ࡱ> {   !"#$%&'()*+,-./0123456789:;<=>?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ[\]^_`abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz{|}~Root Entry F@^WordDocument CompObj^ Ninth Month In the ninth month, the baby's quarters become so cramped that it can only turn from side to side and most babies have now settle into a head-down position. About a week before birth, growth is stopped and changes in the mother's hormonal balance aids in the onset of labor and birth. One cell has become two hundred million cells before birth, and these cells weigh six billion times more than the fertilized egg. The Truth About The Human Fetus The scientific viewpoint on the issue. Many people try to claim that the unborn is just a blob of tissue, nothing more than a tumor. But it is a scientific and medical fact, based on experimental evidence, that the fetus is a living, growing, thriving human being, directing his or her own development. The unborn baby is never part of the mother's body. By the end of the second week of pregnancy, there is a distinct embryo present. The fetus has a developing brain and a rudimentary heart. By the end of the third week of pregnancy, the fetus has the beginnings of vetrebrae, developing eyes and ears, a closed circulatory system (separate from the mother's), a working heart, the beginnings of lungs, and budding limbs. By the end of the fourth week of pregnancy, the fetus has a developing nose, and a pancreas. By the end of the fifth week of pregnancy, the fetus has the beginnings of vertebrae, a bony jaw and clavicle, developing eyes, ears, and nose, a closed circulatory system, a working heart, lungs, limbs, hands, feet, and a pancreas. By the end of the sixth week of pregnancy, the fetus has a vertebral column, a bony jaw and clavicle, a primative cranium, ribs, a developing nervous system, a closed circulatory system with a working heart, developing eyes, ears, and nose, lungs, limbs, hands, feet, a pancreas, a bladder, kidneys, a tongue, a larynx, a thyroid body, and germs of teeth. By the end of the seventh week of pregnancy, the fetus has a vertebral column, a bony jaw and clavicle, a primitive cranium, ribs, femur, tibia, palate, upper jaw, developing nervous system, a closed circulatory system with a working heart, developing eyes,ears, and nose, lungs, arms, legs, hands, feet, a pancreas, a bladder, kidneys, a tongue, a larynx, a thyroid body, germs of teeth, and the beginnings of muscles. By the end of the second month of pregnancy, the fetus has a vertebral column, a bony jaw, clavicle, and palate, a cranium, ribcage, femur, tibia, forearms that can be distinguished from ܥe# v,l,l  G(TtwqGTimes New Roman Symbol ArialTimes New Roman Chronology of a New Life The life of a baby begins long before he or she is born. The new individual human being begins growing in the mother's uterus at fertilization, and if the baby's life is not interrupted, he or she will someday become an adult man or woman. Chronology of fetal development from The First Nine Months of Life, Flanagan, Geraldine Lux, Simon and Schuster, 1965. First Month The sperm joins the ovum (egg) to form one cell. This one cell contains the complex genetic blueprint for every detail of human development - the child's sex, hair and eye color, height, skin tone, etc. The fertilized egg travels down the fallopian tube into the uterus, where the lining has been prepared for implantation. At 22 days the baby's heart begins to beat. During the third week the spinal cord develops. By the end of the first month, the kidneys, liver, and digestive tract are beginning to form. The baby is 1/4 of an inch in length. Second Month At 33 days, fingers begin to develop and at 40 days brain waves are recorded. During the sixth week, brain functions are measured and the baby's feet develop. Milk teeth form at 61/2 weeks. The baby's blood type is often different from the mother's blood type. By eight weeks all of the baby's body systems are present. Third Month At nine weeks, fingerprints are evident and never change. The baby now sleeps, awakens and exercises muscles energetically - turning its head, curling toes, and opening and closing its mouth. The palm, when stroked, will make a tight fist. The baby breathes amniotic fluid to help develop the respiratory system. Fourth Month By the end of this month, the baby is eight to ten inches in length and weighs a half pound or more. The baby's heart pumps the equivalent of 25 quarts of blood a day. During the 16th week, the baby can grip. Fifth Month Half the pregnancy has now passed, and the baby is about 12 inches long. At this stage, the baby weighs approximately 1 pound. Many babies begin to grow hair during the fifth month. Babies born at this stage of development (19 or 20 weeks) have survived. Sixth Month The baby has now grown to a length of 14 inches with a weight of a pound and a quarter. The baby can now roll over inside of the womb. At the end of this month, the baby has completed two-thirds of its stay in the womb. Seventh Month The baby weighs at least two pounds by the seventh month. All four senses are now used, the eyelids open and close, eyes look around. The baby can taste, touch and the mother's voice is recognized. During the last trimester, the baby receives antibodies from the mother through the placenta that will provide immunity to a wide variety of diseases. Eighth Month The skin begins to thicken with a layer of fat stored underneath for insulation and nourishment. The baby absorbs a gallon of amniotic fluid per day; the fluid is completely replaced every three hours. During this month, the baby gains at least two pounds, doubling its weight. arms, and thighs that can be distinguished from legs, a developing nervous sytem, sympathetic nerves (meaning the fetus can feel pain), a closed circulatory system and a working heart, eyes, developing ears and nose, lungs, arms and forearms, legs and thighs, hands and feet, a pancreas, a bladder, kidneys, a tongue, a larynx, a thyroid, germs of teeth, and developing muscles. --Gray's Anatomy Assorted facts: After 9 weeks, unborn babies can feel pain, yet 48 per cent of all abortions are done after this point (US Department of Health and Human Services). The fetus has his/her own genetic code, blood type, sex. The fetus receives food from his/her mother, yet has a separate and distinct circulatory system. "The cell (a single-celled zygote) results from fertilization of an oocyte by a sperm and is the beginning of human life." -The Developing Human: Clinically Oriented Embryology Keith L. Moore. 2nd Ed., Philadelphia W.B. Sanders, 1977. "Each individual has a very neat beginning at conception.... [This is] not a metaphysical contention, it is plain experimental evidence." -Dr. Jerome LeJune, discoverer of the chromosome pattern of Down's syndrome in 1981, in a testimony to a Senate Judiciary Subcommittee. Fourteen Weeks. "By all the criteria of modern molecular biology, life is present from the moment of conception." -Professor Hymie Gordon, Mayo Clinic. Since abortion was leagalized in 1973, the number of reported cases of child abuse has increased by 1,497 per cent, from 167,000 in 1973 to 2.5 million in 1991 (US Department of Health & Human Services). USC professor Edward Lenoski from Heartbeat surveyed 674 abused children and found 91 per cent were from planned pregnancies. An average of 63 per cent of all pregnancies are wanted. Eighteen Weeks. "Scientists have found hints of consciousness in 7-month-old fetuses and measured brain-wave patterns like those during dreaming during 8 months. They have pushed sentience back to the end of the second trimester and shown that fetuses can learn. With no hype at all, the fetus can rightly be called a marvel of cognition, consciousness, and sentience." --"Do You Hear What I Hear?" Newsweek Special Issue, Summer 1991 "After 28 weeks in utero, the fetus can hear.... By four months in a female fetus, all 5 million ova have formed. At 4 & 1/2 months, the fetus responds to a brush on its lips by sucking. By six weeks the brain is visible and electrically active; by eight, it has convoluted folds and shape of an adult brain." --"Do You Hear What I Hear?" Newsweek Special Issue, Summer 1991 The following quotes are from pages 1 and 3 of The Developing Human: Clinically Orientated Embryology. 5th Ed. Moore and Persaud. 1993. Saunders Company. "Human development is a continuous process that begins when an oocyte from a female is fertilized by a sperm from a male." "Although it is coustomary to divide human development into prenatal and postnatal periods, it is important to realize that birth is merely a dramatic event during development resulting in a change in environment." "Human development begins at fertilization." "Either the fetus is a person or not. Either we know what it is or we don't. This leaves only 4 possibilities: A fetus is not a person, and we know that. This has NEVER been any evidence to support this. A fetus is a person, and we know that.Killing an innocent person knowingly is murder. A fetus is a person, and we do not know that. Killing a person without knowing or intending to is manslaughter. It's like shooting at a sudden movement in a bush which may be a deer or another hunter. A fetus is not a person, and we do not know that. If the hunter didn't know for sure and shot anyway, it is criminal negligence, even if no one was killed. Abortion might be three things-- murder, manslaughter, or criminal negligence-- each of which is not debated but instinctively condemned. --Choices, by Peter Kreeft Back to the Stop Fetal Tissue Research Main Index. Therapeutic Birth by Mike Richmond Return to Abortion | Ohio Right to Life Home Since about 1 of every 20,000 expectant moms die during childbirth, giving birth is slightly dangerous, right? Well, a prestigious medical journal (British Medical Journal, 1988, "Mortality in women in relation to their childbearing history", Adele Green, Valerie Beral, Kath Moser, pp. 391-395) makes the claim that giving birth is actually therapeutic, that is, good for a woman's health. And they are more than 95% confident of the result. What's the claim? In this study the health of married women with children is compared to married women without children. One key finding: "Nulliparous [no children] married women had an all cause standardised mortality ratio of 113, which was significantly higher (p<0.01) that the standardised mortality ratio of 97 for parous [with children] married women and their higher mortality was observed for many of the causes of death analysed." Translated into plain English, married women without children had about a 16% higher chance of dying (from all possible causes) during any given period of time than married women with children. Since 19,999 out of 20,000 survive birth, the 16% difference utterly "swamps" the 1/20,000 risk and thus birth is a NET saver of women's lives. (And the ONE in 20,000 tend to be less healthy women, less likely to live an average life span.) Clearly, it is birth that is therapeutic and induced abortion which tilts the grim reaper's odds against women who exercised their "choice". Return to Abortion | Ohio Right to Life Home Created 4 June 1998. Uncopyrighted work (explicitly released to public domain by the author). Contact Ohio Right to Life. www.ohiolife.org Fetal Development HOME: DIRECTORY: RESOURCES ENCYCLOPEDIA Overview NEWS STORIES Thyroid deficiency in pregnancy affects child IQ (full story) Fetal surgery may help urinary problems (full story) Receptors shield fetus from mom's immune cells (full story) More... Dr Greene Q&A Hydronephrosis (answer) Alternative names: blastocyte; embryo; morula; zygote Information: Definition: The development of the fetus from the time of coitus and conception to birth. Once sperm is deposited in the vagina, it travels through the cervix and into the Fallopian tubes. Conception usually takes place in the outer third of the Fallopian tube. A single sperm penetrates that egg and a joining of the genetic information occurs. This resulting single cell is called a zygote. The zygote spends the next few days traveling down the Fallopian tube and rapidly multiplying the number of cells through division. A ball of cells results from the cell division, each with a copy of the genes that will become the fetus. This ball of cells in the Fallopian tube is called a morula. With additional cell division, the morula becomes an outer shell of cells with an attached inner group of cells. This stage of embryonic development is called a blastocyte. The outer group of cells become the membranes that nourish and protect the inner group of cells which becomes that fetus. The blastocyte continues the journey down the Fallopian tube and between the 7th and 9th day after conception, implants in the uterus. At this point in the mother's menstrual cycle the endometrium (the lining of the uterus) has grown, is highly vascular, and ready to support a fetus. The blastocyte burrows into the endometrium where it receives nourishment. The placenta and supporting infrastructure for pregnancy grow out of the implantation phase. It is estimated that up to 55% of zygotes never reach this phase of growth. It is not uncommon when there is a problem with embryonic or fetal development to have problems with other tissues that developed at the same time. For example if a child has developmental kidney problems, it is possible that the child may have hearing problems as well since those body organs develop at the same time. The embryonic stage begins on the 15th day after conception and continues until about the 8th week, or until the embryo is 1.2 inches in length. During this period the cells of the embryo are not only multiplying, but they are taking on specific functions. This process is called tissue differentiation and is necessary for the different cell types that make up a human being (such as blood cells, kidney cells, nerve cells, and so forth). There is rapid growth and the main external features begin to take form. It is during this period that the growing child is most susceptible to teratogens (substances that cause birth defects). Specific changes by week for the embryonic stage: week 3 formation of the heart beginning development of the brain and spinal cord beginning of the gastrointestinal tract teratogens introduced during this period may cause absence of one or more limbs a heart that is outside of the chest cavity weeks 4 to 5 formation of the tissue that develops into the vertebra formation of the tissue that develops into the lower jaw, hyoid bone, and the cartilage of the larynx beginning of the structures of the ear further development of the heart which now beats at a regular rhythm movement of rudimentary blood through the main vessels beginning of the structures of the eye the brain develops into five areas and some cranial nerves are visible arm and leg buds are visible with hand and foot pads teratogens introduced during this period may cause omphalocele transesophageal fistulas hemivertebra nuclear cataract abnormally small eyes facial clefts absence of hands or feet week 6 formation of the nose further development of the brain straighter posture upper and lower jaws are recognizable the trachea (windpipe) is developed with two lung buds upper lip is formed palate is forming ears are developing arms and legs have lengthened with arms more developed than legs hands and feet have digits, but may still be webbed tail is receding heart is almost fully developed fetal circulation is more developed teratogens introduced during this period may cause profound heart or aorta abnormalities cleft lip absence of lower jaw week 7 head is more rounded eyes move forward on the face eyelids begin to form the palate is nearing completion tongue begins to form gastrointestinal tract separates from the genitourinary tract all essential organs have, at least, begun to form teratogens introduced during this period may cause ventricular septal defects (VSD) pulmonary stenosis cleft palate micrognathia epicanthus shortness of the head ambiguous genitalia week 8 the embryo now resembles a human facial features continue to develop the eyelids start to fuse the external features of the ear begin to take their final shape, but are still set low on the head beginnings of external genitalia form anal passage opens, but the rectal membrane is intact circulation through the umbilical cord is well developed long bones begin to form muscles are able to contract teratogens introduced during this period may cause persistent opening in the atrium of the heart stunting of the digits At this point the embryo is developed enough to call a fetus. All organs and structures found in a full-term newborn are present. The period of fetal development is a time of growth and further development of those structures that differentiated during the embryonic period. weeks 9 to 12 the fetus reaches a length of 3.2 inches the head comprises nearly half of the fetus' size a neck is present the face is well formed the ears begin to have a fully developed appearance eyelids close and will not reopen until about the 28th week tooth buds appear for the baby teeth limbs are long and thin digits are well formed the fetus can make a fist with its fingers urogenital tract completes development genitals appear well differentiated red blood cells are produced in the liver fetal heart tones are heard with electronic devices weeks 13 to 16 the fetus reaches a length of about 6 inches a fine hair develops on the head called lanugo fetal skin is almost transparent more muscle tissue and bones have developed and the bones become harder the fetus makes active movements sucking motions are made with the mouth amniotic fluid is swallowed meconium is made in the intestinal tract lungs further develop sweat glands develop the liver and pancreas produce their appropriate fluid secretions week 20 the fetus reaches a length of 8 inches lanugo hair covers entire body skin becomes less transparent as fat begins to deposit nipples appear eyebrows and lashes appear nails appear on fingers and toes the fetus is more active with increased muscle development the quickening usually occurs (where the mother feels the fetus moving) fetal heartbeat can be heard with a stethoscope week 24 the fetus reaches a length of 11.2 inches the fetus weighs about 1 lb. 10 oz. hair on the head is longer eyebrows and eyelashes are well formed all the eye components are developed the fetus has a hand and startle reflex thicker skin on hands and feet footprints and fingerprints forming alveoli forming in lungs entire body covered in vernix caseosa (a protective cheese-like substance secreted by the fetus) weeks 25 to 28 the fetus reaches a length of 15 inches the fetus weight about 2 lbs. 11 oz. rapid brain development nervous system developed enough to control some body functions eyelids open and close testis begin descent into the scrotal sack if the fetus is male respiratory system, while immature, has developed to the point where gas exchange is possible a baby born at this time may survive, but the possibilities for complications and death remain high weeks 29 to 32 the fetus reaches a length of about 15-17 inches the fetus weights about 4 lbs. 6 oz. rapid increase in the amount of body fat increased central nervous system (CNS) control over body functions rhythmic breathing movements present lungs are not fully mature fetal body temperature partially self-controlled bones are fully developed, but still soft and pliable male testis still in inguinal canal fetus begins storing iron, calcium, and phosphorus week 36 the fetus reaches a length of about 16-19 inches the fetus weighs about 5 lbs. 12 oz. to 6 lbs. 12 oz. lanugo begins to disappear increase in body fat fingernails reach the end of the fingertips increased central nervous system (CNS) control over body functions a baby born at 36 weeks has a high chance of survival, but may require some interventions weeks 38 to 40 considered full-term at 38 weeks may be 19 to 21 inches in length males typically weigh more than females lanugo is gone except for on the upper arms and shoulders fingernails extend beyond fingertips small breast buds are present on both sexes head hair is now coarse and thicker mother supplies fetus with antibodies against disease fetus fills entire uterus MEMBER SERVICES: ASK DR.GREENE Ask our pediatric expert DISCUSSIONS Pregnancy HEALTH ILLUSTRATED Fetus (10 weeks old) The information provided herein should not be used for diagnosis or treatment of any medical condition. A licensed physician should be consulted for diagnosis and treatment of any and all medical conditions. (See disclaimer). Copyright 1999 adam.com, Inc. Any duplication or distribution of the information contained herein is strictly prohibited. DISEASES & CONDITIONS TREATMENTS & THERAPIES SEX & RELATIONSHIPS CHILDREN'S HEALTH MEN'S HEALTH WOMEN'S HEALTH about adam.com | health advisory panel | jobs | privacy statement | customer service | disclaimer Copyright (c) 1999 by adam.com. All rights reserved. ########## The new human being is only 0.1 to 0.2 mm in size. Less than two weeks have passed. In 1981 (April 23-24) a Senate Judiciary Subcommittee held hearings on the very question: When does human life begin? Following are testimonies from two of the doctors who testified: 1. Dr. Hymie Gordon, Chairman of the Department of Genetics at the Mayo Clinic, said: "By all the criteria of modern molecular biology, life is present from the moment of conception." 