I am going for my second undergraduate degree, Anthropology, after having finished a BA in Psychology and Criminology in May 2014. Part of my Honours Specialization in Anthropology BA includes biological anthropology. In preparation for the class I started making notes from the textbook and came across this article that I knew I had to share as it shows the physical generational impact of that time on pregnant women, their daughters, and those daughters' babies. I am just going to include the portion of the article dealing with the DUTCH HUNGER WINTER 1944-1945. Be aware that the term "natural experiment" simply means that this was something that was done by nature as a survival mechanism. Reference information will be at the end of the information. For some of the biological terms I have put a definition in square brackets with my name as they are not included in the article as it assumes the reader knows what they mean.

"A classic "natural experiment" occurred during the Second World War with the Dutch Hunger Winter of 1944-45. The occupying forces of Nazi Germany placed an embargo on food supplies to the western Netherlands, leaving citizens without adequate nutrition. By February 1945 the average energy intake was less than 600 calories per day, and as many as 18,000 people died from malnutrition or related causes by the time the embargo was listed in May 1945. But the Hunger Winter left a rich scientific legacy, one that documented the disease epidemiology of starvation over several generations. Among the findings of the Dutch Famine Birth Cohort Study [Birth Cohort is a group of people that were all born at the same time - Maria] with women who were pregnant during their first trimester through the Hunger Winter gave birth to children of normal birth weight, whereas the daughters of these women subsequently gave birth to LBW [Low Birth Weight - Maria] babies. Christopher Kuzawa (2005) has labelled this effect intergenerational phenotypic inertia, and its implications are profound. Intergenerational phenotypic inertia is an epigenetic [genetic and nongenetic influences on gene expression - Maria] phenomenon whereby a fetus is able to regulate its own development in utero by predicting the nutritional environment into which it is likely to be born, based on "epigenetic signals" received from its mother and her mother, grandmother, and so on. This matrilineal [mother/maternal - Maria] character of phenotypic inertia occurs because the uterine environment provided by a mother is derived in part from her own experience of her mother's uterine environment. The evolutionary logic is quite simple, in fact. Fast growth and a large size in a fetus leads to greater nutritional demands during gestation and after birth. If a mother was temporarily receiving more than adequate nutrition while pregnant, even though the typical situation was one of chronic food shortages, giving birth to larger babies and children would be potentially disastrous, as there would not be sufficient resources for it after birth! Conversely, a fetus should not limits its growth in utero if the mother is nutritionally deprived in the short term."

Reference -- A Human Voyage Exploring Biological Anthropology 1st edition, 2010, by Anne Keenleyside and Richard Lazenby, Nelson Education, page 78.

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