-week scan where they said she might be a girl, but she was being a bit awkward so they couldn't give us a definite answer.
"It wasn't until she was born and they said 'it's a girl', and we asked 'is it really?' It was a bit of a shock.
"The family are so over the moon because of the family history we just thought we would have another boy."
The last baby girl to be born into the Allen family was Winifred on May 10, 1915, and formed the myth that "Alllen men don't make girls".
Since then six boys have been born into the family before Hollie decided to do her research to find out how she could have a little girl instead.
After an anxious wait and five-hour hypnobirth at Colchester General Hospital in Essex, Rachel was born two weeks early at 4.26pm on October 26.
David, an IT Engineer, said: "It was very exciting to have broken such a run of males because it's been an ongoing joke since my wife got pregnant with Jacob.
"My parents, Wendy and the late Reverend Richard Allen, had made us aware of it as they'd known for quite a while.
"Hollie is one of two sisters and has two brothers so even before we'd met, she wanted one of each with a two to three year gap which is exactly what we have.
"She'd done a lot of research into the conditions male versus female sperm thrive in and for girls, it's some time before ovulation rather than closer to it."
Hollie said it was lovely to have a little girl that she always wanted and Rachel was born weighing 8lbs 3oz.
She added: "I always said my dream was to have a boy and then a girl so the big brother could protect her.
"As much as we both really wanted a girl we thought we would try the methods we can but as long as the baby was healthy, we didn't really mind.
"Everyone is just a little bit shocked but she's a healthy, content and calm little girl with a lot of protective men in her family for her."
Husband of four-years David added: "She's been flooded with pink things as we'd kept everything neutral.
"For us it was hope more than belief. We'd done everything we could and if it wasn't meant to be we'd be happy with a healthy baby as that in itself is a reason to celebrate.
"There were limits to how much we were willing to try because we came across some really wacky ideas.
"The only other advice we got was from my mum who said to not get our hopes up, but Hollie put her order in and it all worked out.
"So it was nice to be able to reveal to our family we'd done it."
