The gentlebirth.org website is provided courtesy of
Ronnie Falcao, LM MS,
a homebirth midwife in Mountain View, CA
The gentlebirth.org website is provided courtesy of
Ronnie Falcao, LM MS,
a homebirth midwife in Mountain View, CA
|
The AMA wants to make birth centers illegal, along with homebirths,
even though
Read more about the ACOG 2008 Press Release from The Big Push for Midwives and Childbirth Connections You can also educate yourself week-by-week in your pregnancy with theLamaze Weekly Pregnancy Newsletter for Parents |
See also: Related
Articles
Fetal
microchimerism (FMc) describes the persistence of low numbers of fetal
cells in the mother after a pregnancy. (During pregnancy a small
number of fetal stem cells stray across the placenta and into the mother's
bloodstream.)
Baby
comes with brain repair kit for mum by Andy Coghlan [8/19/05]
NewScientist.com news service
Cells from babies help heal their mothers
[08 November 04]
"It has been known for about a decade that cells from a human fetus
can remain in its mother’s blood and bone marrow for many years. But what
do they do? Diana Bianchi at the Tufts-New England Medical Center
in Boston and her colleagues recently showed that these fetal cells can
transform themselves into specialised cells in the thyroid, intestine,
cervix and gall bladder. Now her team has shown that, in mice at least,
these fetal cells also help heal skin wounds in the mother, both during
and after pregnancy."
Fetal
cells in maternal tissue following pregnancy: what are the consequences?
Johnson KL, Bianchi DW.
Hum Reprod Update. 2004 Nov-Dec;10(6):497-502. Epub 2004 Aug 19.
"The presence and persistence of fetal cells in murine maternal tissue
was first reported over 20 years ago, although it is only more recently
that the occurrence and potential consequences of fetomaternal cell trafficking
in humans have been fully appreciated. Fetal cell microchimerism is a growing
field of investigation, although the data are contradictory relative to
the health consequences of persistent fetal cells in maternal tissues.
Understanding of the types of cells being transferred from fetus to mother,
the location of these fetal cells within the various maternal tissue types,
and the functionality of these cells may ultimately lead to measures to
minimize or eliminate the deleterious effects of the cells, or to efforts
to take advantage of the presence of these cells for therapeutic purposes.
This review focuses on the origins of fetal cell microchimerism research
and the different hypotheses regarding the consequences of persistent fetal
cells in the mother, the various diseases that have been evaluated with
respect to fetomaternal cell trafficking, the potential variables associated
with the frequency, persistence and tissue distribution of fetal cells
in maternal tissue, and an assessment of future direction in this innovative
field of inquiry."
Mothers
Harbor Fetal Stem Cells: A Boost for Stem Cell Research [7/6/04]
"The important [finding] of this study is that adult women may acquire
and retain fetal stem cells naturally as a result of pregnancy, and that
these cells may have therapeutic potential," said Dr. Diana W. Bianchi
from Tufts.
Fetal cells left in mother may be multipotent - Researchers detect expression
of epithelial, leukocyte, and hepatocyte markers on fetal microchimeric
cells. [Journal of the American Medical Association 2004; 292: 75-80]
Fetuses
give mothers a gift of cells, study says - a less scientific description
Pregnant Women "Inherit" Some Characteristics of Their Children
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