The Science of a Mother’s Intuition
Study reveals how women carry the DNA of their children in their brains
Every mother knows that “a mother’s intuition” is a very real thing—but no one has ever been able to explain it.
But in recent years, a study has emerged that may shed light on the science of how a mother’s intuition actually works.
A 2012 study published in the medical journal, PLOS One1, examined the brains of 59 women who had died between the ages of 32 and 101. Nearly two-thirds, or 37 women in the sample, were found to have traces of male DNA with the Y chromosome in various regions of their brains.
The Y chromosome could not have come from the women’s fathers because if it had, they would have been born male. The only logical explanation was that the male DNA had come from their sons.
During pregnancy, more than nutrients pass through the placenta between mother and child. Tissue cells and genetic material also seem to make the transfer.
Science has known for some time that DNA passes through the placenta between the fetus and mother in mice, but now it seems the same phenomenon, called microchimerism, also happens in humans.
Fetal DNA crossing the placenta can find a home in any of the mother’s organs including the skin, liver and spleen. The membrane protecting the brain, known as the blood-brain barrier, becomes less resistant to cells from the outside when a woman is pregnant, because a woman’s immune system is partially suppressed during pregnancy.
This happens so that her body does not reject the fetus as a foreign invader. It was also surmised that fetal DNA entering the mother’s brain was yet another way for the mother’s body to identify the fetus as friend, not foe.
It should be noted that the same effect most likely happens for daughters, as well. The researchers chose to focus on sons because it would have been much too difficult to distinguish a mother’s DNA from her daughter’s, since they are both female. In either case, it appears that fetal DNA in the brains of mothers is there for life; the oldest woman in which the male DNA was found was 94.
I hope you find this discovery as exciting as I do. The fact that women carry the DNA of their children inside their own bodies, specifically their brains, might explain a mother’s intuition. Many women can sense when their child is in danger, or pick out their child’s cry from within a group of other children. Women have felt the reality of this profound connection since the beginning of humanity, but now it seems we have scientific proof of it.
While the study was very small and some valid challenges were made, it’s clear these initial findings justify broader investigation. If confirmed, many healing opportunities may lie in the unique mother/child bond. Could it be possible to use this DNA connection between mother and child to facilitate a non-resistant organ transplant that wouldn’t require immune-suppressive drugs?
I believe this DNA connection will eventually reveal how subconscious trans-generational traumas that create illnesses on the physical plane are passed down, as well as how we can heal them.
So there you have it, a new reason to cherish our mothers and be grateful for the special bond we will share with no one else in our lives. It’s another beautiful example of our interconnectedness within the great One and a reminder of what a profound responsibility and blessing it is to be a mother, and to hold the future in your hands.
Dr. Sadeghi is the founder of Be Hive of Healing, an integrative medical center, publisher of MegaZEN Wellbeing Journal, and the author of The Clarity Cleanse.
