Amazing Facts

 A NEW LIFE BEGINS

 ALL SYSTEMS GO

 A BEATING HEART

Since the heart first started to beat at 18 days, the blood of the baby passes along the umbilical cord, runs through the placenta and approaches the maternal blood vessels found in the womb. Across the dividing wall, the two blood supplies exhange their gaseous loads; the baby passes to his mother his carbon dioxide waste and she passes to her baby oxygen and nutrients.

This photo still (right) is from a BBC video of a embryonic heart beating at 28 days 

 BRAINWAVES

The baby has become sensitive and responds to touch. All five major areas of the adult brain are present. Brain function, as measured by EEG waves, has been recorded as early as 40 days.

Here the marvellous control center sends out messages to the mother and the baby. The head takes up about one third of the body's total volume but will begin to become more proportionate to the rest of the body as the baby grows older. 

 ENVIRONMENT

 HANDS & FEET

 SOUND & VISION

The baby is surrounded by loud noise such as his mother's heart beat or loud music. He responds to sounds in frequencies so high or low that they cannot be heard by the human adult ear, which suggests that sensory pathways other than the ear are implicated. He responds to different noises, including his mother's voice, and is in tune with the life-rhythm of his mother - he often wakes and sleeps with her.

Muscles within the orbit of the eye are present very early in pregnancy, and the baby's eyes move when he changes position and during sleep. Light penetrates through the uterine wall and amniotic fluid, and foetal activity increases in response to bright light. The eyelids will remain closed until the 7th month to protect the eyes. Repeated flashing of a light will quieten a preterm baby.

 MOVEMENT

The baby starts making spontaneous movements at about seven weeks but the mother does not usually feel the baby moving until about 16 weeks. At 11 weeks the baby swallows the amniotic fluid and passes it back into his urine. He can also produce complex facial expressions and even smile. At 18 weeks he is active and energetic and does a lot of muscle-flexing. It can make an impressively hard fist and punches and kicks.

TWINS

Fraternal twins are by far the most common types of twins. They result from two separate ova, from two different oocytes that are fertilized by two different spermatozoa during the same menstrual period. Each has its own placenta and its own complete bag of waters. Thus, each develops separately and simultaneously side by side. Such twins can be of the same or of the opposite sex. They may or may not resemble each other, and their genetic makeup is as different as that of a non-twin sibling.

Identical twins develop from the same ovum fertilised by a single spermatozoon. At a time close to fertilisation, between the two-cell stage and the start of the third week, an anomaly occurs and the egg divides into two parts which develop separately. Depending on how early splitting of the zygote occurs, twins will either have separate placentas or will share a common placenta; this is the most frequent case. Such twins are always of the same sex, are physically very similar to each other, and possess the same genetic makeup.

The proportion of identical twins is stable worldwide, regardless of the number of multiple pregnancies. 70% of identical twins have a common placenta, even if each twin has its own amniotic cavity: they have common circulatory systems. 1 to 2% of identical twins not only have a common placenta but also develop in the same amniotic cavity. Very rarely (1 in 100,000 births), twins may be conjoined (Siamese twins), and share one or more internal organs. Such twins are separated surgically much later.