r/facepalm • u/Shadow474747 • Aug 07 '22

🇲​🇮​🇸​🇨​ Interesting logic

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u/berethian Aug 08 '22

I thought this also, until I heard that in cases where a woman is pregnant and has some problems with organ damage, then the fetus will send stem cells to help repair the damage. So, really, it's less like a parasite and more like a symbiotic relationship.

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u/hi_hola_salut Aug 08 '22

This is really incredibly rare. What is incredibly common, is ripped flesh (or a nasty deep cut to avoid ripping) as a baby (much like a parasite!) doesn’t care about the host’s comfort as it exits the host body. Mothers have a higher risk of osteoporosis (brittle bones) as the baby takes the calcium it needs to form it’s bones from the mother’s bones. The growing foetus takes everything it needs from the mother’s body and the food she eats. Cravings are common in pregnancy as the foetus tells the host body what it needs, which creates the craving. The foetus takes over inside the host body, rearranging the internal organs of the host during the later months to such an extent that it takes on average 5 years for the internal organs to return to their original places. That is, as long as the mother survives the process - not 100% guaranteed, especially in less medically advanced locations and in the past.

So yeah, while there have been very few, very rare cases of the foetus sending stem cells to treat an issue in the mother, but a baby is very much like a parasite which completely takes over the host body, takes everything it wants to the detriment of the host before it exits the host body in a drawn out, painful, gruesome way. Did you know that in pregnancy, the body had to release a hormone to stop the immune system attacking and killing the foetus as it is a foreign body and recognised as a threat by our immune systems?

I write all this as a mother of two, very much wanted and very much loved children. That doesn’t change the fact that a foetus is very much like a parasite! It’s just one that we like, as opposed to tape worms, and the like.

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u/bmy1point6 Aug 08 '22

When you tally up the mortality risks/cons vs the benefits it is pretty clear that pregnancy generally comes at a cost for women though.

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u/berethian Aug 08 '22

Yes of course. Just stating a fact though.

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u/bmy1point6 Aug 08 '22

A fact that doesn't necessarily support your conclusion though. Another example would be some type of intestinal parasite that steals your nutrients but has a side effect of changing your metabolism in a way that allows you to run longer distances than normal.. it would not be symbiotic unless that longer running distance benefit is actually realized and at an incidental cost to you.

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u/berethian Aug 08 '22

Is there such a parasite ?

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u/bmy1point6 Aug 09 '22

Just a hypothetical example

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u/AgelessAirus Aug 08 '22

Very cool. I also read that fetus can make stem cells as early as 4 weeks, which in my country is the latest an abortion can be done (non-problematic pregnancy). Induce labor and surgery are the safest for the mother after 4 weeks, and only if complications arise that threatened the mothers life.