Mother Links

Mothers and their children are connected not only psychologically but also physically. Research shows that even after we’ve cut the cord mothers continue to carry the cells of their babies. And the cells of mothers, and of siblings previously carried, inhabit the bones and brains of subsequent children.

How far back does this cell-sharing — it’s actually called fetal-maternal microchimerism — go? Who knows. Your mother had her mother’s cells, and your grandmother had her mother’s cells… so… well, potentially a long way back.

Scientists are just beginning to study this phenomenon. What they’ve found so far is that in a study of women who had died in their 70s over half of the women had male DNA — presumably from their sons — in their brains. Finding a son’s residual DNA in mothers is easier than looking for a daughter’s DNA; imagine how much higher the number would be if we also counted daughters’ DNA.

Those fetal cells don’t just live in mother’s brains, they’re in their blood too. When studying women who were potential stem cell donors researchers found male DNA, which may make parents better donor candidates for their children than strangers.

Still other studies have found fetal cells in a mothers’ bones, liver, and lungs. Yup, those little buggers just find a warm place and cuddle in. The good news is that these fetal cells may possess the ability to turn into lots of different kinds of cells and may be able to help repair a damaged heart, liver or thyroid.

The news isn’t all positive; these same cells also seem to play a role in autoimmune disorders. In fact, fetal cells are suspects in a wide range of afflictions, including morning sickness and postpartum depression. Even early onset menopause might be fetal cell efforts to secure the most resources.

We used to think of cell traffic as travelling on a one-way street: from mother to child. But these new discoveries show that fetal cells cross the placental barrier and can not only affect the health of the mother but of subsequent children.