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>"The Dutch children are an odd example here, because they themselves experienced hunger in the womb. That their bodies remember this isn't surprising at all."
by darkpuma 8y ago
>"The Dutch children are an odd example here, because they themselves experienced hunger in the womb. That their bodies remember this isn't surprising at all."
Good point, there's an ocean of difference between experiencing hunger in the womb, and being well nourished in a womb belonging to a woman who was once malnourished.
I don't have that study available to me at the moment to check, but I wonder what they say about children born from those same mothers years after the famine was over. Surely they looked at that too, since if the same signal was present that would certainly enhance their findings. If the study doesn't mention those later children at all, that would suggest to me they're guilty of p-hacking.
- DoreenMichele 8y agoI think it is kind of a stretch to call it epigenetics when the mother was traumatized while pregnant with the child in question. I think we need a different concept for that. But I can well imagine that, in most cases, trauma leaves a body permanently altered in some manner and that this can potentially impact later children. With no real scientific basis to back it up, I will suggest that if trauma is passed on to the children biologically, the degree and manner of the inheritance may vary depending upon whether the traumatized parent was the father or the mother. Logically, the fact that the biological mother (in "old fashioned" pregnancies) both contributes DNA and also serves as the incubator for the fist nine months of life, whereas the father only contributes DNA, should make a difference in how heritable such a thing is.
- darkpuma 8y agoThat makes sense, if there is any measurable effect on children who's fathers but not mothers have suffered trauma such as starvation, that would be a compelling result.