If you google "epigenetics" you will find hours of reading. I just copied something that summarizes it.
I have bio children and now a DE child. I feel the same love for them all but it seems to be a stronger bond with DE child...I think because of the measures we had to take to have her or maybe because I'm older and look at things differently. She even resembles my sons in their baby pictures...maybe because Dr. Anna did such a good job in choosing a donor who looked just like me...who knows. The boys and our DE daughter have different fathers so that can't be the connection. I am very fascinated by this because I was fine with DE and didn't expect this connection. Both DH and donor have brown eyes and DD has blue just like mine and my sons.
"...there is some research that I find comforting as I move towards egg donation. The Birth Mother and the loving family is important. She provides more than just an incubator for someone else’s egg. Evidence is mounting that the birth mother’s womb will modify the way genes are expressed, and that these changes can be transmitted onto future generations. The way this happens is through phenomena known as epigenetics. While we have known that one parent contributes one set of genes and the other contributes the other for a long time, we now know that it doesn’t end with inheriting a gene. Over the past 10 years, scientists have determined that same gene or genes be expressed in a number of different ways depending on the environment. A gene can remain silent (unexpressed) or it could be expressed weakly, moderately or strongly. Epigenetics is dependent on different types of imprinting.
In a donor egg pregnancy, the pregnant woman’s womb becomes the environment. How her body supports her unborn child can alter the way the DNA is expressed. How her genes are expressed can alter the way the donor egg DNA works. This means the resulting baby would be different if were carried by the genetic mother. It is even more incredible that some of the changes in the DNA expression appear to be passed onto the child’s children! Ok, ok, I know that reading information regarding a World War II Nazi induced Dutch Hunger Winter or how mouse nutrition affect coat color doesn’t make for light reading, but it does mean that your body can change the way the fetus’s DNA functions and possibly how the genes are expressed in your grandchildren!
An easier to understand but less human example has been documented in horses and ponies. During horse IVF, it’s not uncommon to implant a pony embryo into the womb of a horse. The resulting foals are bigger than a pony embryo born to a pony. In this case, the foal’s genes are the same as a pony, but they take on the attributes more like the birthmother--a horse. Is this epigenetics? It could be.
Animal data suggest that the interactions after birth can change the gene expression from donor eggs. While I don’t view myself as rat, the data suggest that loving motherly care by the rat (a.k.a. licking), changes the way the pups' brains develop structurally and at gene expression level. The environment can change gene function!
This means that a child that results from DE transfer will have its genes determined by the egg and sperm donor, but how those genes reveal themselves will be modified by the birth mother after implantation and by the loving people the wee one meets after leaving the womb. And the kicker is that some of these changes could be transmitted to your grandchild! "
This will be my first experience with DE. I did have a momentary struggle with not using my own DNA but it was more thoughts as to "What if this child looks or acts nothing like me? What if the donor is ugly as sin
? " I am now feelingvery comfortable with my decision and know that I will love this child as much as my other two.Hope this helps,
Stef