2. Dr. McCarthy de Mere, a medical doctor and law professor at the University of Tennessee, testified: "The exact moment of the beginning of personhood and of the human body is at the moment of conception." Conception: The father's sperm penetrates mother's egg cell. Genetic instructions from both parents interact to begin a new and unique individual - no bigger than a grain of sugar. In several surveys of biology and embryology textbooks, it has been found that almost without exception, if the book makes any statement about when human life begins, it says that human life begins at conception. The beginning of human life is not a philosophical issue, but a scientific one. When does implantation occur? The tiny human implants himself or herself in the nutrient lining the womb at one week of life. Within 20 minutes after intercourse the father's sperm makes its way to the egg and begins to penetrate it. At the exact moment the first sperm penetrates the egg, the egg initiates a mechanism to prevent any other sperm from entering the egg. The 23 chromosomes of the sperm meet with the 23 chromosomes of the ovum and form a new 46 chromosome cell. Within 30 hours of insemination the first cell division takes place. From there the cell continues to divide at a rapid pace. Gestational age dates from the first day of the mothers last menstrual period. Actual age of the baby dates from conception. When and where does fertilization occur? Sperm enter the womans vagina, swim through the cavity of her uterus and out through her Fallopian tubes. This can take as brief a time as five minutes to pass through the uterus and reach the tubes, and as brief as another 15 minutes to pass through the tubes and reach the ovaries. The egg, breaking out of the shell of her ovary, is penetrated by the head of one spermatozoa. Immediately the ovum creates a chemical or electrical charge or fence preventing other sperm from entering. The pronucleus of the sperm, containing its 23 chromosomes, in about 12 hours migrates to meet the ovums pronucleus with its 23 chromosomes. Their fusion takes about 2 hours. Then in another 18 hours this 46 chromosome nucleus divides into two cells. Then into 3 cells at which time some new opinion believes the "decision" is made to stay single or program to divide into twins. Then to 4 cells, to 8, to 16 and on and on. Jones and Schraeder, "The Process of Human Fertilization," Fertility and Sterility, vol. 48, no. 2, Aug. 1987, p. 191 Word Wars, E. Diamond, Physician, Nov. 1992, Pp. 14-15 Personal Communication, J. Lejeune 1994 What is this "moment of conception" bit? Most use the moment of sperm penetration as the "moment of conception." Others wait until their pronuclei fuse at 12-14 hours to say conception is a completed process. In either case this new human life is complete at the first cell stage. This is then only a single cell? Yes. But a remarkable and unique one. This single cell is now either male or female. This human is unique, i.e., never before in the history of the world has this exact individual human existed. Never again in history will another exactly like this human exist. This being is complete, i.e., nothing else - no bits or pieces - will be added from this time until the old man or woman dies - nothing but nutrition and oxygen. This being is programmed from within, moving forward in a self-controlled, ongoing process of growth, development, and replacement of his or her own dying cells. Ive heard that another animal also has 46 chromosomes! True, but not 46 human chromosomes. Different species have different types of chromosomes. But what of a human with 47 chromosomes, doesnt this disprove your "humans have 46" statement? Certain humans have 12 toes. Others are born with one arm. Are they human? They certainly are, but they are humans with an abnormality. A "Triple X" or a Downs Syndrome human has an extra chromosome. Are they human? Yes, but humans with an abnormal number of chromosomes. This living being is dependent upon his or her mother for shelter and food, but in all other respects is a totally new, different, unique, and independent being. This single celled human being divides into two cells, each containing the same total and identical DNA message, the same total contents. Two becomes three, three becomes four, then eight, sixteen, etc., as it moves down the Fallopian tube. Ultimately, each human beings body contains 30 million cells. When sufficient cells are present, organ formation, body structure, and function begins. Cell doubling occurs only 45 times. That timing is as follows: CELL DOUBLINGS BY AGE PERCENTAGE 8 by implantation 18% 30 by 8 weeks 66% 41 by birth 91% 44 by kindergarten 98% 45 by adulthood 100% A. W. Liley, The Tiniest Humans CA: Sassone Press, p. 14 This tiny human moves down the Fallopian tube? Yes, and at about one week of life, at the blastocyst stage of about 128 to 256 cells, it implants into the nutrient lining of the uterus. There, only three days later, this tiny male or female human sends a chemical-hormonal message into the mothers body, which stops her menstrual periods. The new being controls her body? Yes, for the balance of pregnancy. It is the developing baby who enlarges her breasts to prepare her for nursing and softens her pelvic bones in preparation for labor. It is even the baby who "determines his own birthday." A. Liley, A Case Against Abortion, Liberal Studies, Whitcombe & Tombs, 1971 What if this being dies soon after fertilization? Was it human then? Human death can occur at any time during our journey through life. This could be minutes after fertilization or 95 years after fertilization. Human death is merely the end of human life. There are those who claim that about 20% are lost in the first week. If this is so, it would mean that there is a mortality rate of almost 20% in the first week of life. This is not relevant to the question of whether or not this is human life - anymore than infant mortality is a justification for infanticide, or death in old age justifies euthanasia. All it means is that the mortality rate in the first week of life may be 20%. Of very early pregnancies, "22% ended before pregnancy was detected clinically." "The total rate of pregnancy loss after implantation, including clinically recognized spontaneous abortions, was 31%." The testing used was able to detect pregnancy accurately by day seven or eight. Wilcox, et al., "Incidence of Early Loss of Pregnancy" New Eng. J. Med., vol 319, no. 4, July 28, 1988, p. 189 One reason for the apparent high percent of pre- or immediate post-implantation loss may be due to chromosome abnormalities. Wramsby et al., "Chromosome Analysis of Human Oocytes . . ." New Eng. J. Med., vol. 316, no. 3, Jan. 15, 1987, p. 121 What of a cell from some part of a persons body which can be kept alive in a tissue culture, either separated from his living body or maintained after that person has died. Does this not upset the concept of the fertilized ovum as a human life? No. Those cells were a part of a complete human body and can only reproduce themselves as a specific type of cell. The fertilized ovum is not a part of another body, but is a whole body him or herself. It (he or she) will not merely reproduce, but is, in totality, a complete human being and will grow into a full adult if given time. Any one of hundreds of millions or billions of these cells in a humans body can die and we do not say that human has died. When a single fertilized ovum cell dies, however, the entire new human being dies. The other important difference is that the fertilized ovum, which subdivides and multiplies into many cells, moves immediately in the direction of specialized and differing parts, which are organized as a single unified complex being. Cells from parts of an adult human body in a tissue culture can only reproduce their own kind and cannot go on to develop differing specialized parts. Wouldnt a successful human clone upset this reasoning? If we ever succeed in producing a human clone, this clone would be a separate human life. Cant we consider the developing embryo a form of plant or animal life which only becomes human at some later state of development? Definitely not! The fertilized seed or ovum of a plant, or an animal, or of a human, at the time of fertilization and beginning growth, already is, in totality, that plant, animal, or human. Because of our present scientific knowledge of chromosome and gene structure and because of the intricate genetic programming that we are now aware of, we know that a plant can only develop into what it already is - that is, a plant. But can you then call an acorn an oak tree? That is like saying "can you call an infant an adult?" Rather, you must ask "are they both complete oaks?" Yes they are, all the acorn needs to develop into an adult tree is time and nutrition. Non-identical twins are two separate individuals created by the union of two eggs and two sperm. Identical twins, however, occur when one fertilized ovum or zygote apparently splits into two, after which each of the two divided parts (each now a zygote in itself) grows independently in the very same manner toward full development and maturity as the average single zygote will. This occurs sometime between fertilization and implantation, but never after implantation. Can we say, then, that one living human being (zygote) can split into two living human beings (identical twins)? Scientific opinion is far from unanimous about how to consider this. One way of considering it is that the original human zygote, in splitting in half (whatever exactly happens, we dont know), can be considered, in effect, the parent of the new human being. This might be a form of parthenogenesis, or non-sexual reproduction. We know that this does occur in certain forms of plant and animal life. We could postulate this type of process to explain identical twinning in a human. What is crucial to either of these explanations is that, at the time when a total human being exists, he or she should be recognized as such and given all rights due other living human beings. But the sperm has life. The ovum has life. Why is either of these lives any different than when the two join and become a fertilized ovum? The sperm has life, but not an independent life; it shares in the life of the body of the father. The sperm is genetically identified as a cell of the fathers body. It has reached the endpoint of its maturation. It cannot reproduce itself. It is destined to fertilize an ovum or to die. It is at the end of the line. The ovum has life, but not an independent life; it shares in the life of the body of the mother. The ovum is genetically identified as a cell of the mothers body. It has reached the endpoint of its maturation. It cannot reproduce itself. Its destiny? To be fertilized or die. It, too, is at the end of the line. But when sperm and ovum join, there is created at that time a new living being; a being who has never be-fore existed in the history of the world and never again will exist; a being not at the end of the line, but at the dawn of existence; a being completely intact and containing within himself or herself the totality of everything that this being will ever be; a being moving for-ward in an orderly process of growth and maturation, destined to live inside the mother for almost nine months and for as many as a hundred years outside. Will you cite some scientific authorities as to human life beginning at fertilization? In 1981 the U.S. Senate considered Senate Bill #158, the "Human Life Bill." Extensive hearings (eight days, 57 witnesses) were conducted by Senator John East. National and international authorities testified. We quote from the official Senate report, 97th Congress, S-158: "Physicians, biologists, and other scientists agree that conception [they defined fertilization and conception to be the same] marks the beginning of the life of a human being - a being that is alive and is a member of the human species. There is overwhelming agreement on this point in countless medical, biological, and scientific writings." Report, Subcommittee on Separation of Powers to Senate Judiciary Committee S-158, 97th Congress, 1st Session 1981, p. 7 On pages 7-9, the report lists a "limited sample" of 13 medical textbooks, all of which state categorically that the life of an individual human begins at conception. Then, on pages 9-10, the report quotes several out-standing authorities who testified personally: - Professor J. Lejeune, Paris, discoverer of the chromosome pattern of Downs Syndrome: "Each individual has a very neat beginning, at conception." - Professor W. Bowes, University of Colorado: Beginning of human life? - "at conception." - Professor H. Gordon, Mayo Clinic: "It is an established fact that human life begins at conception." - Professor M. Matthews-Roth, Harvard University: "It is scientifically correct to say that individual human life begins at conception." How about other proof? See the First International Symposium on Abortion, which concluded: "The changes occurring between implantation, a six-weeks embryo, a six-months fetus, a one-week- old child, or a mature adult are merely stages of development and maturation. "The majority of our group could find no point in time between the union of sperm and egg, or at least the blastocyst stage, and the birth of the infant at which point we could say that this was not a human life." Willke & Willke, Handbook on Abortion, (1971, 1975, 1979 Editions), Ch. 3, Cincinnati: Hayes Publishing Co. This is an arbitrary term recently introduced by pro-abortion people in an attempt to dehumanize this early human. "In rigorous ethical debate such arbitrary terminology, particularly if used to assign moral values, should be avoided." Arbitrary Partitions of Prenatal Life, Biggers, Human Reproduction, Oxford U-Press, Vol. 5, No. 1, pp. 1-6, 1990 weeks: BRAIN WAVES This is a baby just six weeks old. Three weeks earlier, the baby's heart had begun to beat and pump blood. The baby's blood type is often different from the mother's blood type.[17] A microscope would reveal that this little baby has the characteristic 46 human chromosomes in every cell, demonstrating clearly that this is a human being.[18] At six weeks, the baby has brain waves that can be measured with an electroencephalogram.[19] Fertilization: LIFE BEGINS! Life truly begins at fertilization. At fertilization, when the sperm and the ovum meet to form a single cell, a new human life is created.[20] All characteristics of each person - sex, eye color, shoe size, intelligence, etc. - are determined at fertilization by the baby's genetic code in the 46 human chromosomes. [21] MONTH 1 1. Conception ocurrs 2. Implantation into the uterine wall within 19 days after conception 3. Mother misses first menstrual cycle 4. Foundation for brain and spinal cord laid by 20th day 5. Eyes developing 6. Heart beats between 18th and 25th day 7. Arm and leg buds appear 8. Muscles are forming 9. At end of first month, 1/4 inch long - 10,000 times larger than fertilized egg @@@@@@@@@@ 1st day: The first cell divides into two, the two into four, and so on. Within 5-9 days of fertilization the new baby will travel down the Fallopian tube and implant into the wall of the mother's uterus. At 10-14 days the new baby sends the mother a message that she is pregnant by creating a hormone that suppresses the mother's menstrual period. 5-9 days: The new individual burrows into the wall of the womb. At ten days, this tiny living human male or female sends a chemical hormonal message out into the mothers body, which stops her menstrual periods. Later, it is this tiny passenger who causes her breasts to enlarge in preparation for nursing, softens her pelvic bones to prepare for labor, and, without question, sets his or her birthday. The onset of labor is a unilateral fetal decision. Within three to seven days, we can determine whether this new human being is a boy or a girl. 10 days - mothers menses stop. This tiny human moves down the Fallopian tube? Yes, and at about one week of life, at the blastocyst stage of about 128 to 256 cells, it implants into the nutrient lining of the uterus. There, only three days later, this tiny male or female human sends a chemical-hormonal message into the mothers body, which stops her menstrual periods. The outer disk forms two. One will become the baby's body, and the other becomes a yolk sac. This yolk sac will produce the first blood cells. Blood vessels begin to form in the body. The little human being is attached to the forming placenta with a stalk. At this point, the primitive streak forms in her body. The little human being is barely two weeks old. Her mother has not yet "missed" her menstrual period, and already the nerve structure is forming. Structures are pressed into service before their formation is complete. This newly forming nerve structure will cause the body to develop three layers. The human being is now 0.4 mm long. Our main problem in learning exactly how this young being is developing is her extremely small size. The being is now sixteen days old. As we have shown, the primitive streak forms first. This early spinal cord proceeds to grow a neural network throughout the embryo's body. The beginning of this process is called "neurulation". This neural network is required for the formation of organs. This is because the early cells, which are all alike, must become different in order to form different organs. The electrochemical stimulation from the neural network is what causes the cells to becomes different. for this reason, neural activity takes place very, very early, because the heart is already beating at three weeks after conception! Of the three layers, the endoderm, or innermost layer, forms the lungs, tongue, tonsils, urethra and its glands, bladder, and digestive tract. The middle layer, or mesoderm, will form the muscles, bones, lymphatic tissue, spleen, blood cells, heart, lungs, and reproductive organs. The outer layer, or ectoderm, will form the skin, hair, nails, the lens of the eye, nervous system, head structures, and mammary glands. The brain grows most rapidly of all. The first organs that will form are the brain and the heart. We do not have the capacity to measure the earliest brain wave activity, but brain wave activity has been measured by electroencephalogram at 40 days. Various facial organs actually form from the brain. The cranial neural crest will form the jaw, the cranial nerves, the thyroid and thymus, and the soft tissue of the neck and throat. The blood cells begin to form vessels in the body. The prenate is now 19 days old and measures 1 to 1.5 mm long. After the neural network begins to form, small structures known as somites form. It is from the somites that the skeletal muscles will form. The neural tube and notochord must cause the somites to grow this muscle tissue. This little being now measures 1.5 to 2.5 mm long, and three weeks old. In the early prenate, the appearance of a "tail" has prompted some to claim that the little human being has a tail. What is really happening is that because the spinal cord forms first, it grows longer than the rest of the body. The body will catch up. Endocardial muscle forms two heart tubes. The first heartbeat is detected as these are pressed into service, even though the heart is not completely formed. The being is still only three weeks old. Over the next two days, eyes and ears begin to form. neural crest also forms skull. Blood is flowing throughout the body, even though blood vessel formation is not complete. The being is up to 3 mm long, and twenty five days old. The neural tube determines her shape. Once twenty somites are present, the forebrain is completely closed. 18 days - heart begins to beat. 21 days - pumps own blood through separate closed circulatory system with own blood type. 28 days - eye, ear and respiratory system begin to form. 42 days - brain waves recorded, skeleton complete, reflexes present. 7 weeks - photo of thumbsucking. 8 weeks - all body systems present. 9 weeks - squints, swallows, moves tongue, makes fist. 11 weeks - spontaneous breathing movements, has fingernails, all body systems working. 12 weeks - weighs one ounce. 16 weeks - genital organs clearly differentiated, grasps with hands, swims, kicks, turns, somersaults, (still not felt by the mother.) 18 weeks - vocal cords work - can cry. 20 weeks - has hair on head, weighs one pound, 12 inches long. 23 weeks - 15% chance of viability outside of womb if birth premature.* 24 weeks - 56% of babies survive premature birth.* 25 weeks - 79% of babies survive premature birth.* (*Source: M. Allen et. al., "The Limits of Viability." New England Journal of Medicine. 11/25/93: Vol. 329, No. 22, p. 1597.) By the end of the second week of pregnancy, there is a distinct embryo present. The fetus has a developing brain and a rudimentary heart. By the end of the third week of pregnancy, the fetus has the beginnings of vetrebrae, developing eyes and ears, a closed circulatory system (separate from the mother's), a working heart, the beginnings of lungs, and budding limbs. By the end of the fourth week of pregnancy, the fetus has a developing nose, and a pancreas. By the end of the fifth week of pregnancy, the fetus has the beginnings of vertebrae, a bony jaw and clavicle, developing eyes, ears, and nose, a closed circulatory system, a working heart, lungs, limbs, hands, feet, and a pancreas. By the end of the sixth week of pregnancy, the fetus has a vertebral column, a bony jaw and clavicle, a primative cranium, ribs, a developing nervous system, a closed circulatory system with a working heart, developing eyes, ears, and nose, lungs, limbs, hands, feet, a pancreas, a bladder, kidneys, a tongue, a larynx, a thyroid body, and germs of teeth. By the end of the seventh week of pregnancy, the fetus has a vertebral column, a bony jaw and clavicle, a primitive cranium, ribs, femur, tibia, palate, upper jaw, developing nervous system, a closed circulatory system with a working heart, developing eyes,ears, and nose, lungs, arms, legs, hands, feet, a pancreas, a bladder, kidneys, a tongue, a larynx, a thyroid body, germs of teeth, and the beginnings of muscles. By the end of the second month of pregnancy, the fetus has a vertebral column, a bony jaw, clavicle, and palate, a cranium, ribcage, femur, tibia, forearms that can be distinguished from arms, and thighs that can be distinguished from legs, a developing nervous sytem, sympathetic nerves (meaning the fetus can feel pain), a closed circulatory system and a working heart, eyes, developing ears and nose, lungs, arms and forearms, legs and thighs, hands and feet, a pancreas, a bladder, kidneys, a tongue, a larynx, a thyroid, germs of teeth, and developing muscles. --Gray's Anatomy Assorted facts: After 9 weeks, unborn babies can feel pain, yet 48 per cent of all abortions are done after this point (US Department of Health and Human Services). The fetus has his/her own genetic code, blood type, sex. The fetus receives food from his/her mother, yet has a separate and distinct circulatory system. "The cell (a single-celled zygote) results from fertilization of an oocyte by a sperm and is the beginning of human life." -The Developing Human: Clinically Oriented Embryology Keith L. Moore. 