This claim has been made by Dr Dick Swaab -a professor of neurobiology at Amsterdam University who says that taking drugs,drinking or living in polluted regions have an impact on the development of foetuses and could affect children later in life.
He further says that taking synthetic hormones and smoking while pregnant can increase the chances of girls becoming lesbian or bisexual, while drinking and drug-taking could lower a child’s IQ.
The study reports: The more older brothers a boy has, the more it is thought to increase his chance of being gay because the mother’s immune system develops stronger responses to male hormones with each son that is born.
Speaking to a news daily he says that ‘Pre-birth exposure to both nicotine and amphetamines increases the chance of lesbian daughters.
‘Pregnant women suffering from stress are also more likely to have homosexual children of both genders because their raised level of the stress hormone cortisol affects the production of foetal sex hormones.’
He added: ‘In women who drink a lot, cells that were meant to migrate across the foetal brain can end up leaving the brain altogether.’
However, Dr Swaab agreed that genetics play the most important role in child development while lifestyle factors were a small influence but still an important one.
Source:Redpepper
UM– USEKE.RW
