# Does a woman retain traces of her male partner after giving birth? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [April 16, 2014, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-a-woman-retain-traces-of-her-male-partner-after-giving-birth/686252 "2014-04-16T13:34:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Tootingkhamen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e36b37/32.png) [@Tootingkhamen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tootingkhamen)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2014, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-a-woman-retain-traces-of-her-male-partner-after-giving-birth/686252/1 "2014-04-16T13:34:35Z")
Cecil answers[this question](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/52/does-a-woman-retain-traces-of-her-male-partner-after-giving-birth)with a very definite “no” but I remember reading an article in New Scientist magazine (UK) which said otherwise. I can’t find that article anywhere (this was several years ago) but searching for “fetal cells in maternal blood” brings up studies that do show that fetal cells (and therefore the father’s DNA) [circulate in pregnant women and persist in blood and tissue for decades post-partum](http://jcs.biologists.org/content/118/8/1559.long) Doubt that would affect the pedigree issue raised in the original question though. ---
**Author:** ![KarlGrenze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/dbc845/32.png) [@KarlGrenze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGrenze)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2014, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-a-woman-retain-traces-of-her-male-partner-after-giving-birth/686252/2 "2014-04-16T15:07:31Z")
Fetal cells are not the same as father’s cells, and fetal DNA is not the same as father’s DNA. If that is the case, the fetal cell is as much her own DNA as that of the fetus’s father. So the father’s DNA does not remain. The fetus’s DNA does remain, but that is a new DNA, a mixture and at the same time different from, both the father and the mother. ---
**Author:** ![BrokenBriton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@BrokenBriton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrokenBriton)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2014, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-a-woman-retain-traces-of-her-male-partner-after-giving-birth/686252/3 "2014-04-16T16:03:03Z")
Well, if I make a Bloody Mary it has vodka and tomato juice in it. And it’s a Bloody Mary because of those components. It is most definitely a Bloody Mary. However, it still contains vodka and it still contains tomato juice. Ask the police. ---
**Author:** ![John\_W.Kennedy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_w.kennedy/32/1031_2.png) [@John\_W.Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_W.Kennedy)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2014, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-a-woman-retain-traces-of-her-male-partner-after-giving-birth/686252/4 "2014-04-16T17:35:18Z")
Think “compound” rather than “mixture”. ---
**Author:** ![stui\_magpie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stui_magpie/32/11010_2.png) [@stui\_magpie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stui_magpie)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2014, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-a-woman-retain-traces-of-her-male-partner-after-giving-birth/686252/5 "2014-04-17T02:58:50Z")
> [@BrokenBriton](#): > > Well, if I make a Bloody Mary it has vodka and tomato juice in it. And it’s a Bloody Mary because of those components. It is most definitely a Bloody Mary. > > However, it still contains vodka and it still contains tomato juice. Ask the police. Water contains Oxygen, good luck breathing it. ---
**Author:** ![Ranger\_Jeff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranger_jeff/32/2065_2.png) [@Ranger\_Jeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranger_Jeff)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2014, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-a-woman-retain-traces-of-her-male-partner-after-giving-birth/686252/6 "2014-04-17T03:07:33Z")
Reminds me of a court case I saw on the tube. Some woman’s pedigreed bitch had a sexy time with a neighbor’s mutt. After the puppies arrived, the woman sued the mutt owner because her bitch was now ruined for future pureblood breeding services now. I think the judge dismissed the case, or at least found for the defendant. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2014, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-a-woman-retain-traces-of-her-male-partner-after-giving-birth/686252/7 "2014-04-17T03:13:34Z")
The actually how the AKC works, though, IIRC. One mixed litter, and your bitch can no longer breed pedigreed show dogs. ---
**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2014, 12:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-a-woman-retain-traces-of-her-male-partner-after-giving-birth/686252/8 "2014-04-17T12:34:29Z")
Cecil’s column is from 1984, and there have certainly been advances since then. I’ll bring this to his attention, and see if he’s interested in an update. ---
**Author:** ![BrokenBriton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@BrokenBriton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrokenBriton)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2014, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-a-woman-retain-traces-of-her-male-partner-after-giving-birth/686252/9 "2014-04-17T13:22:06Z")
sorry, point addressed. ---
**Author:** ![Powers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/edb3f5/32.png) [@Powers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Powers)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2014, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-a-woman-retain-traces-of-her-male-partner-after-giving-birth/686252/10 "2014-04-17T14:27:50Z")
> [@stui\_magpie](#): > > Water contains Oxygen, good luck breathing it. You’re equivocating on two different definitions of the word “oxygen”. One meaning is elemental oxygen, referring to an atom with 8 protons in its nucleus. The other meaning is oxygen gas, O2, a compound of two oxygen atoms. We can breathe the latter, but it’s the former that’s found in water. That doesn’t mean they’re the same. And keep in mind that fish breathe water… but they’re not extracting the oxygen as elemental oxygen by splitting water molecules. They’re extracting oxygen gas that’s mechanically dissolved between the water molecules. powers &8^]