Prenatal Development
When the sperm fertilizes the egg, a unique new human being is created. This human being is complete and separate from the mother.
1 Week
The tiny human implants herself in the nutrient lining of her mother’s womb.
10 Days
The tiny living human sends a chemical hormonal message to his mother’s body, which stops her menstrual periods.
18 Days (when the mother is only 4 days late for her menstrual period)
The baby’s heart begins to beat.
21 Days
The baby’s heart begins to pump blood—a blood type that is different from that of her mother.1
28 Days
The eye, ear and respiratory systems begin to form.2 The baby is now 10,000 times his original size.
40 Days
Brain waves have been recorded on an electroencephalogram.3
6 Weeks
Glucagon, a blood sugar hormone, has been found in fetal pancreas, indicating the beginning of organ function.4 The baby's skeleton has formed.
6-7 Weeks
If the area of the lips is gently stroked, the child responds by bending the upper body to one side and making a quick backward motion with his arms. This is called a ‘total pattern response’ because it involves most of the body, rather than a local part.5 All 20 milk-teeth buds are present.6
7 Weeks
Thumbsucking has been photographed.7
8 Weeks
Brain function appears to be reliably present.8 A tapping stimulus on the amniotic sac results in arm movements . . . the primitive brain receives the stimulus, selects a response and transmits the response as a signal to the arm.9 The baby’s stomach secretes gastric juice. The heartbeat can be heard on an ultrasonic stethoscope. All body systems are present,10 and the baby looks like a mini version of a newborn, even though she weights only abour a gram.
9 Weeks
He squints, swallows, moves his tongue and, if you stroke his palm, will make a tight fist. He will bend his fingers round an object in the palm of his hand.11 Fingerprints are also present.
3 Months
The baby weighs about 1 ounce. She begins to breath fluid steadily. She does not drown by breathing fluid within her mother because she obtains her oxygen from her umbilical cord. This breathing develops the organs of respiration.12 The baby can smile. Fingernails are present.13 Auditory sense is present. This involves brain functioning and memory patterns.14 All body systems are functioning.15
4 Months
The baby weighs about 6 ounces. Eyelashes are present.13 Taste buds begin to work.
5 Months
The baby weights about 1 pound and his mother begins to feel life within her. The inside of the uterus has no feeling. The baby has to be almost a foot long and weigh about one pound before she is large enough to brace a shoulder against one wall and kick hard enough against the opposite wall to dent it outward. The baby begins to dream.16
6 Months
The baby now weighs about 22 ounces and is about 9 inches long. Evidence suggests that the baby begins to have conscious thought and planning. She is an aware, reacting human being with an active emotional life. She can, on a primitive level, even learn.17 The baby can hear her mother's voice.
Birth
Birth is the emergence of the infant from the mother’s womb, the severing of the umbilical cord, and the beginning of the child’s existence physically detached from the mother’s body. The only change that occurs at birth is a change in the external life support system of the child. The child is no different before birth than after, except that he has changed his method of feeding and obtaining oxygen. Before birth, nutrition and oxygen were obtained from the mother through the baby’s umbilical cord. After birth, oxygen is obtained from his own lungs and nutrition through his own stomach.
From the instant of fertilization to birth, nothing has been added to the fertilized ovum except nutrition.
The following narrative comes from an anesthesiologist in 1972.18
"Eleven years ago, while giving an anesthetic for a ruptured tubal pregnancy (at two months), I was handed what I believed to be the smallest human being ever seen. The embryo sac was intact and transparent. Within the sac was a tiny (one-third inch) human male swimming extremely vigorously in the amniotic fluid, while attached to the wall by the umbilical cord. This tiny human was perfectly developed with long, tapering fingers, feet and toes. It was almost transparent as regards the skin, and the delicate arteries and veins were prominent to the ends of the fingers.
"The baby was extremely alive and swam about the sac approximately one time per second with a natural swimmers stroke. This tiny human did not look at all like the photos and drawings of embryos which I have seen, nor did it look like the few embryos I have been able to observe since then, obviously because this one was alive. When the sac was opened, the tiny human immediately lost its life and took on the appearance of what is accepted as the appearance of an embryo at this stage (blunt extremities, etc.)."
1. J.M. Tanner, G. R. Taylor, and the Editors of Time-Life Books, Growth, New York: Life Science Library, 1965.
2. K. Moore, Before We Were Born, 3rd ed., 1989, p. 278
3. H. Hamlin, "Life or Death by EEG," JAMA, Oct. 12, 1964, p. 120
4. F. Cunningham, "Pancreas," William’s Obstet., 19th ed., 1993, p. 183-184
5. L. B. Arey, Developmental Anatomy (6th ed.), Philadelphia: W. B. Sanders Co., 1954
6. "Life Before Birth," Life Magazine, Apr. 30, 1965, p. 10
7. W. Liley, The Fetus As Personality, Fetal Therapy, 1986, p. 8-17
8. J. Goldenring, "Development of the Fetal Brain," New England Jour. of Med., Aug. 26, 1982, p. 564
9. M. Rosen, "Learning Before Birth," Harpers Magazine, April 1978
10. Hooker & Davenport, The Prenatal Origin of Behavior, University of Kansas Press, 1952
11. Valman & Pearson, "What the Fetus Feels," British Med. Jour., Jan. 26, 1980
12. "Life Before Birth," Life Magazine, Apr. 30, 1965, p. 13
13. Hamilton et al., Human Embryology, Fourth Ed., 1972, p. 567
14. M. Clemens, "5th International Congress Psychosomatic" OB & GYN, Rome: Medical Tribune, Mar. 22, 1978, p. 7
15. "Life Before Birth," Life Magazine, Apr. 30, 1965, p. 13
16. J. Birnhaltz, "The Development of Human Fetal Eye Movement Patterns," Science, 1981, vol. 213, pp. 679-681
17. N. Lauerson & H. Hochberg, "Does the Fetus Think?" JAMA, vol. 247, no. 23, July 18, 1982
18. P.E. Rockwell, M.D., Director of Anesthesiology, Leonard Hospital, Troy, New York, U.S. Supreme Court., Markle vs. Abele, 72-56, 72-730, p. 11, 1972