Good to know.
Parents and parents-to-be are pretty much split when it comes to finding out the sex of their baby.
Some parents can’t wait until that ultrasound when they can first learn whether they’re having a boy or a girl, while plenty have no interest in knowing anything until the baby is born.
However, it turns out that it could be pretty important to take note of your baby’s sex as it could affect Mama’s health during pregnancy.
A new University of Cambridge study found that the genetic profile of placentas were very different depending on the sex of the baby. These sex-related placental genes controlled the level of a metabolite called spermine.
Professor Gordon Smith, leader of the study, said:
“In pregnancy and childbirth, the sex of the baby is at the forefront of many parents’ minds, but we do not even think of the placenta as having a sex. This work shows that the placenta differs profoundly according to sex.”
In a female placenta, the spermine-producing enzymes were much higher than in a male-placenta, leading to a higher level of spermine in the mother’s blood. The male placenta, on the other hand, was found to be more susceptible to the toxic effects of a drug that blocked spermine production.
The research also showed that the amount of spermine in a mother’s blood affects the risk of pre-eclampsia.
Mums are put at an increased risk of pre-eclampsia with higher levels of spermine, while baby boys are more at risk than girls of restricted growth because of the lower levels of spermine.
This is in line with previous research that shows that mothers of girls are more at risk of pre-eclampsia and that boys are more at risk of foetal growth restriction.
Smith discusses the significance of these findings:
“Better understanding of these differences could lead to new predictive tests and possibly even new approaches to reducing the risk of poor pregnancy outcome.”
Parents who don’t want to know the sex of the baby need not worry, though, because you can be sure that your doctor is taking note.