2nd Ed., Philadelphia W.B. Sanders, 1977. "Each individual has a very neat beginning at conception.... [This is] not a metaphysical contention, it is plain experimental evidence." -Dr. Jerome LeJune, discoverer of the chromosome pattern of Down's syndrome in 1981, in a testimony to a Senate Judiciary Subcommittee. Fourteen Weeks. "By all the criteria of modern molecular biology, life is present from the moment of conception." -Professor Hymie Gordon, Mayo Clinic. Since abortion was leagalized in 1973, the number of reported cases of child abuse has increased by 1,497 per cent, from 167,000 in 1973 to 2.5 million in 1991 (US Department of Health & Human Services). USC professor Edward Lenoski from Heartbeat surveyed 674 abused children and found 91 per cent were from planned pregnancies. An average of 63 per cent of all pregnancies are wanted. Eighteen Weeks. "Scientists have found hints of consciousness in 7-month-old fetuses and measured brain-wave patterns like those during dreaming during 8 months. They have pushed sentience back to the end of the second trimester and shown that fetuses can learn. With no hype at all, the fetus can rightly be called a marvel of cognition, consciousness, and sentience." --"Do You Hear What I Hear?" Newsweek Special Issue, Summer 1991 "After 28 weeks in utero, the fetus can hear.... By four months in a female fetus, all 5 million ova have formed. At 4 & 1/2 months, the fetus responds to a brush on its lips by sucking. By six weeks the brain is visible and electrically active; by eight, it has convoluted folds and shape of an adult brain." --"Do You Hear What I Hear?" Newsweek Special Issue, Summer 1991 The following quotes are from pages 1 and 3 of The Developing Human: Clinically Orientated Embryology. 5th Ed. Moore and Persaud. 1993. Saunders Company. "Human development is a continuous process that begins when an oocyte from a female is fertilized by a sperm from a male." "Although it is coustomary to divide human development into prenatal and postnatal periods, it is important to realize that birth is merely a dramatic event during development resulting in a change in environment." "Human development begins at fertilization." "Either the fetus is a person or not. Either we know what it is or we don't. This leaves only 4 possibilities: A fetus is not a person, and we know that. This has NEVER been any evidence to support this. A fetus is a person, and we know that.Killing an innocent person knowingly is murder. A fetus is a person, and we do not know that. Killing a person without knowing or intending to is manslaughter. It's like shooting at a sudden movement in a bush which may be a deer or another hunter. A fetus is not a person, and we do not know that. If the hunter didn't know for sure and shot anyway, it is criminal negligence, even if no one was killed. Abortion might be three things-- murder, manslaughter, or criminal negligence-- each of which is not debated but instinctively condemned. --Choices, by Peter Kreeft 2nd week The embryo now has three layers and a primitive streak. The primitive streak is the early spinal cord. Her mother is not yet late with her menstrual period. And then? At ten days, this tiny living human male or female sends a chemical hormonal message out into the mothers body, which stops her menstrual periods. Later, it is this tiny passenger who causes her breasts to enlarge in preparation for nursing, softens her pelvic bones to prepare for labor, and, without question, sets his or her birthday. The onset of labor is a unilateral fetal decision (see chapter 10). 14 days: Mother's menstrual period is suppressed by a hormone produced by her child. 18 days: Heart is forming. Soon eyes start to develop. 20 days: Foundations of brain, spinal cord and nervous system are laid. 24 days: Heart begins to beat. 28 days: Muscles are developing along the future spine. Arms and legs are budding. 30 days: Child has grown 10,000 times to 6-7 mm (1/4") long. Brain has human proportions. Blood flows in veins (but stays separate from mother's blood). 35 days: Pituitary gland in brain is forming. Mouth, ears and nose are taking shape. 40 days: Heart's energy output is 20percent of adult's. 42 days: Skeleton is formed. Brain coordinates movement of muscles and organs. Reflex responses have begun. Penis is forming in boys. (Mother misses second period.) 43 days: Brain waves can be recorded. 45 days: Spontaneous movements have begun. Buds of milk teeth have appeared. 7 weeks: Lips are sensitive to touch. Ears may resemble family pattern. 8 weeks: Child is well proportioned. Now a small scale baby, 3cm (1 1/8") and weighing a gram (1/30th oz.) Every organ is present. Heart beats sturdily. Stomach produces digestive juices. Liver makes blood cells. Kidneys begin to function. Taste buds are forming. 8 1/2 weeks: Fingerprints are being engraved. Eyelids and palms of hands are sensitive to touch. 9 weeks: Child will bend fingers around an object placed in the palm. Thumb sucking occurs. Fingernails are now forming. 10 weeks: Body is sensitive to touch. Child squints, swallows, puckers up brow and frowns. 11 weeks: Baby urinates, makes complex facial expressions - even smiles. 12 weeks: Vigorous activity shows distinct individuality. Child can kick, turn feet, curl and fan toes, make a fist, move thumbs, bend wrists, turn head, open mouth and press lips tightly together. Breathing is practiced. 13 weeks: Face is prettier, facial expressions resembling parents'. Movements are graceful, reflexes vigorous. Vocal chords are formed (but without air baby cannot cry). Sex organs are apparent. 4 months: Child can grasp with hands, swim and turn somersaults. 4-5 months: Mother first feels baby's movements. 5 months: Sleeping habits appear, but a slammed door will provoke activity. Child responds to sounds in frequencies too high or low for adults to hear. 6 months: Fine hair grows on eye brows & head. Eye-lash fringe appears. Weight is about 640g (22 oz.), height 23 cm (9"). Babies born at this age have survived. 7 months: Eye teeth are present. Eyelids open and close, eyes look around. Hands grip strongly. Mother's voice is heard and recognized. 8 months: Weight increases by 1 kg. (over 2 lbs.) and baby's quarters get cramped. 9 months: Child triggers labor and birth occurs, usually 255-275 days after conception. Of 45 generations of cell divisions before adulthood, 41 have taken place. Four more will come during the rest of childhood and adolescence. At 8 weeks my mom may not even know she is pregnant, but inside of her I am active and growing. My heart is beating steadily and can be heard on an ultrasonic stethoscope. At 10 weeks, my little hands and feet are perfectly formed. My fingers could curl around an object placed in the palm of my hand. At 12 weeks, I am really active. I swallow, squint and swim in my amniotic fluid. 4 Months By 4 months I am 6 inches long and I weigh about one half of a pound. I have eyelashes and even fine hair growing on my head. Now I can hear sounds. In fact, I can hear my moms heartbeat and voice as well as outside sounds. When classical music is being played, it calms me down, but hard rock music agitates me. I spend my days awake, sleeping, sucking my thumb and turning somersaults. I curl my fists and fan my toes. I am vigorously moving and kicking, which probably gives a fluttering sensation to my mom. 5 Months By 5 months half of moms pregnancy is over. I am just about twelve inches long and I weigh close to one pound. My skin is very transparent and my blood vessels look like they are right on the surface. My fingernails grow very fast and I can easily scratch myself. By now my mom is very aware of my presence. I punch, kick and elbow her on a regular basis. I have fully developed vocal cords and use them to cry but I cannot be heard because there is no air. My living space is getting a bit cramped ... 7 Months By 7 months I am an aware human being. My brain develops rapidly at this time. I lead an active emotional life and can even learn things. I weigh about 3 pounds. I am getting some fat on my body which makes my skin smoother. My eye teeth are present. My eyelids now open and close and my eyes look around. My hands can now grip strongly. Mom can feel when I get the hiccups. I can recognize her voice and distinguish it from others. 8 Months By 8 months I am quite cramped in my moms uterus. I sleep and wake in a pattern and can sense the difference between light and darkness through my moms abdomen. My taste-buds function and I prefer sweet to sour. I smile, frown, yawn, swallow, and suck my thumb. I now weigh around four pounds. 9 Months At 9 months, I am ready to start my short but dramatic journey to the outside world. There isnt a lot of room left in my current home and like a little contortionist, I can comfortably bring my feet up to my chin in order to fit. Its me, not my mom, who will decide on my time of birth. My birth weight is about average, which is between 7 and 8 pounds. Though this is the first time anyone has seen me outside the womb, my life started about nine months earlier and will continue until I die. I wonder what Ill be when I grow up. Why is the primitive streak important? It really isnt. Much is made of the fact that identical twinning cannot occur after the 14th day when this early spinal cord can be seen. Actually, identical twinning probably happens in the first 2-4 days of life. Use of the primitive streak is a thinly veiled attempt to dehumanize the early human embryo, so that destructive embryo experimentation can proceed and that I.V.F. embryos can be killed. When does the heart begin to beat? At 18 days [when the mother is only four days late for her first menstrual period], and by 21 days it is pumping, through a closed circulatory system, blood whose type is different from that of the mother. J.M. Tanner, G. R. Taylor, and the Editors of Time-Life Books, Growth, New York: Life Science Library, 1965, p. When is the brain functioning? Brain waves have been recorded at 40 days on the Electroencephalogram (EEG). H. Hamlin, "Life or Death by EEG," JAMA, Oct. 12, 1964, p. 120 Brain function, as measured on the Electroencephalogram, "appears to be reliably present in the fetus at about eight weeks gestation," or six weeks after conception. J. Goldenring, "Development of the Fetal Brain," New England Jour. of Med., Aug. 26, 1982, p. 564 PREBORN- 11 WEEKS AFTER CONCEPTION HEART IS BEATING (SINCE 18-25 DAYS) BRAIN WAVES HAVE BEEN RECORDED AT 40 DAYS THE BABY SQUINTS, SWALLOWS, AND CAN MAKE A FIST THE BABY HAS FINGERPRINTS AND CAN KICK THE BABY IS SENSITIVE TO HEAT, TOUCH, LIGHT AND NOISE THE BABY SUCKS HIS OR HER THUMB ALL BODY SYSTEMS ARE WORKING THE BABY WEIGHS ABOUT 1 OUNCE AND IS 2 1/2 TO 3 INCHES LONG THE BABY COULD FIT COMFORTABLY IN THE PALM OF YOUR HAND "Thine eyes have seen my unformed substance; and in Thy book they were all written, the days that were ordained for me, when yet there was not one of them. Wonderful are Thy works and my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from Thee, when I was made in secret. And skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth." Psalms 139:15,16 Fertilization to Three Months Within 20 minutes after intercourse the father's sperm makes its way to the egg and begins to penetrate it. At the exact moment the first sperm penetrates the egg, the egg initiates a mechanism to prevent any other sperm from entering the egg. The 23 chromosomes of the sperm meet with the 23 chromosomes of the ovum and form a new 46 chromosome cell. Within 30 hours of insemination the first cell division takes place. From there the cell continues to divide at a rapid pace. Within 5-9 days of fertilization the new baby will travel down the Fallopian tube and implant into the wall of the mother's uterus. At 10-14 days the new baby sends the mother a message that she is pregnant by creating a hormone that suppresses the mother's menstrual period. Four days later the little baby's heart begins to form and the eyes will be soon to follow. At 20 days the foundations of the brain, spinal cords, and nervous system are laid. At 24 days the heart begins to beat! At week 4 arm and leg buds are beginning. The baby's muscles are developing along the future spine. At 30 days the baby has grown 10,000 times to 1/4 of an inch. The baby's brain has human proportions. At week 5 the pituitary gland is forming in the brain. The baby's little mouth, ears and nose are taking shape. At week 6 the baby's fingers and toes are starting to appear. The baby's heart energy output is 20% that of an adult's. Brain waves can be recorded and the baby is about 3/4 of an inch. The skeleton has now formed. The baby's brain coordinates the movement of muscles and organs. Reflex responses have begun. If the baby is a little boy his penis will start forming. Mommy misses her second period. At week 7 weeks the lips are sensitive to touch and the ears may resemble family patterns. At week 8 (2 months) the little baby is no longer called an embryo. Now the little baby is a fetus (the Latin term used to describe the infant in the womb). The little baby's heart is beating sturdily and every organ is present. The stomach is producing digestive juices. The liver is making blood cells, the kidneys are functioning and taste buds are forming. The baby is about 1 1/2 inches and weighs a gram (1/30th oz.) At 8 1/2 weeks the baby's unique fingerprints are being engraved. The eyelids and the palms of the hands are now sensitive to touch. At 8-10 weeks babies can feel pain At 9 weeks the little baby sucks her thumb. She can also bend her fingers around an object. Her fingernails are forming. At 10 weeks the baby can squint, swallow, pucker up her brow and frown. The little baby is now 2 1/2 inches and weighs about 1/2 of an ounce. The baby's muscles continue to develop. At 11 weeks the baby can smile and make other complex facial expressions. The baby also urinates. At 12-13 weeks (3 months) the baby can kick her mommy, turn, curl her toes, make a fist, turn her head, bend her wrists, open her mouth and press her lips together. The child's gender is now visible. The baby practices breathing. And the baby's vocal chords are formed (but without air their cries can not be heard). The baby now measures 3 1/2 inches and weighs 1 1/2 ounces. 4 Months to 6 Months At 14 weeks the baby's arms and legs are well-developed and his skin is transparent. At 16 weeks (4 months) the baby can turn somersaults and swim around in the mommy's tummy. The baby can grasp with his hands. He is now 5 1/2 inches and weighs almost 8 ounces. At 18 weeks the baby has fine downy hair on his body and hair is visible on the baby's scalp. Mommy can now feel the baby's movements. At 20 weeks (5 months) the baby is nearly 7 1/2 inches and weighs a pound. Sleeping habits appear and the sound of a door slamming can wake the baby up. The baby can hear sounds at frequencies too high and low for her parents to hear. Babies born at 21 weeks have survived. At 22 weeks the baby is 8 1/4 inches and weighs about 1 1/4 pounds. The baby's head and body hair are very apparent. Her skin is wrinkled and very thin. Her eyebrows and eyelashes are becoming more apparent and she is gaining weight. At 24 weeks (6 months) the baby is 9 inches and the average weight is 2 pounds. The baby's lungs continue to develop. The baby's body movements are much stronger. His skin is red and wrinkled. 7 Months to Birth At 26 weeks the baby is 10 inches and weighs about 2 1/2 pounds. The baby's eyes are partially open. Ninety percent of babies born at this stage survive. At 28 weeks (7 months) the baby's eye teeth are present. Her eyelids open and close and she can look around. The baby can hear and recognize her mommy's voice. The baby is 10 1/2 inches and weighs 3 pounds. At 30 weeks the baby is 11 inches, weighs more than 3 pounds and there are wrinkles on the soles of his feet. At 32 weeks (8 months) the baby is getting cramped in his mommy's tummy. His weight will increase by over 2 pounds during this time. 36 weeks (9 months) the baby triggers her own labor at 255-275 days after conception. CAN AN UNBORN CHILD FEEL PAIN "The medical evidence plainly points to the existence of pain sensation in the human fetus, at least from the onset of the second trimester of pregnancy, and perhaps during the last weeks of the first trimester." Vincent J. Collins et al., "Fetal Pain and Abortion: The Medical Evidence," Studies in Law & Medicine No.18 (1984): 9 "Functioning neurological structures necessary for pain sensation are in place as early as 8 weeks, but certainly by 13-1/2 weeks of gestation." Rugh, R, Shettles, L.B.: From Conception to Birth. (Evanston: Harper 8c Row,1971, pp. 33-34.) "From the standpoint of medical practice and science, organic or physiologically-based pain is finally judged to exist when anatomical structures necessary to pain sensation are in place, when physiological responses normally associated with pain occur, and when some cause associated with induction of a pain response is present." Vincent J. Collins et al., "Fetal Pain and Abortion: The Medical Evidence," Studies in Law & Medicine, No.18, (1984): 5. DOES AN UNBORN CHILD FEEL PAIN DURING AN ABORTION? "Medical science doctors confirm that when the lives of the unborn are snuffled out, they often feel pain, pain that is long and agonizing." (President Ronald Reagan addressing the National Religious Broadcasters, January 30, 1984) "[A]s abortions are performed, the unborn children being killed often feel excruciating pain." (President Ronald Reagan, March 6, 1984) Many scoffed at the President's remarks at the time, but they were substantiated: "Mr. President, in drawing attention to the capability of the human fetus to feel pain, you stand on firmly established ground." Correspondence to President Reagan from Dr. Richard Schmidt, Past President, American College of Obstetrics; Dr., Fred Hofmeister, Past President, American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists et al. British medical researchers published findings of a startling study in the July 9,1994 issue of the prestigious medical journal The Lancet: "Even fetuses feel pain, according to preliminary evidence by British researchers." "The investigators studied 31 fetuses between 23 and 34 weeks of gestation that needed to have blood withdrawn for lifesaving procedures." "The findings suggest fetuses should have pain relief when undergoing such invasive procedures as blood transfusions; said Dr. Nicholas Fisk, the investigator at Queen Charlotte's and Chelsea Hospital in London." "This is the first direct evidence that the human fetus may experience pain, Fisk said." "Fisk and his colleagues found a dramatic increase in fetal stress hormones when they inserted a needle for blood transfusions. This is the same chemical response that occurs when children and adults feel pain." "That a fetus can feel pain should not be a difficult concept to comprehend. Most of us have had the opportunity to hold an infant in our arms and see its response to touch. We have seen...a very young child's objection to...diaper rash, to pangs of hunger, and to the careless poke of a sibling. We know the response of a newborn to the doctor's slap just seconds after birth - a response to the sensation of pain." Vincent J. Collins et al., "Fetal Pain and Abortion," Studies in Law & Medicine No.18 (1984): 4 "When doctors first began invading the sanctuary of the womb, they did not know that the unborn baby would react to pain in the same fashion as a child would. But they soon learned that he would. By no means a 'vegetable,' as he has so often been pictured, the unborn knows perfectly well when he has been hurt, and he will protest it just as violently as would a baby dying in a crib." (Liley, H.M.I.: Modern Motherhood rev. ed., New York: Random House,1969, p.50.) At least half of the 1.5 million American babies aborted each year are aborted after the eighth week of gestation. A Developing Human Baby Day 22: *heart begins to beat with blood often of a different type than the mother's blood type. Week 5: *eyes, hands, feet begin to develop. Week 6: *The baby's heart has been beating for 3 weeks; all vital organs present; brain begins to control movement of muscles; feet, toes, & fingers developed; arms & legs move; brain waves can be detected & recorded; mother probably knows she is pregnant. Week 7: *eyelids, toes form, nose distinct. Week 8: *all body systems present; bones begin to form. Weeks 9 and 10: *fingernails develop; baby can suck his or her thumb, kick, curl toes, bend fingers. Week 11: baby can smile, begins to breathe amniotic fluid. Week 17: *baby can have dream (REM) sleep. When does the heart begin to beat? At 18 days [when the mother is only four days late for her first menstrual period], and by 21 days it is pumping, through a closed circulatory system, blood whose type is different from that of the mother. J.M. Tanner, G. R. Taylor, and the Editors of Time-Life Books, Growth, New York: Life Science Library, 1965, p. When is the brain functioning? Brain waves have been recorded at 40 days on the Electroencephalogram (EEG). H. Hamlin, "Life or Death by EEG," JAMA, Oct. 12, 1964, p. 120 Brain function, as measured on the Electroencephalogram, "appears to be reliably present in the fetus at about eight weeks gestation," or six weeks after conception. J. Goldenring, "Development of the Fetal Brain," New England Jour. of Med., Aug. 26, 1982, p. 564 Early on, this being has gill slits and a tail. Isnt this proof that it is not human then? The "gill slits" are not slits but folds of skin much like an infants "double chin." These stretch out as he grows. The tail isnt a tail either. The central nervous system consists of brain and spinal cord. It is the most important part of the early body and grows the fastest. The tail is really the end of the spinal cord which grows faster than the torso. The torso catches up with it, and its tip then becomes your adult "tail bone." "The body of the unborn baby is more complex than ours. The preborn baby has several extra parts to his body which he needs only so long as he lives inside his mother. He has his own space capsule, the amniotic sac. He has his own lifeline, the umbilical cord, and he has his own root system, the placenta. These all belong to the baby himself, not to his mother. They are all developed from his original cell." Day & Liley, The Secret World of a Baby, Random House, 1968, p. 13 How early do some organs form? The eye, ear and respiratory systems begin to form four weeks after fertilization. K. Moore, Before We Were Born, 3rd ed., 1989, p. 278 And function? Very early, e.g., glucagon, a blood sugar hormone, has been demonstrated in the fetal pancreas 6 weeks after fertilization, and insulin by 7 to 8. F. Cunningham, "Pancreas," Williams Obstet., 19th ed., 1993, p. 183-4 Thumbsucking has been photographed at 7 weeks after fertilization. W. Liley, The Fetus As Personality, Fetal Therapy, 1986, p. 8-17 "In the sixth to seventh 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." L. B. Arey, Developmental Anatomy (6th ed.), Philadelphia: W. B. Sanders Co., 1954 At eight weeks, "if we tickle the babys nose, he will flex his head backwards away from the stimulus." A. Hellgers, M.D., "Fetal Development, 31," Theological Studies, vol. 3, no. 7, 1970, p. 26 Another example is from a surgical technician whose letter said, "When we opened her abdomen (for a tubal pregnancy), the tube had expelled an inch-long fetus, about 4-6 weeks old. It was still alive in the sack. "That tiny baby was waving its little arms and kicking its little legs and even turned its whole body over." J. Dobson, Focus on the Family Mag., Aug. 91, pg. 16 But pregnant women dont "feel life" until four or five months! The inside of the uterus has no feeling. The baby has to be almost a foot long (30 cm.) and weigh about one pound (454 gm.) before he or she is large enough to brace a shoulder against one wall and kick hard enough against the opposite wall to dent it outward. Then the mother feels it because the outside of the uterus is covered by a sensitive peritoneal surface. What is the development at seven to eight weeks? The babys stomach secretes gastric juice by eight weeks. Now we can listen to the tiny ones heartbeat on an ultrasonic stethoscope. These are now common in doctors offices and on hospital wards. ...The actual sounds of an six-week-old babys heartbeat are available on tape from Cincinnati Right to Life, 1802 W. Galbraith Rd., Cincinnati, OH 45239 ($3.00). "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.)