We’ve taken a detour this week – into the animal kingdom. Animals haven’t taken centre stage since week 44’s “Freaky Fact Friday” when we looked at how bad some mums have it in the animal kingdom. This week’s sojourn is looking at giraffes and their journey into this world. Now, this isn’t the first time we’ve encountered giraffes during our Fun Fact Fridays either. In week 58 we found out that if we grew like a baby we’d be …
Mothers’ bodies undergo many changes throughout pregnancy and often the only lasting visible memory are stretch marks, that is unless you’re one of the fortunate 10% that don’t – as we discovered way back in week 29. Another lasting effect for some mothers is that they can carry cells from their baby for many years to come. This happens because of something called microchimerism. Microchimerism is when there is the presence of cells from another individual in the host’s …
Those of you that remember back to week 75, when we found out that a baby’s heart may beat over 60 million times before it’s born, may remember that we touched upon this week’s fact. We thought that it warranted a week all of its own, so here we are! A baby’s heartbeat comes into being at only 3 weeks into its development, when the muscular tissue of the heart (myocardium) begins to contract rhythmically. This can be picked …
The earliest recorded caesarean dates back to around 300 BC, in the ancient Indian empire of Maurya. The mother of the empire’s second emperor accidentally consumed poison before she could give birth. Here’s the story as I understand it – The Emperor’s minister used to mix small doses of poison into the Emperor’s food to build his immunity against poisoning attempts. Unaware of the added poison, the Emporer shared his food with his wife. The minister arrived moments too …
Not the boobies themselves but their milk! You see breast milk contains an ever growing list of components and one of them, in particular, has shown to have effects on improving memory. We’ve spent some time looking at various components of breast milk: Week 57 – we looked at tryptophan and how it helps to regulate mood. Week 63 – when we found out about the enzyme lysozyme and how it protects babies from diarrhoea causing diseases, especially E.coli …
That is NOT a typo! On the 19th April 2016, a 79-year-old man and 72-year-old woman became new parents! Whilst this may seem highly unlikely, with the advances in IVF (In Vitro Fertilisation, which literally means “in glass fertilisation”) it has become a reality for many pensioners and this mother was not the first recorded case over the age of 70. Daljinda Kaur (72) and her husband, Mohinder Singh Gill (79) became parents for the first time, after 46 …