The Mother And Child Reunion

The following is a quote from the American Spectator. 

As any woman who has carried a baby knows, pregnancy is a seriously demanding task, both physiologically and psychologically. The female body is brilliant when it comes to safely and effectively growing human life; much more than the passive tasks of providing fetal nutrients and incubation occurs during pregnancy. We know now that mother and fetus are connected in extraordinary ways that modern science still doesn’t understand fully. Parts of a baby’s unique genetic material remain in the mother’s body and brain for the rest of her life, connecting them indefinitely. By thirty-four weeks of gestation, research has shown that fetuses have acquired and stored memories from inside their mother’s wombs. What’s more important than what we know about life in the womb for a mother-baby dyad is what we don’t.

The information immediately reminded me of an old Paul Simon song. OK, maybe "union" is a better term, but I'm brain damaged, so ... 

As Covid and a host of failed climate "science" predictions (if it is "settled", it isn't science, but rather  religion) ought to have shown us, the set of things we don't know is vastly larger than those we believe we do ... until the next experiment shows we "knew" even less than we thought. 

Some hints as to how much we don't know can be found in Ian McGilchrist's. "The Matter With Things". I discuss some enlightening aspects of that book here. That book would give some insight into why I think this area may turn out to be of more interest than we might imagine, in short "unexpected connections". 

The phenomenon is known as "microchimerism" some more information off this link. 

The fetus typically transfers more of their cells to the mother than the other way around. This exchange begins as early as the first few weeks of pregnancy. The exchange between mom and baby has been shown in other mammals like dogs, cows, mice, and other relatives, suggesting that this cell exchange has occurred for approximately 93 million years. The fetal cells have been found to stay in the mother’s body beyond the time of pregnancy, and in some cases for as long as decades after the birth of the baby. The mom’s cells also stay in the baby’s blood and tissues for decades, including in organs like the pancreas, heart, and skin. In one study, more than half of adults still had maternal cells in their blood. In some cases, even cells from maternal grandmothers – acquired during a mother’s own gestation – can be transferred to the fetus. Because some fetal cells stay in the mom’s body for years, they are also sometimes transferred to future brothers and sisters of the first child. In this way, older siblings can contribute their cells to those of their younger siblings.

Not to leave dad out, there are a male version of these cross generational cells that seem to be labeled "progenitor" cells. Perhaps "progenitor" is just another name for the microchimerism phenomenon (I'm not in the mood for a deeper dive). In any case there seems to be a special part of the phenomenon from bearing sons. 

Giving a whole new meaning to "pregnancy brain," a new study shows that male DNA—likely left over from pregnancy with a male fetus—can persist in a woman's brain throughout her life. Although the biological impact of this foreign DNA is unclear, the study also found that women with more male DNA in their brains were less likely to have suffered from Alzheimer's disease—hinting that the male DNA could help protect the mothers from the disease, the researchers say.

As I often remind myself and others, just because there is a "study", or even a bunch of studies, that is mostly data as opposed to information -- 271889870 is data, 271-88-9870 is information. While that format tells you that you are probably looking at a Social Security Number, unless you are verifying identity or a hacker, it likely isn't of much interest. Lots of data is just "noise", although we often find that much of what we first think is "noise" is very important. "Junk DNA" is a great example, if you want to go down this wormhole.

So why bother? Having been trained in actual science -- the kind where everything is a theory or hypothesis vs a "fact", curiosity is always present. Today, much of what is called "science" is actually dogma. If you don't understand why I say this, doing a little deeper digging would be useful. 

If you consider some of this complexity, you may at least have some sympathy for why some very capable actual scientists got severe cases of the "hebejebes"  (almost entirely suppressed as "dangerous misinformation") relative to mRNA being injected into a few billion people. 

Hubris/pride remain sins with both temporal and  eternal consequences.