The mother was very surprised to see the color of the born child (3 photos)

Richard Howarth and Catherine are a recently married couple from England who are about to become new parents. However, the appearance of a child in their family not only brought joy and happiness, the birth of their son puzzled them a little. As the doctors told them, the boy was one in a million.

"This is my child?" - Katherine exclaimed when she saw her little boy for the first time. Her labor was painful and long, so she did not immediately understand what was happening.

Richard is a man with white skin and blond hair, with a little red hair, while Katherine is African-American, and her relatives are also dark-skinned.

A real panic began in the maternity hospital. Everyone looked at the mother, at the child, and could not understand how this was possible. Katherine herself kept asking the doctors if they could have confused anything.

Only a midwife with extensive experience was amused by such confusion of young parents. Only she was able to calm the worried mother, assuring her that this was definitely her child, and there could be no doubts. Katherine needn't worry.

“When I came to my senses, I looked at my baby and realized that I had behaved stupidly and ridiculously. It’s funny now to remember our surprise with Richard. Of course, he was mine, I felt it immediately. I fell in love with this child at first sight. I was happy that I gave birth to a healthy and wonderful boy. At that moment we were in seventh heaven." - recalls the young mother.

As a rule, parents with different skin colors give birth to lighter children, but their skin darkens as they age. The future color of the skin can be determined by the child’s ears; they are a kind of indicator. However, Katherine immediately noticed that Jonah (as they named the baby) had ears as white as his entire body. It was extremely strange for her that their son looked so much like his mother, but his skin color was like his father.

In order to understand this unusual case, the couple sought advice from geneticist Dr. Emily Grossman.

“Dr. Grossman explained to us that such children are born with a frequency of one time in a million! If the color of a child’s eyes can be predicted, since only one gene is responsible for it, then the color of the skin is absolutely unpredictable. It depends on a myriad of combinations of twenty different genes, which to a certain extent determine skin tone. That’s why there can be a huge number of different options, and it’s amazing!” - say happy parents.

“Our family outings always involve a lot of attention. Many mothers come up to look at my baby and ask why he is white. And everyone certainly feels it is their duty to ask the question, is this really my child? But I am proud of my son, and I never tire of bragging to surprised acquaintances that he is one in a million! Fortunately, my boy loves attention, he is so inquisitive and sociable and always smiles when people approach him,” says Katherine.