“Will the baby be alright?”  This was the first question my parents asked the doctors when, three months pregnant with me, my mother contracted polio.  That was 1955 and almost no one knew of post polio complications, much less about polio in-utero.  Now Post-Polio Syndrome has become a recognized and acknowledged condition and as the children of polio mothers are approaching their 50’s, new attention is being paid to polio in-utero.

My mother was initially paralyzed from the neck down, but regained use of most areas but not her legs and some diaphragm muscles.  One of the many things I learned from this remarkable woman was her love of life and family.  When I was old enough to hear and understand her tale, I will never forget her saying, “I didn’t care what shape my body was left in as long as I could live independently of a respirator.  I had a husband and three children who needed me.”  And what a life she went on to lead.  She was an inspiration to all who met her.  In her 50’s she began to develop what we now know were symptoms of PPS.  She took them with the same matter-of-factness that she did her paralysis.  Unfortunately they progressed unrecognized by her doctors until she died at age 64.  There is much more I could write about this amazing woman.

From childhood I have had joint and muscle problems and never seemed to have the energy of my peers.  I can remember, in the middle of playing with friends, having to go home to lie down due to pains in my legs.  Mama said they were “growing pains.”  Sounded good to me.  From my teens on I had arthritic type pain in my hips and legs, and the older I got the more it spread and the more severe it became.  Tests never revealed anything conclusive.  After almost two decades of doctors making me feel as if it were all in my head, I began to believe them.

However, after several days of being bed-ridden this summer, it was if Mama tapped me on the shoulder and said, “Sweety, think about your history.”  I immediately began to research PPS and was amazed at what I learned.  Researchers around the world seem to agree it is entirely possible that polio mothers could have passed on a non-paralytic dose of the virus and therefore the offspring may develop PPS like symptoms without having shown actual paralysis.  This has been an incredible journey of knowledge and empowerment and I have been most anxious to share it with others with similar stories.  Even though no one knows what the future will bring to the children of polio mothers, simply having some explanation to life-long ailments does much to raise spirits and hopes.

If you are the child of a polio mother or know of one, I would be most grateful if you would contact me at ddysart@stetson.edu  Researchers are very anxious to gain more data which could serve to benefit us all.  Thank you for taking time to read my story.    David Dysart USA
 
 

3 Categories of Children of Polios We need to be clear that there are 3 groups here.  1.  Those like the above who were exposed to polio in-utero when their mothers had polio - these should be classed as polio survivors too. 2.  Then there are those who were born before their parents had polio (or who were there when a sibling had polio.)  These children could have actually had a minor unrecognised dose of polio as they would have been exposed to the virus and probably were quarantined at the time.  So they may be polio survivors too. 3.  The largest group are children born after their parents had polio.  These are the ones who didn’t actually have polio themselves but are likely to record low carnitine levels now and need more nutritional supplements simply because the poor health of the polio parent may have affected their inherited genetic biochemical levels at the time of conception.  Low folic acid is not the only nutrient to cause problems in the developing child. Any of these children now having problems with fatigue and/or muscles or tendons should consider having carnitine levels done and try some of the supplements found useful for polios.   Tessa Jupp