Many people aren't aware that our body has built-in regulating systems that keep things in check. When you conceive a baby, the baby is part of your body's regulating system, and your body and baby then work together.
One interesting example of how your baby and body work together is by the folate receptors on the placenta.
Okay, let's back up with a few clarifications: receptors are an antenna-like structure that are on every cell, each "receiving" something specific. So folate is a substance, and your body has folate receptors to grab folate that's floating nearby.
Folate works to bring oxygen into every cell. Oxygen is essential all of the time, for everything. So folate can be thought of as part of the "lungs" that help your cells breath in oxygen, that then make everything else happen in that cell (grow, multiply, maintain itself, communicate with other cells, etc.)
The placenta is a part of your baby, and you. It is attached to the uterus, and is an exchange system between you and your baby. This placenta produces receptors to receive a certain amount of folate, and the amount it "lets in" will change throughout pregnancy.
This article (click this link -->)
https://academic.oup.com/bbb/article/72/9/2277/5941374?login=false
which uses human and rat placentas to conduct the study, documents that the placenta increases its folate receptors as gestation (weeks in pregnancy) also increases.
This article is interesting because it highlights one undoubtable fact: the mom-baby duo has a built-in mechanism to decide how much folate gets to the baby, at a specific time in pregnancy.
There are many other things this finding can suggest. What does it make you think of when you read a fact like this? Feel free to brainstorm your ideas by commenting below!
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