You should have a colonoscopy every 10 years starting at age 50. Alternatively, you may get a flexible sigmoidoscopy every five years, a double-contrast barium enema every five years or a CT colonography (virtual colonoscopy) every five years. However, a colonoscopy will be needed if any of those results are positive.
Jena Pincott explains that even after a mother gives birth, her babyâs cells remain inside her body â and work tiny wonders. In an excerpt from her book Do Chocolate Lovers Have Sweeter Babies?, Pincott explains that pregnancy is really only the beginning for mother and baby cell-sharing.
During pregnancy, red blood cells from the unborn baby can cross into the mother's blood through the placenta. If the mother is Rh-negative, her immune system treats Rh-positive fetal cells as if they were a foreign substance. The mother's body makes antibodies against the fetal blood cells. These antibodies may cross back through the placenta into the developing baby. They destroy the baby's circulating red blood cells.