." 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 When are all his body systems present? By eight weeks (two months). Hooker & Davenport, The Prenatal Origin of Behavior, University of Kansas Press, 1952 When do teeth form? All 20 milk-teeth buds are present at six and a half weeks."Life Before Birth," Life Magazine, Apr. 30, 1965, p. 10 And include dental lamina at 8 weeks. Med. Embryology, Longman, 3rd Ed., 1975, p. 406 How about nine weeks? At nine to ten weeks, he squints, swallows, moves his tongue, and if you stroke his palm, will make a tight fist. By nine weeks he will "bend his fingers round an object in the palm of his hand." Valman & Pearson, "What the Fetus Feels," British Med. Jour., Jan. 26, 1980 When does he start to breathe? "By 11 to 12 weeks (3 months), he is breathing fluid steadily and continues so until birth. At birth, he will breathe air. He does not drown by breathing fluid with-in his mother, because he obtains his oxygen from his umbilical cord. This breathing develops the organs of respiration." "Life Before Birth," Life Magazine, Apr. 30, 1965, p. 13 "Maternal cigarette smoking during pregnancy decreases the frequency of fetal breathing by 20%. The well documented higher incidence of prematurity, stillbirth, and slower development of reading skill may be related to this decrease." 80 F. Manning, "Meeting of Royal College of Physicians & Surgeons," Family Practice News, March 15, 1976 "In the 11th week of gestation fetal breathing is irregular and episodic. As gestation continues, the breathing movements become more vigorous and rapid." C. Dawes, "Fetal Breathing: Indication of Well Being," Family Practice News, Mar. 16, 1976, p. 6 Episodic spontaneous breathing movement have been observed in the healthy human fetus as early as ten weeks gestational age. Conners et al., "Control of Fetal Breathing in the Human Fetus," Am J. OB-GYN, April 89, p. 932 And 11 weeks (9 weeks post-fertilization). Cunningham, Wm. Obstetrics, 1993, p. 193 When can he swallow? At 11 weeks. Valman & Pearson, British Med. Jour., "What the Fetus Feels," 26 Jan. 1980, p. 233 What of detailed development, like fingernails and eyelashes? Fingernails are present by 11 to 12 weeks; eyelashes by 16 weeks. Fingerprints are completely established during the fourth month of gestation. Hamilton et al., Human Embryology, Fourth Ed., 1972, p. 567 At what point are all his body systems working? By 11 weeks. "Life Before Birth," Life Magazine, Apr. 30, 1965, p. 13 How does the size of the baby increase in weight? At 12 weeks (three months) she weighs about 30 gm (1.0 ounce); at 16 weeks about 170 gm (6 ounces); and at 20 weeks (four months), approximately 454 gm (one pound). When is taste present? "Taste buds are working between 13 and 15 weeks gestation" (11 to 13 weeks after conception). Mistretta & Bradley, Taste in Utero, 1977, p. 62 Bradley et al., "Dev. Taste Buds . . . ," J. Anat. 101 (4) 1967, p. 743-752 How about hearing? "Auditory sense is present in the infant 24 weeks before birth [14 weeks after conception]. This involves brain functioning and memory patterns." M. Clemens, "5th International Congress Psychosomatic," OB & GYN, Rome: Medical Tribune, Mar. 22, 1978, p. 7 Recent technology allowed a tiny microphone to be placed by the fetuss head and "We heard almost everything, from people talking 12 feet away, to a door opening in the room, to a cart going down the hall with the door closed. The clarity was incredible. It was easy to tell who was talking." The results showed the fetus hears everything we do, only 10 decibels less. Their earliest response to sound was at 26 weeks. Is Noise an Intrauterine Threat, Phelan & Satt, by R. McGuire, Med. Tribune, Nov. 30, 1989 He certainly cant cry! Although the watery environment in which he lives presents small opportunity for crying, which does require air, the unborn knows how to cry, and given a chance to do so, he will. A doctor ". . . injected an air bubble into the babys amniotic sac and then took x-rays. It so happened that the air bubble covered the babys face. The whole procedure had no doubt given the little fellow quite a bit of jostling about, and the moment that he had air to inhale and exhale they heard the clear sound of a protesting wail emitting from the uterus. Late that same night, the mother awakened her doctor with a telephone call, to report that when she lay down to sleep the air bubble got over the babys head again, and he was crying so loudly he was keeping both her and her husband awake. The doctor advised her to prop herself up-right with pillows so that the air could not reach the babys head, which was by now in the lower part of the uterus." Day & Liley, Modern Motherhood, Random House, 1969, pp. 50-51 Does the unborn baby dream? Using ultrasound techniques, it was first shown that REM (rapid eye movements) which are characteristic of active dream states have been demonstrated at 23 weeks. J. Birnhaltz, "The Development of Human Fetal Eye Movement Patterns," Science, 1981, vol. 213, pp. 679-681 REM have since been recorded 17 weeks after conception. S. Levi, Brugman University of Brussels, American Medical Association News, February 1, 1983 Does he/she think? In adults, when we contemplate a physical move or action from a resting state, our heart rate accelerates several seconds before the motion. Similarly, the fetal babys heart rate speeds up six to ten seconds prior to fetal movement. Is this conscious thought and planning? 83 N. Lauerson & H. Hochberg, "Does the Fetus Think?" JAMA, vol. 247, no. 23, July 18, 1982 "We now know that the unborn child is an aware, reacting human being who from the sixth month on (and perhaps earlier) leads an active emotional life." The fetus can, on a primitive level, even learn in utero. "Whether he ultimately sees himself and, hence, acts as a sad or happy, aggressive or meek, secure or anxiety-ridden person depends, in part, on the messages he gets about himself in the womb." T. Verney & J. Kelly, The Secret Life of the Unborn Child, Delta Books, 1981, p. 12 "At eight weeks of life 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." M. Rosen, "Learning Before Birth," Harpers Magazine, April 1978 You mean that the unborn babys emotions can be affected? This is probably true. "We know already that even embryonic nervous tissue is open to maternal communication via brain chemicals called neurotransmitters. This is a finding with enormous implications. It means that the mothers emotional state can affect the unborn almost from conception onward. Even before the baby can hear in the womb, or think consciously, it is capable of sensing discord between its parents. If the mother is in constant turmoil, its own environment will be tainted by the biochemistry of fear and hostility, grief, and anger." Shettles & Varick, Rites of Life, Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1983, pp. 87-89 At four and one-half months, a very bright light on a womans abdomen will cause the baby to slowly move its hand to a position shielding the eyes. Loud music will cause the baby to cover its ears. A woman in an unhappy marriage has a 237% greater risk of bearing a child with physical and psychological problems than a woman in a secure relationship. T. Verney & J. Kelly, The Secret Life of the Unborn Child, Delta Books, 1981, p. 49 Agreeing with Dr. Liley, Dr. W. Freud (grandson of Sigmund Freud), observed 10,000 ultrasound visualizations and reported, "It looks as if the fetus has a lot of intentionality." He also once saw unborn twins fighting. 1st International Congress, Pre & Peri Natal Psychology, Toronto, July 8-10, 1983 So the fetus is really the Second Patient? Can he or she be treated? "The status of the fetus has been elevated to that of a patient who, in large measure, can be given the same meticulous care that obstetricians have long given the pregnant woman." Cunningham, F.G., et. al, Williams Obstetrics, 19th ed. (Norwalk, CT: Appleton & Lange, 1993), 165. Diaphragmatic hernia and obstructive hydrocephalus can be corrected while still in the womb. In addition: "Medical treatment of the fetus includes exchange transfusion, thyroid hormone replacement and administration of steroids for surfactant induction. Correction of obstructive uropathy with urinary diversion has proved successful in decreasing fetal morbidity and mortality, while other procedures are still in the experimental stage. Extrauterine fetal surgery is performed only rarely but represents an exciting new direction in the treatment of medicines youngest patients." Camosy, P., "Fetal Medicine: Treating the Unborn Patient," Am. Fam. Physician, 52 (5)(October 1995): 1385-92 Four of the 40 weeks have already elapsed at the time she misses her first period. 14 days: Mother's menstrual period is suppressed by a hormone produced by her child. 18 days: Heart is forming. Soon eyes start to develop. 20 days: Foundations of brain, spinal cord and nervous system are laid. 24 days: Heart begins to beat. 28 days: Muscles are developing along the future spine. Arms and legs are budding. 30 days: Child has grown 10,000 times to 6-7 mm (1/4") long. Brain has human proportions. Blood flows in veins (but stays separate from mother's blood). 35 days: Pituitary gland in brain is forming. Mouth, ears and nose are taking shape. 40 days: Heart's energy output is 20percent of adult's. 42 days: Skeleton is formed. Brain coordinates movement of muscles and organs. Reflex responses have begun. Penis is forming in boys. (Mother misses second period.) 43 days: Brain waves can be recorded. 45 days: Spontaneous movements have begun. Buds of milk teeth have appeared. 7 weeks: Lips are sensitive to touch. Ears may resemble family pattern. 8 weeks: Child is well proportioned. Now a small scale baby, 3cm (1 1/8") and weighing a gram (1/30th oz.) Every organ is present. Heart beats sturdily. Stomach produces digestive juices. Liver makes blood cells. Kidneys begin to function. Taste buds are forming. 8 1/2 weeks: Fingerprints are being engraved. Eyelids and palms of hands are sensitive to touch. 9 weeks: Child will bend fingers around an object placed in the palm. Thumb sucking occurs. Fingernails are now forming. 10 weeks: Body is sensitive to touch. Child squints, swallows, puckers up brow and frowns. 11 weeks: Baby urinates, makes complex facial expressions - even smiles. 12 weeks: Vigorous activity shows distinct individuality. Child can kick, turn feet, curl and fan toes, make a fist, move thumbs, bend wrists, turn head, open mouth and press lips tightly together. Breathing is practiced. 13 weeks: Face is prettier, facial expressions resembling parents'. Movements are graceful, reflexes vigorous. Vocal chords are formed (but without air baby cannot cry). Sex organs are apparent. 4 months: Child can grasp with hands, swim and turn somersaults. 4-5 months: Mother first feels baby's movements. 5 months: Sleeping habits appear, but a slammed door will provoke activity. Child responds to sounds in frequencies too high or low for adults to hear. 6 months: Fine hair grows on eye brows & head. Eye-lash fringe appears. Weight is about 640g (22 oz.), height 23 cm (9"). Babies born at this age have survived. 7 months: Eye teeth are present. Eyelids open and close, eyes look around. Hands grip strongly. Mother's voice is heard and recognized. 8 months: Weight increases by 1 kg. (over 2 lbs.) and baby's quarters get cramped. 9 months: Child triggers labor and birth occurs, usually 255-275 days after conception. Of 45 generations of cell divisions before adulthood, 41 have taken place. Four more will come during the rest of childhood and adolescence. Around 1970 American physician Dr. Russell Sacco of Portland, Oregon, became acutely aware of the highly developed human characteristics of aborted infants in a pathologist's laboratory. His striking photograph of the perfectly formed feet of a 10-week unborn child killed by abortion has been published world-wide. 8 Weeks - 3 months At 8 weeks my mom may not even know she is pregnant, but inside of her I am active and growing. My heart is beating steadily and can be heard on an ultrasonic stethoscope. At 10 weeks, my little hands and feet are perfectly formed. My fingers could curl around an object placed in the palm of my hand. At 12 weeks, I am really active. I swallow, squint and swim in my amniotic fluid. 4 Months By 4 months I am 6 inches long and I weigh about one half of a pound. I have eyelashes and even fine hair growing on my head. Now I can hear sounds. In fact, I can hear my moms heartbeat and voice as well as outside sounds. When classical music is being played, it calms me down, but hard rock music agitates me. I spend my days awake, sleeping, sucking my thumb and turning somersaults. I curl my fists and fan my toes. I am vigorously moving and kicking, which probably gives a fluttering sensation to my mom. 5 Months By 5 months half of moms pregnancy is over. I am just about twelve inches long and I weigh close to one pound. My skin is very transparent and my blood vessels look like they are right on the surface. My fingernails grow very fast and I can easily scratch myself. By now my mom is very aware of my presence. I punch, kick and elbow her on a regular basis. I have fully developed vocal cords and use them to cry but I cannot be heard because there is no air. My living space is getting a bit cramped ... 7 Months By 7 months I am an aware human being. My brain develops rapidly at this time. I lead an active emotional life and can even learn things. I weigh about 3 pounds. I am getting some fat on my body which makes my skin smoother. My eye teeth are present. My eyelids now open and close and my eyes look around. My hands can now grip strongly. Mom can feel when I get the hiccups. I can recognize her voice and distinguish it from others. 8 Months By 8 months I am quite cramped in my moms uterus. I sleep and wake in a pattern and can sense the difference between light and darkness through my moms abdomen. My taste-buds function and I prefer sweet to sour. I smile, frown, yawn, swallow, and suck my thumb. I now weigh around four pounds. 9 Months At 9 months, I am ready to start my short but dramatic journey to the outside world. There isnt a lot of room left in my current home and like a little contortionist, I can comfortably bring my feet up to my chin in order to fit. Its me, not my mom, who will decide on my time of birth. My birth weight is about average, which is between 7 and 8 pounds. Diary of an Unborn Child . . . March 28: April 17: My mouth is just forming now. Just think, in a year or so I will be laughing. Later I will be able to speak. My first word will be, "Mother." Who says I'm not a person yet? I am, just as the tiniest crumb of bread is still truly bread. April 29: Every day I grow a bit. My arms and legs are beginning to take shape. But, I will have to wait a long time before my legs will carry me running to my mother's arms and before my arms can embrace my daddy. May 14: Now tiny fingers are beginning to form. Strange how small they are, but how wonderful they will be. They will pet a puppy, throw a ball and touch another hand. They may even play a violin or paint a picture one day. June 3: My face is completely formed. I hope I look like mother. Week 4 The embryo may float freely in the uterus for about 48 hours before implanting. Upon implantation, complex connections between the mother and embryo develop to form the placenta. Week 6 The embryo is about 1/5 of an inch in length. A primitive heart is beating. Head, mouth, liver, and intestines begin to take shape. Week 10 The embryo is now about 1 inch in length. Facial features, limbs, hands feet fingers and toes become apparent. The nervous system is responsive and many of the internal organs begin to function. Week 14 The fetus is now 3 inches long and weighs almost an ounce. The muscles begin to develop and sex organs form. Eyelids, fingernails, and toenails also form. The child's spontaneous movements can be observed. Week 18       !"#$%&'()*+,-./0123456789:;<=>?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ[\]^_`abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz{|}~ The fetus is now about 5 inches long. The child blinks, grasps, and moves her mouth. Hair grows on the head and body. Week 22 The fetus now weighs approximately 1/2 and spans about 10 inches from head to toe. Sweat glands develop, and the external skin has turned from transparent to opaque. Week 26 The fetus can now inhale, exhale and even cry. Eyes have completely formed, and the tongue has developed taste buds. Under intensive medical care the fetus has a over a 50% chance of surviving outside the womb. Week 30 The fetus is usually capable of living outside the womb and would be considered premature at birth. Week 40 This marks the end of the normal gestational period. The child is now ready to live in outside of his mother's womb. Prenatal Memory and Learning By David Chamberlain, Editor Some children spontaneously recall birth events (even secrets) but expression of these memories is delayed until they can speak. Before they use words they can express their memories non-verbally by drawing pictures, acting out scenes using pantomime, pointing to body locations, and by providing authentic sound effects for equipment (like suction devices) used at the birth. These children warn us that early memory and learning are real. The documentation of learning and memory months before birth is surprising. Some of this has been made possible by direct ultrasound observations of fetal behavior. Twins can be seen developing certain gestures and habits at twenty weeks gestational age which persist into their postnatal years. In one case, a brother and sister were seen playing cheek-to-cheek on either side of the dividing membrane. At one year of age, their favorite game was to take positions on opposite sides of a curtain, and begin to laugh and giggle as they touched each other and played through the curtain. Parents interested in prenatal communication have taught their prenates the "Kick Game." When babies kick, the parents touch the abdomen and say, "Kick, baby, kick!" When the baby kicks, they move to a different location and repeat the invitation. Babies soon oblige by kicking anywhere on cue. In a famous experiment by Anthony DeCasper and colleagues at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro, mothers read the Dr. Seuss story, The Cat In the Hat, at regular intervals before birth. At birth, babies were hooked up to recordings which they could select by sucking on a non-nutritive nipple. After a few trials, babies cleverly sucked at whatever speed was necessary to obtain their mother's voice reading "The Cat in the Hat. Similarly, in utero, musical passages repeated regularly--such as theme music for the British soap opera Neighbors or the bassoon passage from Peter and the Wolf--are identified and preferred immediately after birth. In a recent experiment, French mothers repeated a children's rhyme each day from week 33 to week 37 of gestation. At the end of this time (still inside the womb) the babies showed memory and learning for this particular rhyme as opposed to similar rhymes they had not heard. Babies are leaning their native language before birth. This is made possible by the development of hearing as early as 16 weeks gestational age. A mother's voice reaches the uterus with very little distortion as the sound waves pass directly through her body. Acoustic spectroscopy, which makes possible elaborately detailed portraits of sound similar to fingerprints, has documented prenatal learning of the mother tongue. By 27 weeks of gestation, the cry of a baby already contains some of the speech features, rhythms, and voice characteristics of its mother. Newborn reactions to language are based on the sounds heard in utero: French babies prefer to look at persons speaking French while Russian babies prefer to watch people speaking Russian. Unexpected evidence for prenatal learning and memory comes from studies of taste and olfaction (See The Fetal Senses). Until recently, olfaction was thought to require air, hence, learning of odors was not considered possible before birth. Current understanding, however, recognizes the complex interaction of chemosensory receptors in utero. Many chemical compounds, including those from the mother's diet, pass through the placenta and reach the baby in utero while others flow in the capillaries of the nasal mucosa. By breathing and swallowing amniotic fluid, a baby becomes familiar with the mother's diet, including things like garlic. Even before post-nasal exposure to breastmilk, babies already know and prefer their own