Mothers using donor eggs interact differently with offspring, study finds



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MA new study suggests that other women giving birth using donor eggs do not have the same connection with their baby as women who use their own eggs.

Scientists at the University of Cambridge have discovered that women who do not have a genetic link with their offspring exhibit "subtle but significant" differences in the way they interact.

Their observations showed that donor mothers had a little less eye contact with their baby and were less responsive to their games.

The researchers believe that the differences can be explained by the mother's consciousness that they do not have a genetic link with their child or because they usually arrive at parenthood later in life.

However, they said that all parents in the study had a strong and loving bond with their children.

The research comes as more and more British women use donor eggs to become mothers, often later in life.

About 1,400 babies born in 2016 were from donor eggs, triple the number of babies born in 1996.

Susan Imrie, co-author of the study, from the Center for Family Research at the University of Cambridge, said: "A small number of donor egg mothers in our sample have talked about fighting the idea of ​​not having a genetic link with their baby. .

"Other research has shown that genetic relationships have different meanings for different people.

"At the same time, some of these mothers also explained how difficult it was to determine if they were having difficulties because of egg donation or because of other common challenges related to the new parenting."

The new study, to be presented at the American Society for Reproductive Medicine conference in Denver, Colorado, involved 85 families who used donor eggs during IVF and another 65 who used theirs.

Mothers and babies as well as fathers and babies were asked to perform a 10-minute game task and parents were scored on a 29-point scale.

Researchers assessed how sensitive parents were to the needs of their children, how much they helped their children play, whether they helped their children play without being overbearing, and whether there was hostility towards the child.

They also looked at how 11-month-old babies interacted with parents, including how they looked, smiled, and babbled with them.

All parents scored high, showing that they were emotionally related to their children.

However, donor mothers were slightly less sensitive and less "structured" in the way they played with their babies.

Babies also involved a little less their mothers in their games.

The fathers of both groups interacted in the same way with their children.

The researchers concluded that: "Egg donor families work well in early childhood, but there may be subtle but significant differences in mother-child interaction."

Stuart Lavery, expert in fertility at Imperial College London, said, "This is an important study that suggests that there may be differences in the quality of parent relationships -Child between the families of egg donors and conventional IVF families.

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