Nesma Ghanem is hoping for a fourth child even though her doctor says her body can't handle a pregnancy at the moment. She has three daughters and would like them to have a brother.
"In the future he could support his father and the girls," said Ghanem, 27, who lives in a village in Sohag, an area with one of Egypt's highest fertility rates.
The family depends on her husband's income from a local cafe. "If I have a son people, here in the village can say that he will carry on his father's name," she said.