mother's milk. Abrupt changes in her diet during the perinatal period can confuse babies and upset breastfeeding. Traumatic events in neonatal intensive care are indelibly imprinted in memory and intrude on adult life, often in the form of fear. Edward, who was born prematurely and entered the NICU at 29 weeks, learned to fear the sound and sight of adhesive tape. He learned this from the experience of having sections of his skin accidentally pulled off during removal of monitor pads. When he was a young man, he still feared adhesive tape. Babies can learn their mother's emotional state. Experiments in Australia revealed that unborn babies were participating in the emotional upset of their mothers watching a disturbing 20-minute segment of a Hollywood movie. When briefly re-exposed to this film up to three months after birth, they still showed recognition of the earlier experience. Studies of a thousand babies whose mothers had experienced various degrees of depression during pregnancy themselves displayed depression at birth and in proportion to the depression scores of their mothers. The Fetal Senses David Chamberlain Sensitivity to Touch Just before 8 weeks gestational age (g.a.), the first sensitivity to touch manifests in a set of protective movements to avoid a mere hair stroke on the cheek. From this early date, experiments with a hair stroke on various parts of the embryonic body show that skin sensitivity quickly extends to the genital area (10 weeks), palms (11 weeks), and soles (12 weeks). These areas of first sensitivity are the ones which will have the greatest number and variety of sensory receptors in adults. By 17 weeks, all parts of the abdomen and buttocks are sensitive. Skin is marvellously complex, containing a hundred varieties of cells which seem especially sensitive to heat, cold, pressure and pain. By 32 weeks, nearly every part of the body is sensitive to the same light stroke of a single hair. The Fetus In Motion The first dramatic motion, one that has come to symbolize life itself, is the first heartbeat at about three weeks after conception. This rhythmic activity continues while valves, chambers, and all other parts and connections are under construction--illustrating an important fact about development: parts are pressed into service as they become available. Furthermore, use is necessary for development. Between week six and ten, fetal bodies burst into motion, achieving graceful, stretching, and rotational movements of the head, arms and legs. Hand to head, hand to face, hand to mouth movements, mouth opening, closing, and swallowing are all present at 10 weeks (Tajani and Ianniruberto, 1990). By 14 weeks, the complete repertoire of fetal movements seen throughout gestation are already in evidence (deVries, Visser, and Prechtl, 1985). Movement is spontaneous, endogenous, and typically cycles between activity and rest. Breathing movements and jaw movements have begun. Hands are busy interacting with other parts of the body and with the umbilical cord. From this early stage onward, movement is a primary activity, sometimes begun spontaneously, sometimes provoked by events. Spontaneous movement occurs earliest, probably expressing purely individual interests and needs. Evoked movement reflects sensitivity to the environment. For example, between 10 and 15 weeks g.a., when a mother laughs or coughs, her fetus moves within seconds. The vestibular system, designed to register head and body motion as well as the pull of gravity begins developing at about 8 weeks. This requires construction of six semicircular canals, fluid-filled structures in the ears, which are sensitive to angular acceleration and deceleration, and help maintain balance. Tasting and Smelling The structures for tasting are available at about 14 weeks g.a. and experts believe that tasting begins at that time. Tests show that swallowing increases with sweet tastes and decreases with bitter and sour tastes. In the liquid womb space, a range of tastes are presented including lactic, pyruvic, and citric acids, creatinine, urea, amino acids, proteins and salts. Tests made at birth reveal exquisite taste discrimination and definite preferences. Until recently, no serious consideration was given to the possibilities for olfaction in utero, since researchers assumed smelling depended on air and breathing. However, the latest research has opened up a new world of possibilities. The nasal chemoreceptive system is more complex than previously understood, and is made up of no less than four subsystems: the main olfactory, the trigeminal, the vomeronasal, and the terminal system, which provide complex olfactory input to the fetus. The nose develops between 11 and 15 weeks. Many chemical compounds can cross the placenta to join the amniotic fluid, providing the fetus with tastes and odors. The amniotic fluid surrounding the fetus bathes the oral, nasal, and pharyngeal cavities, and babies breathe it and swallow it, permitting direct access to receptors of several chemosensory systems: taste buds in three locations, olfactory epithelia, vomeronasal system, and trigeminal system (Smotherman and Robinson, 1995). Associations formed in utero can alter subsequent fetal behavior and are retained into postnatal life. The evidence for direct and indirect learning of odors in utero has been reviewed by Schaal, Orgeur, and Rogan (1995). They point to an extraordinary range of available odiferous compounds, an average of 120 in individual samples of amniotic fluid! In addition, products of the mother's diet reach the baby via the placenta and the blood flowing in the capillaries of the nasal mucosa. Thus, prenatal experience with odorants from both sources probably prepare this sensory system to search for certain odors or classes of odors. In one experiment, babies registered changes in fetal breathing and heart rate when mothers drank coffee, whether it was caffeinated or decaffeinated. Newborns are drawn to the odor of breastmilk, although they have no previous experience with it. Researchers think this may come from cues they have learned in prenatal life. Listening and Hearing Although a concentric series of barriers buffer the fetus from the outside world--amniotic fluid, embryonic membranes, uterus, and the maternal abdomen--the fetus lives in a stimulating matrix of sound, vibration, and motion. Many studies now confirm that voices reach the womb, rather than being overwhelmed by the background noise created by the mother and placenta. Intonation patterns of pitch, stress, and rhythm, as well as music, reach the fetus without significant distortion. A mother's voice is particularly powerful because it is transmitted to the womb through her own body reaching the fetus in a stronger form than outside sounds. For a comprehensive review of fetal audition, see Busnell, Granier-Deferre, and Lecanuet 1992. Sounds have a surprising impact upon the fetal heart rate: a five second stimulus can cause changes in heart rate and movement which last up to an hour. Some musical sounds can cause changes in metabolism. "Brahm's Lullabye," for example, played six times a day for five minutes in a premature baby nursery produced faster weight gain than voice sounds played on the same schedule (Chapman, 1975). Researchers in Belfast have demonstrated that reactive listening begins at 16 weeks g.a., two months sooner than other types of measurements indicated. Working with 400 fetuses, researchers in Belfast beamed a pure pulse sound at 250-500 Hz and found behavioral responses at 16 weeks g.a.--clearly seen via ultrasound (Shahidullah and Hepper, 1992). This is especially significant because reactive listening begins eight weeks before the ear is structurally complete at about 24 weeks. These findings indicate the complexity of hearing, lending support to the idea that receptive hearing begins with the skin and skeletal framework, skin being a multireceptor organ integrating input from vibrations, thermo receptors, and pain receptors. This primal listening system is then amplified with vestibular and cochlear information as it becomes available. With responsive listening proven at 16 weeks, hearing is clearly a major information channel operating for about 24 weeks before birth. Development of Vision At the time of birth, vision is perfectly focused from 8 to 12 inches, the distance to a mother's face when feeding at the breast. Technical reviews reveal how extraordinary vision is in the first few months of life (Salapatek and Cohen, 1987). Although testing eyesight in the womb has not been feasible, we can learn from testing premature babies. When tested from 28 to 34 weeks g.a. for visual focus and horizontal and vertical tracking, they usually show these abilities by 31-32 weeks g.a. Abilities increase rapidly with experience so that by 33-34 weeks g.a., both tracking in all directions as well as visual attention equals that of babies of 40 weeks g.a. Full-term newborns have impressive visual resources including acuity and contrast sensitivity, refraction and accommodation, spacial vision, binocular function, distance and depth perception, color vision, and sensitivity to flicker and motion patterns (Atkinson and Braddick, 1982). Their eyes search the environment day and night, showing curiosity and basic form perception without needing much time for practice (Slater, Mattock, Brown, and Gavin, 1991). In utero, eyelids remain closed until about the 26th week. However, the fetus is sensitive to light, responding to light with heart rate accelerations to projections of light on the abdomen. This can even serve as a test of well-being before birth. Although it cannot be explained easily, prenates with their eyelids still fused seem to be using some aspect of "vision" to detect the location of needles entering the womb, either shrinking away from them or turning to attack the needle barrel with a fist (Birnholz, Stephens, and Faria, 1978). Similarly, at 20 weeks g.a., twins in utero have no trouble locating each other and touching faces or holding hands! The Senses in Action We close this section about fetal sensory resources by citing a few examples of how fetal senses work in tandem. We have already indicated how closely allied the gustatory and olfactory systems are, how skin and bones contribute to hearing, and how vision seems functional even with fused eyelids. When prenates experience pain, they do not have the air necessary to make sound, but they do respond with vigorous body and breathing movements as well as hormonal rushes. Within ten minutes of needling a fetus's intrahapatic vein for a transfusion, a fetus shows a 590% rise in beta endorphin and a 183% rise in cortosol--chemical evidence of pain (Giannakoulopoulos, 1994). Ultrasonographers have recorded fetal erections as early as 16 weeks g.a., often in conjunction with finger sucking, suggesting that pleasurable self-stimulation is already possible. In the third trimester, when prenates are monitored during parental intercouse, their hearts fluctuate wildly in accelerations and decelerations greater than 30 beats per minute, or show a rare loss of beat-to-beat variability, accompanied by a sharp increase in fetal movement (Chayen et al, 1986). This heart activity is directly associated with paternal and maternal orgasms! Other experiments measuring fetal reactions to mothers' drinking one ounce of vodka in a glass of diet ginger ale show that breathing movements stop within 3 to 30 minutes. This hiatus in breathing lasts more than a half hour. Although the blood alcohol level of the mothers was low, as their blood alcohol level declined, the percentage of fetal breathing movements increased (Fox et al, 1978). Babies have been known to react to the experience of amniocentesis (usually done around 16 weeks g.a.) by shrinking away from the needle, or, if a needle nicks them, they may turn and attack it. Mothers and doctors who have watched this under ultrasound have been unnerved. Following amniocentesis, heart rates gyrate. Some babies remain motionless, and their breathing motions may not return to normal for several days. Finally, researchers have discovered that babies are dreaming as early as 23 weeks g.a.when rapid eye movement sleep is first observed (Birnholz, 1981). Studies of premature babies have revealed intense dreaming activity, occupying 100% of sleep time at 30 weeks g.a., and gradually diminishing to around 50% by term. Dreaming is a vigorous activity involving apparently coherent movements of the face and extremities in synchrony with the dream itself, manifested in markedly pleasant or unpleasant expressions. Dreaming is also an endogenous activity, neither reactive or evoked, expressing inner mental or emotional conditions. Observers say babies behave like adults do when they are dreaming (Roffwarg, Muzio, and Dement 1966). The Importance of Prenatal Sound and Music Column Editor: Giselle E. Whitwell, R.M.T. The research at the University of California in Irvine has provided some information about the effect of Mozart on the spatial and mathematical intelligence of children. Recently, an article in the Los Angeles Times newspaper (11/9/98) reported neurobiological research to the effect that "undeniably, there is a biology of music." Michel Odent, M.D., believes that women have a profound need to sing to their babies but that the medicalization of birth has upset this process. In the past, women all over the world have sung lullabies to their babies. These were very important because as we now know the fetus is having first language lessons in the womb. The inflections of the mother tongue are conveyed not only through speech but most importantly through song. The singing voice has a richer frequency range than speech. In fact, studies in other disciplines such as linguistics and musicology (e.g., David Whitwell, 1993) point out that there was a time when speech was song and therefore singing is the older of the two. Babies born of deaf mothers miss these important first lessons in language development. French pioneer Dr. Alfred Tomatis mentions being intrigued by the fact that song birds hatched by silent foster mothers can't sing. What the baby learns in utero are the intonational patterns of sound and the frequencies of a language in his/her particular culture. Frequency is the level of pitch measured in Hertz (Hz.) This range varies between 16 to 20,000 Hz. There is very little distortion of the mother's voice as heard by the fetus whereas other external voices sound more muffled, especially in the higher frequencies. According to Rubel (1984), the fetus is responsive first to lower frequencies and then to higher ones. Verny and others have noted that babies have a preference for stories, rhymes, and poems first heard in the womb. When the mother reads out loud, the sound is received by her baby in part via bone conduction. Dr. Henry Truby, Emeritus Professor of Pediatrics and Linguistics at the University of Miami, points out that after the sixth month, the fetus moves in rhythm to the mother's speech and that spectrographs of the first cry of an abortus at 28 weeks could be matched with his mothers. The elements of music, namely tonal pitch, timbre, intensity and rhythm, are also elements used in speaking a language. For this reason, music prepares the ear, body and brain to listen to, integrate and produce language sounds. Music can thus be considered a pre-linguistic language which is nourishing and stimulating to the whole human being, affecting body, emotions, intellect, and developing an internal sense of beauty, sustaining and awakening the qualities in us that are wordless and otherwise inexpressible. The research of Polverini-Rey (1992) seems to indicate that prenates exposed to lullabies in utero were calmed by the stimulus. The famous British violinist Yehudi Menuhin believes that his own musical talent was partly due to the fact that his parents were always singing and playing music before he was born. The Sound Environment of the Womb The sound environment of the womb is very rich. There are various interpretations as to the noise level, ranging between 30 to 96 dB. (decibel being a measure of sound intensity or loudness). A whisper can register 30 dB., a normal conversation is about 60 dB. and rush hour traffic can average about 70 dB. On the other hand, shouted conversations and motorcycles reach about 100 dB. Rock music has been measured as 115 dB. and the pain threshold begins at 125 dB. Yet, recent research with hydrophones have revealed that the womb is a "relatively quiet place" (Deliege and Sloboda, 1996), something comparable to what we experience in our environment between 50 and 60 dB. Uterine sounds form a "sound carpet" over which the mother's voice in particular appears very distinct and which the prenate gives special attention because it is so different from its own amniotic environment. These sounds are of major importance because they establishes the first patterns of communication and bonding. Some researchers have discovered that newborns become calmer and more self-regulated when exposed to intrauterine sound (Murooka et. al 1976; DeCasper 1983; Rossner 1979). The soothing sounds of the ocean and water are probably reminiscent of the fluid environment in which we began life. Tomatis suggests that the maternal heart beat, respiration and intestinal gurgling, all form the source for our collective attraction to the sound of surf and may have to do with our inborn sense of rhythm. Prenatal sounds form an important developmental component in prenatal life because they provide a foundation for later learning and behavior. With fetal sound stimulation the brain functions at a higher level of organization. The ear first appears in the 3rd week of gestation and it becomes functional by the 16th week. The fetus begins active listening by the 24th week. We know from ultrasound observations that the fetus hears and responds to a sound pulse starting about 16 weeks of age (Shahidullah & Hepper, 1992); this is even before the ear construction is complete. The cochlear structures of the ear appear to function by the 20th week and mature synapses have been found between the 24th and 28th weeks (Pujol et al. 1991). For this reason most formal programs of prenatal stimulation are usually designed to begin during the third trimester. The sense of hearing is probably the most developed of all the senses before birth. Four-month-old fetuses can respond in very specific ways to sound; if exposed to loud music, and their heart beat will accelerate. A Japanese study of pregnant women living near the Osaka airport had smaller babies and an inflated incidence of prematurity-arguably related to the environment of incessant loud noise. Chronic noise can also be associated with birth defects (Szmeja et al. 1979). I recently received a report from a mother who was in her 7th month of pregnancy when she visited the zoo. In the lion's enclosure, the animals were in process of being fed. The roar of one lion would set off another lion and the sound was so intense she had to leave the scene as the fetus reacted with a strong kick and left her feeling ill. Many years later, when the child was 7 years of age, it was found that he had a hearing deficiency in the lower-middle range. This child also reacts with fear when viewing TV programs of lions and related animals. There are numerous reports about mothers having to leave war movies and concerts because the auditory stimulus caused the fetus to become hyperactive. Alfred Tomatis notes that the ear is "the Rome of the body" because almost all cranial nerves lead to it and therefore it is considered our most primary sense organ. Embryonically, according to him, the skin is differentiated ear, and we listen with our whole body. In order to better understand the role of music in its elements of rhythm and melody, we must briefly clarify the two parts of the inner ear. These are the vestibular system and the cochlea. The vestibular system controls balance and body movements, including the integration of movements which make up the rhythm of music-making the vestibular system the more archaic. And according to Paul Madaule (1984)"it is in fact because of the vestibular system that music seems to have an impact on the body." At around 4 to 6 weeks gestational age the vestibular and the cochlear systems become differentiated, at 7 the auditory ossicles start to grow, and at 4 months the ear of the fetus is already adult-like in shape and size. The cochlear system enables the transformation of acoustic vibrations into nervous influx, thus allowing the perception of melodies which carry higher frequencies. Knowing this, one can have a better understanding of the intimate relationship and unity of rhythm and melody. Tomatis has a unique view of the function of the human ear going beyond what is traditionally assumed. He regards it as neither an instrument solely for hearing and listening, nor an organ for the maintenance of equilibrium and verticality. For him the ear is primarily a generator of energy for the brain, intended to give a cortical charge which is then distributed throughout the body "with the view to toning up the whole system and imparting greater dynamism to the human being" (Gilmor and Madaule, 1984, p. 6). Hence the importance of right sound stimulation which will lead to vocal expression, listening, and thinking. Sound, music and human development are intricately interwoven. Clearly, the vestibular system progresses rapidly as seen by the active movement of the fetus in utero. As early as the first trimester, regular exercise patterns have been observed with ultra-sound: rolling, flexing, turning, etc. (Van Dongen & Goudie, 1980). The movements appear as graceful somersaults, flexing of the back and neck, turning the head, waving arms, kicking legs-- all self initiated and expressive in nature. When the baby moves in utero, the heartbeat accelerates. DeMause (1982) summarizes reactions of the second trimester as follows: "The fetus now floats peacefully, kicks, turns, sighs, grabs its umbilicus, gets excited at sudden noises, calms down when the mother talks quietly, and gets rocked back to sleep as she walks about." The fetal heart is fully developed by the second trimester and its pulse rate oscillates between 120 to 160 beats per minute. Some think the distinctive rhythm of the mother's heart beat in utero is the basis and our attraction to drumming, rock rhythms, and the African tribal beat. Salk (1960), Murooka (1976), and De Casper (1983) provided evidence that newborns learned and remembered their mother's heart beat in utero. Salk (1960) showed that newborns in hospitals listening to heartbeat sounds gained weight at a faster rate. Likewise, breathing was deeper and more regular among these babies. Sound and Learning in Utero Chamberlain (1998) using Howard Gardner's concept of multiple intelligences, has presented evidence for musical intelligence before birth. Peter Hepper (1991) discovered that prenates exposed to TV soap opera music during pregnancy responded with focused and rapt attention to this music after birth-evidence of long-term memory. On hearing the music after birth, these newborns had a significant decrease in heart rate and movements, and shifted into a more alert state. Likewise, Shetler (1989) reported that 33% of fetal subjects in his study demonstrated contrasting reactions to tempo variations between faster and slower selections of music. This may be the earliest and most primitive musical response in utero. The pioneering New Zealand fetologist, William Liley, found that from at least 25 weeks on, the unborn child would jump in rhythm with the timpanist's contribution to an orchestral performance. The research of Michele Clements (1977) in a London maternity hospital found that four to five month fetuses were soothed by Vivaldi and Mozart but disturbed by loud passages of Beethoven, Brahms and Rock. Newborns have shown a preference for a melody their mother sang in utero rather than a new song sung by their mother (Satt, 1987). Babies during the third trimester in utero respond to vibroacoustic as well as air-coupled acoustic sounds, indicative of functional hearing. A study by Gelman et al. (1982) determined that a 2000 Hz. stimulus elicited a significant increase in fetal movements, a finding which supported the earlier study by Johnsson et al. (1964). From 26 weeks to term, fetuses have shown fetal heart accelerations in response to vibroacoustic stimuli. Consistent startle responses to vibroacoustic stimuli were also recorded during this period of development. Behavioral reactions included arm movements, leg extensions, and head aversions (Birnholz and Benacerraf, 1983). Yawning activity was observed after the conclusion of stimuli. Research by Luz et al. (1980 and 1985) has found that the normal fetus responds to external acoustic stimulation during labor in childbirth. These included startle responses to the onset of a brief stimulus. New evidence of cognitive development in the prenatal era is presented by William Sallenbach (1994) who made in-depth and systematic observations of his own daughter's behavior from weeks 32 to 34 in utero. Sallenbach observed that in the last trimester of pregnancy, the prenate's learning state shows movement from abstraction and generalization to one of increased specificity and differentiation. During a bonding session using music, the prenate was observed moving her hands gently. In a special musical arrangement, where dissonance was included, the subject's reactions were more rhythmic with rolling movements. Similarly, in prenatal music classes, Sister Lorna Zemke has found that the fetus will respond rhythmically to rhythms tapped on the mother's belly. From what research is telling us, we may presume that prenates would prefer to hear lullabies sung by their mothers, or selected slow passages of Baroque music such as Vivaldi, Telemann, and Handel which have a tempo resembling our own heart beat at rest. Recent research has shown that four month old infants demonstrate an innate preference for music that is consonant rather than dissonant (Zentner and Kagan, 1998). Prebirth Memory Therapy Including Prematurely Delivered Patients Jon R. G. Turner and Troya Turner We saw videotapes of three-day-old infants expressing obvious emotions in interactions with their mothers. These emotional reactions not only are experienced by very young infants, but can also be experienced and remembered from the nine months of gestation, using various methods. Mr. David Boadella (1986) of the London Centre for Biosynthesis has acknowledged that in the field of prenatal and perinatal work, there is a significant problem because of our inability to elicit verbal testimony from babies. Nevertheless, he believes that there is a nonverbal language in the body that can be recovered and expressed. Psychologist David Chamberlain, Ph.D., in his landmark book, The Mind of Your Newborn Baby (1998), offers a clarion apologia for newborns as real persons: Now science confirms that infants are social beings who can form close relationships, express themselves forcefully, exhibit preferences, and begin influencing people from the start. They are capable of integrating complex information from many sources and with a little help from their friends, begin regulating themselves and their environment. Just as gestation is the period for my little body to develop and grow, this nine months is for my emotional capacities to develop, grow, and be practiced. In other words, my body and my emotions were in parallel development to work in synchrony at birth. Dr. Alessandra Piontelli (1992), in her pioneering ultrasound research, has proven that as early as 13 weeks the fetus is showing individual behavior and personality traits that continue on after birth. What is Early Parenting? By David Chamberlain, Editor 2. Creating Emotional Foundations One of the biggest surprises about life in the womb is the extent of emotional involvement and expression, none of which was anticipated in psychology or medicine. The spontaneity and gracefulness of movement from about 10 weeks after conception is a vehicle for self-expression including early aspects of self-control, expression of needs and interests, and of protest against uncomfortable experiences. By 15 weeks, ultrasound reveals babies moving in reaction to something as simple as a mother's laugh or cough. Unexplainable reactions to amniocentesis include aggressive action toward the barrel of the needle, suggesting far more self-protection, self-assertion, and expression of fear and anger than previously thought possible. With precocious development of hearing and tasting before 16 weeks gestational age, the way is open for extensive interaction with mothers and fathers during pregnancy. Ultrasound imaging of twins reveals totally unexpected social relations and expressions of feeling manifested by repeated hitting, kicking, kissing, or playing together. 3. Establishing a Rich Connection with the Prenate Not long ago we did not think prenates could have any significant experiences. We didn't see how they could have a working mind. In retrospect, our false beliefs about the brain obscured the fact that babies in the uterine world were indeed having experiences, establishing patterns of interaction, listening to music and conversation (and as tests ultimately proved) were remembering them. Numerous experiments have made it clear that prenates who have the opportunity to hear stories and music repeated to them in utero can demonstrate recognition for this material later. Prenates have become familiar with and show a preference for specific lullabies, musical themes like "Peter and the Wolf," "Mary had a little Lamb," and theme music from television soap operas. Prenates memorize the voices of their mothers and fathers in utero while learning the basic features of their native language, the "mother" tongue, as we say. Spectrographic analysis of voice and cry sounds as early as 26 weeks of gestation show how far babies of this age have already progressed in adopting the voice characteristics of the mother. In a recent experiment, mothers repeated a children's rhyme daily for four weeks from week 33 to 37 in utero. Tested at 37 weeks while still inside, the babies reacted with a change of heartbeat to the familiar rhyme, but not to the unfamiliar rhyme. In other research, babies have demonstrated immediately after birth a preference for their mother's voice and their native language. The largest experiment in prenatal stimulation has taken place in Caracas, Venezuela under the direction of psychologist Beatriz Manrique, where six hundred families (divided into experimental and control groups) have been involved in an experiment which tested the babies for six years following their prenatal program. Test results revealed the advantages of prenatal stimulation in virtually every category over the entire time period including verification of superior auditory and speech development, motor skills, memory, and intelligence. These studies have proven what few believed in 1980: (1) That babies in the womb are alert, aware, and attentive to activities involving voice, touch, and music; (2) that babies benefit from these activities by forming stronger relationships with their parents and their parents with them making for better attachments and better birthing experiences, and (3) that these babies tend to show precocious development of speech, fine and gross motor performance, better emotional self-regulation, and better cognitive processing. These are the gifts of early parenting. Prenatal Stimulation: Experimental Results By David Chamberlain, Editor Since ultrasound has illuminated the hidden womb to reveal behaviors previously unimaginable - a repertoire of spontaneous and graceful movements at ten weeks, discriminative tasting and swallowing at 12 weeks, reactions to sound at 16 weeks, aggressive reactions to amniocentesis at 16 weeks, and a range of social interactions between twins at 20 weeks-- The world seems only dimly aware of the scientific evidence on the beneficial effects of stimulation found in research studies published by members of APPPAH beginning with the pioneering work of obstetrician Rene Van de Carr and psychologist Marc Lehrer (1986, 1988a, 1988b). Their book for parents is titled "While You're Expecting: Creating Your Own Prenatal Classroom" (Humanics Trade, P.O. Box 7400, Atlanta, GA 30357). Testing of several groups of graduates showed that first words came earlier in the experimental group, development of teeth was precocious, fathers were more bonded to their children, and mothers were more satisfied with birth and more successful with breastfeeding. Inspired by these breakthroughs, experiments in Thailand by obstetrician Chairat Panthuraamphorn (1993, 1995) showed that babies were blessed mentally, emotionally, and physically by a thorough program of multi-sensory interactions with their parents before birth. Formal testing revealed superior fine and gross motor skills, earlier speech and language performance, and earlier smiling and laughing in the babies of the experimental group. singing, talking, and playing music to baby. When formally measured with a battery of instruments at intervals from birth to age six, the stimulated babies proved consistently superior in visual, auditory, language, memory, and motor skills over the entire six years. In addition, mothers had greater confidence in approaching birth, were more active in labor, and had greater success in breastfeeding. Fathers were more strongly attached to the children and remained committed to the family after birth, a significant improvement in family cohesion in comparison with the control group fathers. at six months of age the 101 babies in the experimental group were significantly advanced in their motor skills, linguistic development, sensory coordination, and cognitive development when compared with controls. In this program enriched stimulation, beginning at about 28 weeks of gestation, was provided by taped presentation of violin sounds, arranged in order from simple to more complex forms. Broadcast from a tape player worn in a belt around the waist, the music could be heard for up to 90 mins per day. Mothers varied widely in the actual amount of time they played the tapes, from 16 hours to 128 hours total, or a median time of 70 hours. In addition to the music stimulation, parents were encouraged to communicate with the babies and establish a loving relationship with them. Creators of the Firstart program are Rosa Plaza, violinist and her husband, Manuel Alonso, pianist. Their son Diego, now 14 years old is a musical prodigy. During her pregnancy with Diego, Rosa was practicing violin 4-5 hours a day and Manuel was playing the piano; sometimes they played together, and they also went to concerts. It was at a concert that Rosa felt the first movement of her baby, at two months. At the time, she was intent upon establishing with her child the utmost in loving communication. After his birth, when he spontaneously began to sing musical scales at six months of age, his extraordinary musical abilities became apparent. With superb spatial sense, perfect pitch hearing, space-time relations skills and outstanding manual dexterity he gave his first recital at age 3 for the National Radio of Spain and began a series of stunning youthful performances which earned him the nickname "the Mozart of Spain." At fourteen, Diego is very much a normal and happy boy living in a happy family. Claira: A Case Study in Prenatal Learning William B. Sallenbach, Ph.D. This article reports on a unique and intensive observational study of his own child from week 34-36 in utero. It breaks new ground in the study of prenatal learning. Historically, most studies of prenatal learning have centered upon contingency reinforcements, habituation responses, and developmental outcomes. Very little research has examined the learning process during the prenatal period. This case study examines the behavioral responses of one prenate to an experimental curriculum. Significant movement responses are noted. The responses appear as an organized pattern which would imply that the prenate is capable of progressing from generality and abstraction to specificity and discernment in the learning process. This learning process may well be unified, organized, and amodal in nature. Movement patterns imply that higher order variables help to govern learning and are critical in the emergence of mental schema and regulations. Results from this study suggest that at the prenatal level, there is the beginning of cognitive schemes and regulations in mental operations. Introduction In an article describing the roots of social and cognitive development, Andrew Meltzoff (1985) has pointed out that developmental psychology has often hindered its own investigations by insisting on basic assumptions and misconceptions regarding infant development. As an example, Meltzoff points out that the prevailing scientific axiom regarding infant development is that the newborn is reflexive and asocial. Such views have been fostered and maintained in the traditions of Piaget, Bowlby's attachment theory, and psychoanalytic theory. In Piagetian psychology mental structures evolve from reflexive interactions. The infant is at best "egocentric" in social contexts. Hence mental and social development takes a much later course of development. The view of the infant as egocentric has also been fostered by Bowlby's attachment theory (1969) which sees attachment as evolving from reflexive interactions in a hierarchical progression. In the psychoanalytic tradition there is also the prevailing view that the infant is "asocial" or "autistic" in regards to social responsiveness (Mahler, Pine, and Bergman, 1975). Each of these views sees the physiological processes as dominant over psychological processes. Looking at the area of prenatal learning, the same assumptions appear to be operating as well. Learning processes have most commonly been described in terms of habituation (Kisilevsky and Muir, 1991; Querleu et al., 1981; Sakabe et al., 1969), conditioning (Spelt, 1948; Van de Carr, 1988), and imprinting sequences (Salk, 1962; Logan, 1991). Serious efforts to explore prenatal learning began in the 1920's and 1930's. Pieper (1925) performed sonic startles to study fetal responses. The same line of research was continued by Forbes and Forbes (1927). Ray (1932) seemed amazed that prenates would react to the smacking together of two boards. Sontag and Wallace (1934) attempted to experiment with greater numbers and to secure tighter controls over variables. Holt (1933) put forth the premise that intrauterine conditioning accounts for certain behavioral characteristics in the newborn. Spelt (1948) studied refractory time in the habituation-dishabituation process described by Forbes, Peiper, and Ray. In these historical studies the main premise for prenatal learning involved physiological processes. Henry Truby demonstrated that by 28 weeks gestational age, mothers and premature infant voices could be matched on voice spectrographs. The work of Anthony DeCasper (DeCasper and Fifer, 1980; DeCasper and Spence, 1982; DeCasper and Prescott, 1984) reveals a complexity of bonding and language processing during the prenatal period. Premature infants hearing Brahms' Lullaby in the hospital nursery, had accelerated growth and were discharged sooner than non-stimulated babies (Chapman; 1975). Peter Hepper (1988) has demonstrated that the prenates of mothers who listened to "soap opera" theme music during pregnancy showed a preference for the same music during the postnatal period. It has also been reported that unborn children respond favorably to portions of Vivaldi and Mozart, but with hyperactivity to rock music and other heavy classical compositions (Clements, 1977, Verny, 1991). If we see learning only as a response to externally imposed methods which measure learning as increases in rate of responses dependent upon contingent reinforcements, then we miss the richness of the processes which underscore such changes. Conditioning, operant learning, and habituation are important measurements of response and I make use of them in this study. However, in studies with young infants one also can find research which supports the notion that intrinsic motivation is a primary reinforcer (Papousek, 1979; Watson, 1967; Bower, 1989; Meltzoff, 1990). In this view, learning involves the rudimentary formulation and testing of hypotheses by the young infant. In this case study, I present the idea that the prenate, especially during the last trimester, is in a learning state which moves from abstraction and generalization to increased specificity and differentiation (Bower, 1989). These processes are unified, amodal in perception, and governed by higher order variables which guide the infant toward hypothetical formulations about the uterine environment and the external world (Sallenbach, 1993). This paper is a case study of one prenate's learning strategies. It is intended to provide an in-depth analysis of those processes as reflected in one child. The subject for this study was a young female prenate named "Claira." ... These data were obtained from the 34th through the 36th weeks of gestation. Six learning episodes were recorded utilizing eleven different learning activities. Each learning episode was videotaped. Since response detection was literally a "hands-on" approach, a third party reviewing the tapes would not have been able to detect intrauterine movements. The curriculum has three levels with specific games and activities for each one. The first level is "Bonding through Feelings," with the focus on the maternal-infant relationship. It includes "sharing" activities such as story-telling, selected words/concepts, and relating simple sensory experiences from the mother to the prenate. Paramount to this level are the meditative skills needed to "tune-in" to the needs and states of the prenate and to be able to "distance" negative emotions that could influence the baby. The second level, "Bonding through Music,." Includes five musical selections which were professionally done for the curriculum. The musical component also reinforces feeling and learning activities as part of its design. Four of the arrangements are for the mother/family to sing-along with the unborn. Beats and melodies reinforce basic vowel sounds and family interaction patterns. The fifth musical piece was intented for relaxation and stimulating aware ness. It is a simple melody which utilizes beats and dissonance. The third level is "Bonding through Learning." This unit includes six learning activities. The lessons introduce sequential awareness, auditory localization, visual perception, vowel sound discrimination, and vowel-consonant blends. These activities were repeated on the other two levels as well. A unique feature of the Bonded Beginnings curriculum is it's "cross-modal" approach to early learning (Meltzoff, 1990). In this paradigm, perception is seen as amodal. Amodal perception refers to the infant's ability to take information from one sensory modality and transfer it to another modality. It involves complex mapping processes where there are equivalences matched between what is perceived and the body transformations needed to make a felt response to the perception (ibid). In order to accommodate this position from a prenatal perspective some adaptations were made. Each of the learning activities is simultaneously presented in two or more perceptual modalities. For example, the light trajectory game, "Over the Rainbow" is done by having the penlight pushed down, flashed, and vocally cued all at the same time. All of the other activities functioned in like manner. The simultaneity of multiple sensory cues helps the unborn to integrate the information. Observing Claira R esponses to the learning activities were categorized by movement patterns. By carefully studying the movement, four main categories were recognized. Movements were tracked along the abdomen wall. The first category was hand/arm movements. In this category, Claira facilitated movement responses primarily with the hand, with additional movement through the wrist, lower forearm, elbow, and some shoulder extension. The movement(s) seemed to utilize an abducted upward move and repetition of flex-extension patterns. It was not possible to determine the extent of any finger movements independent of the hand and wrist. The second category was kicking movements. This category involved extension patterns with the knee and/or hip. It was not possible to determine to what extent head movements accompanied this pattern. A third category involved rolling movements. During the sampling, Claira's spine was positioned against the uterine wall. The rolling moved in an approximate 135 degree rotation from start and back again to point of origin. Often the pattern was repeated in succession. Hip movement