Haplo-what?

I admit that once I had sent my spit in for analysis (sounds sexy, doesn’t it?), I sort of forgot about the whole thing. That was until one of my fellow 23andMe bloggers posted about her results and I thought – RESULTS? 

I still wasn’t sure what to expect when I logged in, but the waiting felt like those three minutes after taking a pregnancy test. 

But after clicking around (boy there’s a lot of info and a lot of clicking to be done), I honed in on the ancestry portion first. I didn’t need to know that I might be at a higher risk for Parkinson’s just yet. I was pretty recently post partum, after all, and that news combined with my daily puking baby, sore breasts, and roly belly could have sent me over the edge.

But I figured since I knew a fair amount about my family, the ancestry portion was a safe place to start.

I just didn’t expect it to be so incredibly fascinating.

I am part of Haplogroup D which is explained as follows:

Haplogroup D tracks the initial migration of hunter-gatherers into the Americas from Siberia into Alaska and all the way to present-day Chile. It is especially common along the Pacific coast, a suggestion that maritime people may have been among the earliest inhabitants of the Americas. 

Now before you and my Chinese mom say “WHAT?” you have to read on: 

There are two major branches of the D haplogroup in Asia. D5, which is comparable in age to D itself, is common in southern China but rare farther north. D4, a younger haplogroup that arose about 35,000 years ago, is more common in northern Asia, reaching 18% in southern Siberia.

I’m a part of Haplogroup D4, which doesn’t match completely with where my Southern Chinese (Cantonese) relatives came from. However, all that does it make me want to dig more back into my ancestry and find out what happened. 

All this is to say that I’m stuck between a Chinese person and a Japanese person in terms of who I’m most similar to, and while I’ve known that I’m Chinese all my life, I can’t say I ever knew how strong it was. 

Had I known this before I had kids, I’m pretty sure I would have been reading up on Asians and pregnancy – including symptoms, problems, and even foods. If you don’t think your ethnicity has anything to do with how you carry and how you experience pregnancy and childbirth, this data might make you think twice.

I can say it definitely did for me.

Head over to the 23andMe Pregnancy Community for more information. And stay tuned for next week when I open up the health traits section of my results.

Comments

[Genetics]

Well! Korean and Japanese has about 30%+ in D4 mtDNA haplo. Siberia/Mongol also has high percentage of D4.

[Karen (Submommy)]

Wow. I'm very interested in this - as would be my Dad. Heading over there now....

[TheFeministBreeder]

Did you seriously pay $399 for that kit? Jeez, is Mommy-blogging paying THAT well?

[Asianmommy]

Interesting info, but I'm with you--don't really want to know yet if I'm at high risk for Parkinson's & the like.

[Shanny]

Very intersting. I know that I'm not 100% Chinese but digging back would take ages and GOD knows what "dirty laundry" it might turn out! Thanks for the heads up!

[Sheila]

My husband was thinking about doing this...now I want to also!

[Karen MEG]

Interesting, I know I am 100% Chinese and I would not know where to start...although my husband has done a bit of digging into his own German/Scottish background. I never even though of this impact during pregnancy and childbirth.

Fascinating stuff.

[Manic Mommy]

After you initially posted, I headed over to the site - fascinating. I'm thinking about sending it to my brother who has enough money to plop down to find out our ancestry.