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I'm not entirely sure where to put this, as infertility.com does not have a surrogacy section. So I thought I would try it here.
In another thread the following statements about surrogacy were made:
Not entirely true.
At first I was going to say, but of course it's entirely true, but then I got thinking of the biology behind it.
An egg and sperm are fertilized in a petri dish. They grow for a day or two and then are implanted in an unrelated woman's womb.
The cells attach themselves to the lining and keep growing, forming the placenta as they go. But mother and fetus share the same blood, right? So even though the egg and sperm are not from the surrogate, some of her genetic material (blood) becomes a part of the baby.
Or did I miss something in biology class?
If baby's blood and surrogates blood were tested, would it be the same? Or does baby ultimately create it's own blood?
Now I'm confused..... Any biology majors, doctors, nurses, know it alls out there that can help?
Originally Posted by Jensboys
The joy of the human body is that it can give birth to a child not genetically related to is (as in surrogacy).
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My understanding is that baby has and develops it's own blood alothough it does receive nutrients etc through the cord. Hence the reason RH- women like me have to receive a shot post birth (when carrying RH+ babies) to prevent the body from rejecting the baby and possibly causing the deaths of mom and child. Then again - I'm not a bio major or into science at all. I'll be curious to read the responses too!
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The placenta is an organ shaped like a flat cake that only grows during pregnancy. It attaches to the uterine wall with tiny projections called villi. Fetal blood vessels grow from the umbilical cord into these villi, exchanging nourishment and waste products with the mother's blood. The fetal blood vessels are separated from the mothers blood supply by a thin membrane. [url="http://www.ohsuhealth.com/dch/health/pregnant/preg_first.asp"]http://www.ohsuhealth.com/dch/health/pregnant/preg_first.asp[/url]
With Rh incompatibility, if some of the fetal blood gets into your blood stream, your body will produce antibodies. These antibodies could pass back through the placenta and harm the developing baby's red blood cells, causing very mild to very serious anemia in the fetus [url="http://www.umm.edu/pregnancy/specialcare/articles/rh.html"]http://www.umm.edu/pregnancy/specialcare/articles/rh.html[/url]
Andy - what I remember from biology is that ALL of the genetic material is coded in the DNA which comprises the genes which are located on the chromosomes. So there would be no genetic connection between a non-egg-providing surrogate and the child she gave birth to (unless the surrogate was blood related to the sperm donor).
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