may have been involved and there did not seem to be much leg extension in this movement. The fourth category was rhythmic movements. These occurred only when music was played. The defining characteristic of this pattern was a "bouncing" effect from possible hip and/or upper torso movements. The action seemed to be sustained in a brief duration of a regularly recurring element. In the course of six sessions over a two week period of recording, eleven different activities were tried, some with greater frequency than others. Several of the games were ongoing from the twenty eight week of gestation and other were introduced as novelty preference during the audited period. The activities were organized into five major domains. The first was social which included initial greetings from family members, brief conversations, and good-byes. The second was language. This included vowel sound discriminations. The third was visual and involved responses to penlight movements across the mother's abdomen. The fourth domain was auditory which involved localizing to the sound of a bell. The fifth domain, involved responses to music. What is striking in the interactions is the possibility of separate and organized responses by Claira to the different types of learning activities. The results are shown in Figure 1. Included in the figure is also the baseline established prior to the sessions. What is implied in Figure 1 is that movement patterns can vary according to the learning activity set before the prenate. It is possible that Claira was reacting with a different movement pattern to each of the learning domains. The social games were met with hand movements and the visual games were met with kicking movements. The auditory game inspired rolling movements, while responses to the music incorporated rolling and rhythmic patterns. There is the possibility that the hand movements were often used to specify a localized place in response to the social games. There are two potential explanations for this phenomenon. One is that her size may have prohibited much variation. Another is that the social games may have evoked an associated location for interactions. Language games elicited a range of movements but the dominant one was kicking. Considering the nature of the language games, these responses may reflect a diverse organization. Games involved speaking a vowel sound with a visual cue (pen light) reinforcing one specific vowel sound. In this regard, the activities blended the social, visual and auditory domains. We can only speculate that the varied discrimination in movement responses showed a degree of differentiation and discrimination in the learning games. Likewise, what is not reflected in Figure 1 is the organized progression in the movement patterns. This is as striking as the information just discussed. The rolling patterns seen during the auditory games actually accounted for the localization of the sound source. In other words, by the third and fourth session, Claira was consistently using rolling to locate the bell sound. This infers a searching behavior, and such behaviors are often prerequisites for later object memory and object permanence (Sophian, 1980). Figure 2 Claira's Movement Specification Patterns to Categorical Stimuli and Organized Responses Stimulus Category Initial Movements Specific Organized Pattern Purpose/Goal Visual kicking movements rolling and touching localize light source Auditory hand/kicking rolling localize to sound source Music rolling rhythmic pattern synchronize body movements to beats Progressive organization was also seen in the visual games. In the first three sessions, Claira responded to the light by kicking. In later sessions she responded to the light by turning toward (rolling movement) the moving light trajectory and actually touching the light source with her hands! Both the examiner and the mother reported this response. There was one light activity which tested Claira's ability to search and locate a sequenced light source, but the responses were inconclusive as to whether Claira was attempting to locate the most recent place of disappearance. Organized progression of movement indicates an increase in specificity and discrimination. The rolling movements reflected this progression as well. This response was seen in Claira's reactions to the music. The initial sessions involved rolling movements while the later sessions produced rhythmic movement patterns. Toward the end of the recorded sessions, Claira kept tempo with the beat for about ten seconds. A couple of weeks later (after the audited segments reported here) she increased the synchronized tempo movement for almost forty-five seconds during a single session. Figure 2 illustrates the specification and development in movement patterns as tracked. On several occasions novel changes were introduced into the activities. Claira's first reaction was to become still. As an example, we would randomly do the vowel sound sequence without the penlight to reinforce to targeted sound of [a]. During the initial sessions Claira would still; by the later sessions she would give partial movement to the identified sound without the penlight. In the later trials, Claira demonstrated an ability to anticipate the [a] sound (which usually followed a sequence of other vowel sounds). She would kick just before the [a] sequence was sounded. Another interesting point in these activities was Claira's potential to respond to distal perception over proximal perception (Bower, 1989). We noted that Claira was able to locate the light source in a moving trajectory when the penlight was pushed against the abdomen. Reflected in this activity is an awareness of an object in the face of its absence after a brief delay^there was an approximate 1.6 to 2 second delay between flashing sequences. In one of the bell games, the activity was performed in bathtub with the bell clangor moving light on the water's surface. Within the water medium, Claira correctly turned to the sound source both on the right and left sides. This was accomplished on the very first trial. Her response was a quick roll and rotation in the direction of the sound. Similar responses were noted on the other two levels of the curriculum. The movement patterns were not tracked as closely as the learning level. However, we can provide some descriptions of those patterns. For the first level, "Bonding through Feelings," sharing time activities such as story-telling, commentaries on sensory experiences, poetry, and so on, were met with light movements of both the arms and legs. These movements were repetitive, soft, and flowing. The "tuning-in" exercise of the first level usually produced small movements with Claira's hands. Her mother described the experience of this exercise as similar to a strong "psychic connection" with Claira. She said that this activity created an intense bonding with Claira. "Distancing," the mother's separation of her negative feelings from the unborn, also met with positive results. During the two-week period audited there were four occasions which produced high stress for the mother. One was a kitchen flash fire which triggered a past burn trauma, re-awakened memories of a miscarriage, distress with children, and distress with spouse. As the mother felt her anxiety and/or agitation, Claira would respond with aggravated, short, quick movements. On each occasion the mother "tuned-in" to Claira's emotional state and then used "distancing" to separate her emotions from Claira's perceived state. With each attempt, the short, quick movements almost instantaneously ceased and Claira returned to a quiet and calm state with no agitated movements. Figure 3 Movement Responses for Feeling and Musical Activities Activity Movement Response "Sharing Time" Activities slow gentle movements of arms and/or legs "Tuning-In" Awareness Activity small hand movements Maternal agitation sharp, quick, and hard movements "Distancing" Activity cessation of hard movement & return to quiet state Family Sing-a-Longs to Prenate gentle hand movements The second level, "Bonding through Music," also showed specific responses on Claira's part. In the curriculum there are four musical arrangements which involve family sing-alongs. These musical pieces act as a bridge between the social bonding and the learning activities. Claira responded to these musical pieces with gentle hand movements. In many ways the movement was similar to the responses to the social games in the third level. A summary of the movement responses to the feeling and musical activities is presented in Figure 3. The movement responses may indicate a differential response between activities that promote attachment and those which isolate and separate from the bonding process. These movements are similar, if not the same, as the social responses in the learning activities. Again, we are presented with the possible scenario of an "intelligent" response pattern to appropriate emotional states surrounding the prenate. The main musical arrangement was a piece entitled Suite Beginnings which used only four notes within a strong sixty cycle beat. Dissonance was built into the arrangement at selected bars in order to stimulate discernment on Claira's part. This melody was played for the unborn at quiet and calm times. Here that we saw more rhythmic and rolling movement responses to the music. When Claira first confronted the dissonance in Suite Beginnings she would involve family sing-alongs. These musical pieces act as a bridge between the social bonding and the learning activities. Claira responded to these musical pieces with gentle hand movements. In many ways the movement was similar to the responses to the social games in the third level. A summary of the movement responses to the feeling and musical activities is presented in Figure 3. The movement responses may indicate a differential response between activities that promote attachment and those which isolate and separate from the bonding process. These movements are similar, if not the same, as the social responses in the learning activities. Again, we are presented with the possible scenario of an "intelligent" response pattern to appropriate emotional states surrounding the prenate. The main musical arrangement was a piece entitled Suite Beginnings which used only four notes within a strong sixty cycle beat. Dissonance was built into the arrangement at selected bars in order to stimulate discernment on Claira's part. This melody was played for the unborn at quiet and calm times. Here that we saw more rhythmic and rolling movement responses to the music. When Claira first confronted the dissonance in Suite Beginnings she would stop and become still. It took her about one week to integrate the musical discrepancies into her movement patterns. When she did so, she would continue the movement during the dissonance so as to have continuity during the next bar. Suite Beginnings was first played postnatally for Claira when she was two weeks old. A quiet and alert time was selected. The recorder was off to the side of the room. When started, Claira glanced in the direction of the sound. As the music continued she responded with gentle rhythmical arm movements, possibly similar to her in utero response movements. The movement continued without regard to the dissonance parts when encountered. Claira was born in September 1991. The labor lasted for five hours. She was delivered under water and at home with the assistance of a licensed midwife. Claira weighed ten and a half pounds, was 23 inches long, and had a head circumference of 17 1/2 inches. Of all of the postnatal information on Claira, perhaps the most interesting has been the observation of her movement patterns. Here we would like to draw attention to specific hip movements. The pattern involved a bouncing effect similar in description to some of the prenatal rhythmic movements. Without the intensive prenatal coding done, this pattern may have gone unnoticed or been seen merely as a "reflexive" pattern. As Claira was learning to crawl all of the succeeding stages of crawling were preceded or interrupted by this movement. It was only at the point of forward crawling and alternating limb patterns that this early movement pattern disappeared. It reappeared briefly when Claira began preparations for walking at eight months of age. It seemed that the movement was an attempt to mediate new milestones, but then became superseded by the new patterns once mastered. This particular movement seemed to decrease sharply as Claira moved from primitive to the learned reflex patterns. This scenario may indicate that the prenatal organizational patterns became integrated into greater degrees of specification with later motoric milestones. The same movement was used to communicate as early as one month of age. When held and shown a particular event or object, Claira would begin using this movement scheme after a short period. This seemed to be Claira's way of indicating boredom and that she wanted to move to another experience. The movement scheme appears to have been part of a communication process. Parenting for Pregnancy, Birth, and Infancy by Eileen Paris, Ph.D and Tom Paris, Ph.D Now we know that consciousness begins before birth. What does this mean for parents? It means we have a special responsibility to treat our babies as conscious intelligent beings from the beginning. And since they come into their relationship with us from a state of total dependency and helplessness ready to love us and trust us completely. We need to honor that trust with gentleness and respect. Conscious Parenting: Bonding, Mirroring, and Separating Skills Even during birth, babies are having their own experience. Babies feel the pressure of the contractions, and use all their energy, and their hands and feet to help push their way out. When mom has a hard time during labor, the baby may have a hard time emotionally, feeling scared. When someone at the birth can be there for the emotional needs of the baby, explaining what is happening, mirroring and reassuring, the emotional trauma of birth for the baby is greatly reduced. Parents Ask About Life in the Womb By David Chamberlain, Editor Q. When will our baby start moving in the womb? When should I feel it? The little kicks you will probably begin to feel after 16 to 20 weeks of pregnancy, referred to as "quickening," are not the first movements, just the first ones you can feel. The uterus, like most internal organs, is insensitive to touch, but when your babys movements are strong enough to stretch the wall of the uterus, the feeling is picked up by the abdominal wall. By ten weeks, ultrasound reveals a world of smooth (not reflexive), voluntary activity including hand and face contacts, stretches and yawns, jaw opening and tongue movements. By fifteen weeks, the entire repertoire of movement may be complete. Exercise continues for minutes at a time, followed by rest periods. A babys activity is very individualistic and may continue whether a mother is awake or asleep. Q. How soon will our baby start hearing our voices or sounds in the room? A study in Ireland, using ultrasound observation and measured pulses of sound revealed that babies with normal hearing start moving in reaction to sound around 16 weeks gestational age. This was earlier than previous estimates and occurs about two months before completion of the ear, suggesting that there is more to hearing than the ear alone. Babies seem especially interested in parental voices and begin learning the mothers native language (the mother tongue) while in the womb. Q. Will the baby care about loud noises and music in our home? Babies show that they can be shocked by big, unexpected sounds, although they tend to adapt to constant sounds in the environment. Studies show that music enters the womb with little distortion: A few indicate that babies prefer quiet, harmonious music. Loud music may produce strong kicks of protest. An earthquake sound in Italy left a group of unborn babies in a hyperactive state for several hours. Lullabies are always appropriate. Q. When does a baby's brain develop, and do we have to wait for this development before trying to communicate with our baby? Around the third week after conception, a folding maneuver creates the neural tube from which the brain and spinal cord develop. If all goes well, a rapid, richly choreographed set of movements will put all the basic parts of the brain in place by eight weeks. These will not be replaced. From this foundation, brain parts will send out branches and establish billions of connections necessary for the perfect coordination of the entire nervous system. This process will continue for years after birth. Amazingly, the brain, like the heart, remains active during its own construction. Various experiences the brain has during this period including encounters with food, drink, medicine, games, accidents, and nicotine--will actually determine its final size and organization. Therefore, it is best to assume the brain is already working and to love your baby and communicate with it without any waiting period. Q. Can our baby feel pain or become emotionally upset in the womb? Medical specialists and psychologists never thought this would be possible even for a newborn baby, but research now confirms that even babies born very prematurely express a gamut of emotions, and, without doubt, can experience excruciating pain. Ultrasound observations of behavior in utero, especially among twins, reveal a spectrum of emotions including anger, fear, and affection. Babies appear to react to needles that intrude into the womb with a mixture of shock, withdrawal, and aggression. Studies of pregnant mothers watching upsetting videos suggest that babies can become upset along with their mothers. Several studies have revealed that babies tend to become depressed when their pregnant mothers are depressed, an effect which begins in the womb and has been measured after birth. Q. Is it okay to continue love-making during pregnancy? Will it affect the baby? The few studies that have actually measured the reaction of prenates to parental intercourse during the third trimester show that babies are intensely involved. Babies react to maternal and paternal orgasms with wildly erratic and plunging heart rates: the fetus experiences bradycardia, tachycardia, accelerations and decelerations greater than 30 beats per minute, and, in some cases, loss of beat-to-beat variability. Ultrasound specialists see male erections before 16 weeks of age, an indicator of sexual feelings long before birth. Q. Does it do any good (or harm) to stimulate our baby with talking, singing, and other "games" before birth? Every baby is stimulated by the natural environment of the womb while being carried about by a normally active, expressive mother. This means exposure to music, singing, voices, rhythmic dancing, exercise, bathing, touching, and all other activities. Harm is not likely unless experiences are taxing, jolting, or violent. Formal programs of prenatal enrichment which have been thoroughly tested in experimental and control groups confirm that prenates are alert, aware, socially oriented, and are learning from experience. Furthermore, test results seem to demonstrate that the extra stimulation has a positive influence on brain development. Q. Will the baby know if we are not getting along as a couple? Although it is a new point of view among experts, studies of prenatal sensation, perception, and attachment suggest that babies know and feel more than we ever thought possible. Communication, rather than being simply verbal, is a holistic experience including the ebb and flow of love hormones and stress-reactions. Prenates have their own emotional life and are capable of disappointment, depression, anger, and fear... Q. How can I avoid having a low-weight, premature baby? To avoid being part of the growing epidemic of low-weight, premature babies may call for both physical and psychological action. Pregnancy does mean eating for you and for a growing baby who needs proper supplies. Set aside whatever concerns you may have about staying skinny through pregnancy and follow the recommended diet of wholesome food, being sure to increase consumption of sea fish high in omega-3 fatty acids. Studies also find a correlation of maternal stress with premature birth. Premature labor can also be halted by judicious use of hypnosis. Obstetrician David Cheek, after a lifetime of experience with birth, concluded that the baby triggers premature labor when it is afraid. He found that if mothers would reassure the babies verbally that they were safe and should remain inside, the premature labor would stop. Q. Is there any harm in modern obstetrical procedures like ultrasound, electronic fetal heart monitoring, and tests like amniocentesis? Technology, which can often be put to good use, is not risk-free, and can definitely be overused. Ultrasound has been examined by various official bodies and pronounced safe when not used routinely. In a large study, women who had five ultrasounds during pregnancy produced lower weight babies than women who had only one ultrasound. In animal experiments, ultrasound has produced ominous effects, leading to caution in exposing humans. Fetal heart monitoring is a technology discredited by a series of large studies, but it continues to be used in obstetrics, probably for medico-legal reasons. The high risk of false positive readings has led to an inflated rate of cesarean deliveries. Amniocentesis carries an abortion rate of 1 to 3%, depending on when it is done, but is used to diagnose hereditary birth defects when there is some reason to expect them. The Mind of a Newborn Excerpt from The Mind of Your Newborn Baby by David B. Chamberlain, Ph.D. North Atlantic Books: Berkeley, CA 1998 10th Anniversary edition of "Babies Remember Birth" (1988). Leading researchers now sing the praises of infants. Harvard's Berry Brazelton calls them "talented"; Hanus Papousek, a German pioneer in infant studies, calls them "precocious"; famed pediatrician, Marshall Klaus calls them "amazing." Professor T.G.R. Bower, one of the most innovative of all infant researchers, declares that newborns are "extremely competent" in perception, learning, and communication. Infants have been measured inside, and out, filmed with cameras permitting analysis down to microseconds, watched for hours on end, and tested in clever experiments. Results show that they pick up information constantly