The new science of motherhood shows it’s far more transformative than western culture allows | Lucy Jones

When I became pregnant, I didn't think it would bring about any lasting, let alone significant, changes. I was wrong

Did you know that you most likely never completely left your biological mother's body? That your cells crossed the placenta while you were growing and probably stuck around in various parts of her body for a while - decades, perhaps for ever?

No, it's not the premise of a zombie film. The phenomenon is called fetomaternal microchimerism, and in the past decade scientists have come up with some incredible theories about what the cells might be doing.

Lucy Jones is the author of Matrescence, Losing Eden and The Nature Seed