When Balance Breaks

— a Glimpse of Wonder entry™ (Part 5 of 9) —

When everything works as it should, pregnancy is a marvel of cooperation—a mother’s body nurturing a genetically distinct life with perfect timing and grace. But what happens when that quiet agreement falters?

The results can be catastrophic… or revealing.

Some of the most dangerous pregnancy complications arise when the carefully calibrated dance between maternal and paternal genes, hormones, and immune signals becomes unbalanced. Take preeclampsia, for example—a condition that affects about 5 to 8% of pregnancies. It’s marked by high blood pressure and protein in the urine, but its roots trace back to the earliest days of development… and to the placenta.

Remember that the placenta is built by the baby using genetic instructions—many of which come from the father. The deeper it embeds and the more blood vessels it modifies, the more nutrients the baby can access. But if that invasion is too shallow, the placenta fails to remodel the mother’s arteries adequately. Blood flow becomes restricted. Oxygen drops. Toxins build. And the mother’s body reacts.

It’s not a flaw in the system—it’s a risk in the balance.

Other complications like gestational diabetes or intrauterine growth restriction also reflect this same pattern: too much demand from one side, or too little give from the other. But even when things go wrong, science often discovers something amazing hiding beneath the problem.

In recent years, researchers have found that in some placental disorders, the fetus sends out hormonal distress signals—tiny molecules released into the mother’s bloodstream, prompting her body to adapt. The baby, it turns out, can advocate for itself. It can send “please help” messages before it’s ever born.

And the mother’s body listens.

She may not feel it. She may not know it. But her physiology begins to shift, adjust, compensate—sometimes at great cost to herself. All this happens behind the scenes. Silently. As if love were written into the wiring itself.

Even miscarriage—though deeply painful—can at times reflect the body’s response to severe developmental or genetic abnormalities that make life unsustainable. In such cases, this may serve as a protection for the mother from further harm. While never part of Jehovah’s original purpose, these losses are a sobering reminder of the inherited imperfection we all face. Yet Jehovah sees every tear, and he remembers even the tiniest life that never had the chance to take a breath. —Psalm 56:8; Romans 5:12.

It hurts. But it’s not meaningless. It’s not chaos.

Jehovah has designed a system where balance matters deeply. Where even in loss, there is protection. Where even in failure, there is function.

As Romans 8:22 says, “All creation keeps on groaning together.” That includes the womb. The very place designed to nurture life also bears the pain of when life cannot continue. But Jehovah sees that, too. Every tear. Every ache. Every interruption in the plan.

And still, He built the system.

Not because it never fails—but because it knows when to let go.