Motherhood is an exceptional period in any woman’s life. Many mothers-to-be hope that their daughters will also experience motherhood. Aside from their dreams, mothers can transmit genes and health conditions to their children.

Medical experts have established the existence of inheritable conditions, but are certain medical conditions more related to the risk of maternal transmission? Scientists aimed to answer this question by examining various medical conditions in mothers and the health of their daughters.

Methods

The study had a retrospective cohort design, which meant that scientists looked back at medical records to determine if there was a connection between maternal medical conditions and the health of their adult daughters.

Scientists identified and assessed mothers who required medical care for a medical condition, and followed up with their daughters to assess their medical condition. Among the maternal medical conditions analyzed were hypertension, diabetes, heart disease and autoimmune diseases.

Results

The study’s findings revealed that there was no correlation between the medical history of birth mothers and risk to mortality or morbidity for their adult daughters.

Daughters whose mothers had health issues were no more likely than the general population to develop these medical issues.

Scientists analyzed over 15,000 mother-daughter pairs, but the study was limited by lack of data on the genetic predisposition for medical conditions, lifestyle variables and environmental factors.

Therefore, the results could not be generalized to all populations.

What Does This Mean for Motivation?

The results of the study could be encouraging and empowering for young girls with mothers who have health issues.

Health issues have the potential to be passed on genetically, making daughters with mothers with underlying health issues feel anxious or overwhelmed. However, the results of the study suggest that health issues are not necessarily a guarantee for daughters.

What are Inheritable Health Conditions?

Inheritable health conditions are medical conditions that can be passed down in families through genes. Some common examples include sickle cell anemia, cystic fibrosis and Huntington’s disease.

Scientists are still uncovering new inheritable health conditions, but the inheritance pattern could be either dominant, recessive or sex-linked.

What’s Dominant Inheritance?

Individuals who have an inherited dominant gene from one parent, exhibit the trait associated with the gene. This means that there is a 50% chance that their offspring will inherit the same gene.

An example of a medical condition caused by dominant inheritance is Marfan Syndrome.

What’s Recessive Inheritance?

If a child has a recessive inheritance gene, they must receive the same gene from both parents to exhibit the trait or condition associated with the gene.

It is possible that parents who don’t have the condition appearing could be carriers of the disease’s genes. Sickle-cell anemia is an example of this type of inheritance.

What’s Sex-Linked Inheritance?

In sex-linked inheritance, genes are located on the X and Y chromosomes. Different or same-sex children inherit genes on different chromosomes.

Because females have two X chromosomes, while men only have one X chromosome and one Y chromosome, the inheritance pattern is different for the sexes. Color blindness is an example of this type of inheritance.

Conclusion

In conclusion, daughters born to mothers with underlying medical conditions appear to have the same level of health as females in the general population.

However, the study has some limitations, such as the lack of data on genetic predispositions for medical conditions, environmental factors and lifestyle. Therefore, more sophisticated research is needed to provide generalized results.