The loss and harm that childbirth brings to women involve all aspects, whether in physical, psychological level, or career development. Nowadays, with the great improvement of women's education level and the possibility of women's reproductive freedom provided by social development, many women begin to think about the cost of childbearing. What does childbearing bring?
Giving birth permanently alters a woman's bones, meaning that the evidence of procreation is permanently etched into the mother's body. The researchers, from ETH Zurich in Switzerland, based on a study of primates, found that fertility changes a woman's bones continuously and permanently. Women who had children had significantly lower concentrations of calcium, magnesium and phosphorus than women who had never had children. Changes in concentrations of these important elements are associated with childbirth and breastfeeding behavior. The findings, titled "Elemental composition of primary lamellar bone differs between parous and nulliparous rhesus macaque females," In the journal Plos one.
Studies in humans and rodents have shown that adaptations, such as reduced renal excretion and increased bone uptake, can meet the calcium and phosphorus needs of the fetus in the pregnant woman's belly, and serum concentrations of calcium and phosphorus are significantly lower at the end of pregnancy. To see how life cycle timing, such as fertility, affects women's bone composition, the researchers analyzed primary lamellar bone, a bone type that changes over time and leaves behind biomarkers that make it ideal for researchers to monitor changes in the body's life cycle.
In this study, researchers measured the growth rate of lamellar bone in the femur or femur bones of rhesus monkeys, primates that had died of natural causes at the Sabana Seca field Station in Puerto Rico. The concentrations of calcium, phosphorus, oxygen, magnesium and sodium in the femurs of seven rhesus monkeys were measured using field emission scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy dispersion X-ray analysis. At the same time, the researchers were able to accurately match the changes in bone composition to the corresponding life cycle events, based on veterinary records of these primates.
Given the metabolic requirements of bone involved in reproduction, the researchers predicted that the bone composition of pregnant women would be significantly different from that of non-pregnant women, that phosphorus and calcium concentrations would be lower in bone tissue formed during pregnancy and lactation, and that magnesium concentrations would be lower in bone tissue formed during breastfeeding than after weaning.
Analyzing the elements in primate bones, the researchers found significant differences in the composition of elements in the bodies of women who gave birth compared with women who did not give birth. Women who gave birth had lower overall calcium concentrations, and the calcium concentrations in the bones formed during the reproductive event decreased even more as bone resorption increased. Instead, the women's oxygen levels did not change. This result is consistent with the literature documenting physiological responses to mineral requirements in developing fetuses and infants.
In addition, the concentration of magnesium in the bones of pregnant women decreased significantly during the feeding of their offspring, unlike the changes in calcium and phosphorus concentrations in the bones, in that the transfer of magnesium from the mother was delayed until after the birth of the fetus.
In summary, the study analyzed the elements in primate bones and correlated the changes in the concentrations with life cycle events, leading to the conclusion that the concentrations of calcium, phosphorus, and magnesium in the bones of pregnant women are significantly lower than those of non-pregnant women, and this change is associated with childbirth and lactation behavior.
Researcher Paola Cerrito said: 'Our findings confirm that fertility has a profound impact on the female organism and further demonstrate that the bone is not a static organ, but a dynamic tissue that constantly changes in response to life cycle events.'
The greatness of the mother is innate. In order to conceive and feed the new life, the important elements of the mother must be shifted, and this fate will continue from the beginning of the new life. The proof of pregnancy, the evidence of reproduction, is permanently engraved on the mother's "life bone", like eternal flower will never fade.
