Imagine seeing your baby for the first time and seeing your ex’s snub-shaped nose, his cleft chin or a miniature version of his beefy face that you had always thought looked akin to a deflated rugby ball. Yes, you would probably be horrified and run screaming for the hills. Convinced that you and your ex had rekindled old flames, your livid partner would be left foaming at the mouth and demanding a paternity test. But new research by the University of South Wales suggests that this nonsensical scenario could indeed happen even if you hadn’t cheated.
Pregnant woman with men’s hands on her belly
The research showed that physical characteristics from a woman’s previous sexual partner may be passed down to her children. This was based on a study of the size of offsprings in fruit flies which matched the size of the partner that the mother first mated with and not the biological father. Scientists say it could be down to molecules from the first partner’s semen being absorbed by the mother’s immature eggs. This theory called ‘Telegony’, goes way back to the Ancient Greek times and was a hypothesis of Aristotle’s.
Having your ex’s DNA stored inside of you-especially when you had no idea that it had been there all this time-ready to burst forth in the form of a bad-seed baby sounds like something straight out of a horror film (perhaps The Unborn).
Some women would have, to the best of their ability, attempted to block out their previous partner from their memories, be it because of a bad break-up or because they can’t bear to remember the morning when they finally saw their lover without the beer-goggles on. Or perhaps he was just a jerk. Let’s face it, no woman would never dream of having a baby who spouts LAD banter, owns a Nando’s loyalty card and takes three days to reply to text messages.
And what happens if your eggs absorb more than one partner’s genes and you end up with a baby that is literally made up of all the people you’ve ever dated? How would you cope if your bundle of joy is really one genetic patchwork quilt of your odious ex-lovers, all woven together into a tiny human momento?
If you are currently frozen in terror and wishing that you had been wiser about your choice of men in the past, now would probably be a good time to mention that this theory has not yet been proved to be true in humans.
Yes, you can breathe a sigh of relief for now. But if you notice that your future (or current) infant always demands your attention like Rory used to, loves his bottle like James and like Sean, can unselfconsciously throw one hell of a tantrum, you should probably be very suspicious…
Words : Yashi Banymadhub
