Today: Mater­nal Immuno­log­i­cal Response…or…the Mother/Fetus Dance!

Mater­nal Immune Response Dur­ing Pregnancy

Back to work! Thank you for your fore­bear­ance while we wrote a chap­ter for a nurs­ing textbook!

Dur­ing the course of preg­nancy, the mother/fetus dance is ongo­ing. The mater­nal immune sys­tem and the tro­phoblast cells con­tinue to influ­ence each other even beyond the implantation.

Because the mother’s immune response mod­u­lates near the start of each trimester, the fetus is affected to some degree and mounts a response, as well. For a long time it was thought that mater­nal and fetal DNA mate­r­ial was not exchanged across the pla­cen­tal mem­brane, how­ever recent find­ings indi­cate that there is some exchange of mate­r­ial. Thus, we all carry some por­tion of our mother’s DNA and our mother car­ries some of ours.

What is the impact of this chimeric effect? It depends on how well our DNA gets along!

How does this affect the fetus in utero? The fetus may be affected by clot­ting issues. Depend­ing on mater­nal health sta­tus s/he may be sub­ject to a stronger or weaker immune system.

How does this affect the mother? Women are more likely than men to develop autoim­mune dis­or­ders (preg­nancy play­ing a role here), and those who bear male off­spring are more likely than those who only have girls to have these disorders.

The maternal/fetal dance goes on.…

Be Pre­pared for Birth!