Single-Sex Notoriety in a Tiny Polish Town

"Some scientists have expressed interest in examining why only girls have been born here."
"I also have doctors calling me from all over the country with tips on how to conceive a boy."
"And if that [a diet rich in calcium] doesn't work, there is always the tried way of the Polish highlanders; if you want a boy, keep an axe under your marital bed."
"There has been so much talk about us in the media that for a minute there I was considering naming a street after the next boy born here."
"He will definitely get a very nice gift. And we will plant an oak and name it after him."
Rajmund Frischko, mayor, Cisek, Miejsce Odrzanskie, Poland

Miejsce Odrzanskie in Poland has seen 12 daughters born in the last nine years but no sons.  Credit: Kasia Strek/NYTNS / Redux / eyevine

The village of Miejsce Odrzanskie has a population of 272 people. The population has declined considerably, given that after World War Two there were 1,200 people living there. It is an agricultural village, a farming community where there is little doubt boys are valued to fill the traditional role of potential workers around the farm, though girls too are certainly capable of farmwork. The village is located  in the least populated province in the country.

And it is home to a strange anomaly where it has been ten years since a boy was born in the village overlooking the Oder River in southern Poland. However, in the years following, since the last baby boy was brought into the village, there were a dozen births, none of which were boys, all girls.  Poland itself became acquainted with the oddity when a local journalist realized that at a recent regional competition for young volunteer firefighters, the entire village team was comprised of girls.



That peculiarity was first locally, then regionally and finally saw publication in the national arena. A town where the fire brigade has 24 young women and eight men, while the youngest team of volunteers is comprised only of girls. Ever since, Mayor Zydziak has fielded inquiries coming from all directions, leaving him with the impression that the matter had become "a little crazy and out of hand". Just recently, four separate television crews appeared in the town with one road in and out, and 96 houses.

A retired doctor from central Poland had recently contacted the mayor, happy to offer a solution to the town's puzzling lack of boy babies. The doctor left Mayor Zydziak with the edifying scientific solution to the matter, informing him that a baby's sex was dependent on the type of diet a woman consumed while carrying. To give birth to a boy, a woman's diet must be high in calcium.

"It has been going on for several decades. I came to the village, took a local girl for my wife and we had two daughters. I would like to have a son but it's probably unrealistic."
"My neighbor also tried and has two daughters. I don't think women give birth to boys here."
Tomasz Golasz, head, volunteer fire brigade

"[The village’s mostly female youth fire brigade is hugely adept at winning competitions and making a big splash]. These girls live and breathe it."
"There is so much passion and determination. For two months before every competition, they come to train every day or every other day after school."
Village firefighter Tomasz Golasz

Meldujemy sie w Wieruszowie na I Międzynarodowej a II Ogólnopolskiej Olimpiadzie Dziecięcych Drużyn Pożarniczych