Category: Fetal Development

By Bonnie Finnerty, Education Director, Pennsylvania Pro-Life Federation While the celestial heavens and the deepest pockets of the ocean remain mysterious to us on many levels, modern technology has made them less so, providing new and fascinating insights that we once lacked.  The same is true of another once baffling frontier: the womb. Although it …

By Sarah Terzo “The practice of separating embryonic development from fetal periods is clearly somewhat arbitrary, as most biologic events are not timed precisely…Indeed, many of these processes are not confined to fetal life but extend well into the postnatal period [infancy] Examples include glomerulopoieses in the kidney, alveolar, multiplication in the lung, and myelination …

Fact #34 for the 34th week of development! Week 34: Since the baby is getting so much bigger, there is less space to move around in! The baby is moving closer down to the pelvis in order to get ready for delivery. At around 5 lbs now, the child continues to gain weight and fill …

Fact #32! Week 32: Their skin is a lot less transparent and more opaque as the fat continues to develop.  Babies can also dream at this stage! The bones are also continuing to harden, except for the bones in the skull. Those stay soft to help the baby’s head to be born safely. #40weeks40facts

Week 29: Much is happening at 29 weeks! Different organs are changing rapidly…for one, the baby’s eyes are getting to a more focused state. If the mother feels consistent taps from inside their belly, that might be the baby hiccuping (probably from all the nutrients he/she is getting from the mother’s digested food!). If the …

Week 26: By now the baby’s eyes can produce tears & she can take deeper “breaths” (of amniotic fluid!) The child’s brain has increased activity, so they might respond to certain noises with increased activity or pulse rate. The baby weighs about 2 pounds! #40weeks40facts

Week 25: By this time, the eyes are becoming much more developed. They contain light-sensing cells called rods and cones; rods allow the eye to detect low levels of light, and cones can detect color and produce sharp images…over 100 million rods and 7 million cones are in each eye. Unrelated to the eyes, most …

By Dave Andrusko Over the years I have been fascinated by the skill of the BBC at offering  absolutely amazing examples of science developed with laypeople in mind. But replete with spectacular graphics, its series a few years back on “Inside the Human Body” may be the most captivating  of all. Although it first appeared way back, …