and learn from their experience much as we do. One of the exciting aspects of this new knowledge is the verification of infant abilities at earlier and earlier ages. Timetables estimating the ages at which particular talents are expected to appear have had to be revised again and again, bringing them closer to birth. Many abilities are innate and adult-like, surprising investigators and ruining theories. A fundamental rule of developmental psychology -that all complex behaviors must start as simple behaviors and develop gradually-has become obsolete. Surprisingly, many behaviors start out complex. The truth is, much of what we have traditionally believed about babies is false. We have misunderstood and underestimated their abilities. They are not simple beings but complex and ageless, small creatures with unexpectedly large thoughts. Babies know more than they were supposed to know. After only minutes of exposure to its mother's face after birth, a baby can pick her out from a gallery of photos. Babies recognize the gender of other babies, even when cross-dressed, provided they are moving-something adults cannot do. They are mentally curious and eager to learn. Consider how smoothly the senses are coordinated at birth: eyes turn with the head in the direction of a sound; hands go up to protect eyes from bright light; the first time at the breast, the baby knows how to suckle and breathe in perfect synchrony; they shriek and pull away from a heel lance. The territory of life before birth has also been charted as never before. Through the wizardry of the scanning electron microscope, fiber optics and special lenses, ultrasound imaging, taste begins at 14 weeks hearing begins around 20 weeks at 8 weeks, a hairstroke on the cheek can be felt. Baby moves away from the stroke. Now science confirms that infants are social beings who can form close relationships, express themselves forcefully, exhibit preferences, and begin influencing people from the start. They are capable of integrating complex information from many sources and, with a little help from their friends, begin regulating themselves and their environment. Myths about Newborns In retrospect, brain experts made one of the classical errors of science by dissecting the brain to find out how it works. The problem is that the brain works properly only if it is whole. Separate parts are not the system. Most serious was the error of severing the brain from its connections with two other systems, the endocrine and immune systems. Medicine officially divided the territory into three different specialties: neuroscience, endocrinology, and immunology. Current research shows all three are elegantly linked in one fluid central intelligence system. That the whole brain is more than its parts is illustrated by a debate that has lasted for decades over the myelin sheathing that insulates nerve fibers. I ran into this wall personally when I started to tell colleagues about the birth memories my clients were reporting. Their immediate reaction was that such memories were impossible because the myelination of nerve tracks was not complete at birth and therefore signals could not flow properly through the nervous system. The truth is that myelination begins in some places only a few weeks after conception but is not completed until adolescence. It is no measure of what a baby's brain can do. The cerebral cortex, the symmetrical left- and right-brain structures lying at the top of the skull, is formed last and does have those special convolutions... However, it was false to conclude that the cortex was not working until finished and that the rest of the brain could not engage in complex activity. Long before the completion of the cortex, complex systems for breathing, sleeping, waking, crying, spatial orientation, and movement are already functioning. The senses of taste, touch, smell, and hearing are fully operative and coordinated. Even vision is advanced at birth, although the visual portion of the cortex is not yet fully developed. 4. Babies Can't Think A recent book on the nature of the child by a noted Harvard psychologist says the cortex of the young infant resembles that of an adult rat. With such poor equipment, how could a newborn think? Academic psychologists use big words to deny infant mental activity: pre-symbolic, pre-representational, pre-reflective. In other words, babies are without words and cannot think. This relates to another myth-that in order to think, you must have language. Recent investigations have shown that babies do a lot of thinking, with or without language. You will see evidence of this thinking when your newborn purposefully reaches out, gives an inquisitive look, frowns (or screams) in protest, gurgles in satisfaction, or gasps in excitement. Newborns also listen intently to their mothers reading stories and prefer to hear again those heard weeks before birth. And note this: they listen attentively as long as mother reads forward, but will stop listening as soon as she reads backward (nonsense)-another indication of good thinking. More tellingly, infants are great dreamers, according to studies of brain waves. They dream much more than you and I do. Meticulous observation by scientists of infant body movements and facial expressions during dreaming shows that they act and look just like adults do when dreaming. How could they dream without thinking? 5. No Sense of Self Without physical senses and a fully furnished brain, the myth goes, there can be no sense of self and of other selves. Psychoanalysts have declared that infants are "autistic" and unresponsive to social signals; they are not ready for relationships, certainly not for communication. "Solipsistic" was the word renowned Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget chose to describe newborns, meaning that they were out of touch with the outside world and totally preoccupied with themselves. This theory is no longer defensible. Although Piaget was a pioneering theorist in developmental psychology, he did not have the advantage of our present knowledge of newborns. He taught that it might take a newborn eighteen months to escape from being "egocentric" and to regard himself as an object among others. Students of Piaget continue to state this view. Boston psychologist Burton White writes that newborns are helpless, cannot think, use language, socialize with another human, or even deliberately move about. He claims that for the first few weeks of life, a baby is not very interested in any aspect of the external environment. Babies watch intently for changes in your face and can instantly mimic expressions of sadness, happiness, and surprise. Babies listen with incredible precision to adult speech. Films show that they lead as well as respond in dialog with parents. If babies were lost in their own world, they would not be so good at analyzing and responding to sounds. They will stop eating, even when hungry, to listen to something interesting. If they hear other babies crying, they will usually be moved to cry with them. If they hear a recording of their own cry, they may suddenly stop crying-an indication that they recognize themselves. Thought self-awareness began at 3 years. 6. Babies Don't Need Their Mothers Lying next to mother helps the baby regulate its own body temperature, metabolic rate, hormone and enzyme levels, heart rate, and breathing. A baby's cry triggers release of the mother's milk, the only perfect milk on earth for babies. Breast-feeding after delivery speeds expulsion of the placenta and protects the mother from hemorrhaging. In addition, there is a vital power in the baby's look and touch to turn on feelings and skills necessary for successful mothering. Babies- need to hear their mother's voice, learn her sleep cycles, and recognize her body odors and facial expressions. Babies need to know their mothers are all right. 7. The Age Myth Myths aside, babies seem to act as individuals long before birth, engaging in spontaneous activity to suit themselves, expressing preferences for certain sounds, motions, and tastes, and reacting to danger in the womb. Once born, from Day One, they engage in many complex activities integrating sounds and sights, regulating their work and rest, and demonstrating bona fide learning. Using their communication skills they engage you in dialog, establish intimate relationships, and, without your realizing it, they begin teaching you how to be a parent. Emotion, a language for all ages, is worn on babies' faces. We are late in acknowledging this. Watch your infant for expressions of happiness, surprise, sadness, fear, anger, disgust, interest, and distress. Infantile "Amnesia" is Dead! by David B. Chamberlain, Ph.D. In academic circles, a long-standing prejudice against the reliability of all early and very early memory is collapsing. The least-likely period for memory to function, the intrauterine period, increasingly illuminated by ultrasound, has made it possible for visionary experimental psychologists to show that memory and learning systems are functioning. Babies still in the womb are signaling that they have become familiar with rhymes repeated to them daily over a four-week period. Likewise, immediately after birth, babies exposed to parents' voices, musical passages, soap opera themes, news program sounds, sounds of their native language, as well as tastes and smells introduced in utero are all treated as familiar, that is, learned and remembered from weeks and months in the past. Two and three year olds can remember specifics of their births. 2, 4, and 6 month old infants can recall details about hidden objects, their location and size. Ability to recall procedures involving a series of steps, after long delays, depends not on age but on the same factors and conditions which improve recall in older children and adults, such as the nature of the events, the number of times they experience them, and the availability of cues or reminders. La Pratica Della Educazione Prenatale L'IMMAGINAZIONE Secondo Albert Einstein l'immaginazione pi importante della conoscenza. Si consiglia di iniziare la pratica immaginativa con l'ausilio di una audio-cassetta della durata di 15-20 min., nella quale sono state incise le indicazioni per immaginare i luoghi e le esperienze ritenute pi opportune per evocare pace, serenit e armonia interiore. La Vita Del Bambino Prima E Dopo La Nascita I recettori tattili sono presenti fin dalla 7 Settimana di Gestazione nella regione periboccale, dalla 11 S.G. sull'epidermide del viso e dalla 15 S.G. fanno la loro comparsa in altre parti del corpo (Leconuet,Granier,Schaalk, 1992). La conformazione dell'apparato gustativo gi relativamente definita alla 13 S.G. (Beidler, 1961). I neurorecettori del sistema olfattivo principale sono abbozzati alla 6-7 S.G. (Boss, 1980). Fin dalla 7 S.G. si assiste alla formazione del nervo ottico e via via delle cellule retiniche. Sono state registrate notevoli variazioni nel battito cardiaco a seconda del tipo di luce orientata verso il ventre materno e posta a contatto dello stesso(Peleg, Golman, 1980). Molti ricercatori sostengono che il sentire prenatale sia tattile: il suono verrebbe propagato attraverso la stimolazione e le vibrazione del liquido amniotico (Leconuet, et. al. 1987). Alla 26 S.G. l'apparato uditivo completo ed in grado di reagire a rumori forti e successivamente riesce anche a discernere tra suoni e sillabe differenti (Lecanuet, Granier-Deferre, Busnel, 1987). Durante la vita prenatale i bambini imparano canzoni e motivi musicali dalla televisione dopo ripetute esposizioni del grembo materno (Pannenton, 1985; Hepper, 1988). Essi riconoscono le diverse favole e una volta nati poppano secondo la velocit necessaria ad ascoltare il racconto delle fiabe conosciute in precedenza, cosa che non fanno con altre, anche se sempre dello stesso autore (DeCasper, Spencer, 1982). In sintesi, si rilevato che durante la vita prenatale il bambino un essere: - Sensibile e consapevole e in possesso di precise preferenze che fa conoscere mediante azioni spontanee, come quando cerca di drizzarsi e di muoversi. Se irritato avverte dolore; mentre quando minacciato reagisce difendendosi. - Socievole, che cerca attivamente stimoli, che nutre un forte bisogno di esperienze emotive e che interagisce attivamente con i genitori e in particolare con i fratelli gemelli usando innate facolt comunicative. - Intelligente, dotato di capacit cognitive, in grado di percepire, di apprendere, di memorizzare e di acquisire la consapevolezza del piacere e del dolore, oltre che adattarsi alle diverse situazioni e cambiamenti. La sua mente volta costantemente alla ricerca e all'uso di ci che ha appreso. - Dotato di una propria identit genetica, di una propria struttura funzionale e con tratti della personalit predefiniti. Gli studi attuati con molta precisione e sensibilit attraverso la visualizzazione ecografica prima e l'osservazione diretta poi, hanno dato un contributo determinante alla conoscenza del comportamento e della personalit del nascituro nel suo ambiente intra-uterino. Alla 13a Settimana di Gestazione il nascituro manifesta delle preferenze, delle reazioni e dei comportamenti altamente individuali, con tendenze personali che continuano dopo la nascita; egli assume specifiche posture, abitudini neuromotorie e comportamentali tali da offrire possibili indicazioni sulle future caratteristiche neonatali. Le ricerche condotte sui gemelli fin dall'inizio della gravidanza dimostrano chiare differenze temperamentali ed esperienziali nel loro comportamento e l'utilizzo di specifiche modalit di interazione fra loro. Per esempio Max e Marco, i due gemelli che in utero si erano dimostrati molto "litigiosi", all'et di quasi sei anni continuavano a picchiarsi non appena uno di loro entrava nella traiettoria dell'altro. Maria e Delia, che inve ce erano molto delicate e apparentemente "affettuose" nei loro contatti intra-uterini, pur nel rispetto delle loro nette diffe renze individuali, hanno continuato a mantenere tra loro un rap porto di mutuo affetto e di mutua comprensione" (Piontelli, 1992) Il periodo che va dal concepimento alla nascita si sta dimostrando sempre di pi come un periodo determinante per lo sviluppo fisico e psichico di ogni bambino. Periodo in cui cominciano a formarsi le prime relazioni che hanno implicazioni profonde e conseguenze a lungo termine. Per questo non possibile continuare sistematicamente a trascurare il valore fondamentale dei nove mesi della gestazione. E' necessario svolgere nella popolazione un'opera di divulgazione delle conoscenze e delle informazioni riguardanti la vita prenatale; sensibilizzare le istituzioni a un maggior impegno verso questa importante fase della vita umana; coinvolgere direttamente i giovani e le coppie per aiutarli ad accrescere le loro competenze genitoriali, a costruire una vita familiare unita e armoniosa e a favorire uno sviluppo sereno, equilibrato e completo dei figli. E di questo tutta la societ ne trarr grande beneficio. Gino Soldera http://www.anep.org/ http://www.aliasnet.it/luna/omaep/ SESSION III: PRENATAL EDUCATION Haptonomy: affection between parents and child prior to birth Sound stimulations in the formation of chil's character and personaliity Lights and colours: wakening up to beauty http://www.isppm.de/ International Society of Prenatal and Perinatal Psychology and Medicine (ISPPM) The Association for Pre- and Perinatal Psychology and Health (APPPAH) and the Italy partner associazione nazionale per l'educazione prenatale (A.N.E.P. - Italia). ISPPM - International Society of Prenatal and Perinatal Psychology and Medicine. International Journal of Prenatal and Perinatal Psychology and Medicine Pregnancy is considered to be a period of active dialogue (on the psychological-emotional and biochemical-endocrinological levels) between the mother (including the father and other bonding persons) and the prenatal child during which the prenatal child (rather than fetus) is considered to be a personality per se and even as a potential patient. Father should help mother give birth, alone together. In the fully-developed limb, the muscle, cartilage, connective tissue, skin and skin derivatives (to say nothing of the nerves and circulatory elements) are integrated into a complex functional structure. http://www.ucalgary.ca/UofC/eduweb/virtualembryo/ http://www.ucalgary.ca/UofC/eduweb/virtualembryo/ Twenty-one to Twenty-nine Somite Pairs, Caudal Neuropore Closes, Three to Four Pharyngeal Arches Appear, Upper Limb Buds Appear 3.0 - 5.0 mm 25 - 27 days post-ovulation The embryo curves into a C shape. The arches that form the face and neck are now becoming evident under the enlarging forebrain. By the time the neural tube is closed, both the eye and ear will have begun to form. At this stage, the brain and spinal cord together are the largest and most compact tissue of the embryo. A blood system continues to develop. Blood cells follow the surface of yolk sac where they originate, move along the central nervous system, and move in the chorionic villi, the maternal blood system. Valves and septa may appear in the heart in Stage 12. The digestive epithelium layer begins to differentiate into the future locations of the liver, lung, stomach and pancreas. The beginning cells of the liver form before the rest of the digestive system. Stage 13 (approximately 27-29 postovulatory days) Four Limb Buds, Lens Disc and Optic Vesicle, the first thin surface layer of skin appears covering the embryo. Between thirty and forty somite pairs. Head and Neck Region The brain now has three parts. The forebrain handles the senses, memory, thinking, reasoning, and problem solving. The midbrain coordinates signals. The hindbrain takes care of body functions, and muscle movement. The thyroid, eyes, and ears are developing, and the mouth and tongue can be recognized. The lymphatic system begins to form. The heart and liver together are as large as the head, and blood circulates freely. The limbs are forming. The abdomen contains the forming gall bladder, stomach, intestines, and pancreas. The embryo now has skin. She is four weeks old. (4 to 8 weeks post fertilization) The eyes, ears, and nose continue to develop, and the spinal cord wall has three zones. The esophagus forms. The heart now has four subdivisions. The lungs have come into being. The kidneys have started to form. Photographs show that at around the age of six weeks after fertilization, the embryo already has fingers. Between six and eight weeks, the two cerebral hemispheres become distinct. The eyes have lenses and retinas. The face is forming. The mammary gland tissue is maturing. The urinary system is well under way, and sexual organs begin to form. Shoulders and feet become distinct. At approximately 41 days, the prenate has a sense of smell. The latest research shows that the baby is actually able to smell things in the amniotic fluid. The teeth buds are present. The pituitary and the trachea, larynx, and bronchi begin to form. The diaphragm forms. The cartilage of the skeleton now begins to become bones. The eyelids are forming. There are nipples on her chest. The kidneys are producing urine. The embryo has wrists. She is now forty seven to forty eight days old. The embryo has brain waves which can be detected. The semicircular canals of the ear are forming, which will give a sense of balance. The gonads are formed, and in about a week, we will be able to see which sex the child is. She now has toenails, and her joints are distinct. She has developing muscles which get stronger. At this point, the embryo has been observed to be able to move freely. The nose is fully formed. At approximately 52 days, the intestines move from the umbilical cord into the body. She has external ears, and the tongue finishes developing. She has toes. Her face looks distinctly human. Her heart is complete. The female how has a clitoris, and the same structure will form a penis in the male. The fingers are fully separated. By approximately fifty six to fifty seven days, all essential body structures are complete. The external ear is completely developed. Her eyes are closed. Her taste buds are forming. The primary teeth have caps. The toes are now distinct from each other. At this point, the embryo is now classified as a fetus. It is after this point that nearly all abortions are done. This is not a mass of tissue. This is a fully formed being who is moving, breathing, smelling, producing urine, and has brain waves. She has a fully human face, and fingers and toes. At ten to eleven weeks of age, the brain structure is complete, and facial hair is beginning to develop. She has vocal cords, and if born, she can cry. Her intestines are lined with villi. The liver is secreting bile, which is stored in the gall bladder. Her thyroid, pancreas, and gall bladder are complete, and the pancreas is producing insulin. The genitals are largely formed, and show the sex of the baby. The fingernails are growing. She has reflexes, and her skin is very sensitive. Her heartbeat can be heard through ultrasound At eleven to twelve weeks of age, the prenate has a neck, sucking muscles in her cheeks, and functioning salvary glands. The hair on the scalp is beginning to grow. The baby is breathing amniotic fluid. This activity is necessary to develop the lungs. She can swallow and suck. Her heart is pumping twenty five quarts of blood a day. The spleen is fully functional. The sexual organs are clearly visible. She can use her thumbs. She can readily move her head, mouth and lips, arms, wrists, hands, legs, feet, and toes. There are sweat glands, and body hair. 14 Weeks Post Fertilization... Limbs are well-developed and more defined with toenails beginning to grow from their nail beds. Week 16 Post Fertilization... The prenate can now blink. Her bowels are producing meconium. She has finger prints and toe prints. Her nerves are being coated with myelin. Her circulation is completely functional. Week 18 Post Fertilization... A dramatic growth period for the fetus. HEAD Fetus has phases of sleep and waking and may prefer a favorite sleep position. Temporary hair called lanugo appears on the head. Lanugo may fall out in the second week after birth, allowing fine scalp hair to grow. Eyebrows begin to form. PELVIS Ovaries of female fetuses contain primitive egg cells, all of the eggs a woman will have for her entire life. The uterus of female fetuses is also fully formed. SKIN Brown fat (colored by capillary growth) coats neck, chest and crotch areas around the lymphatic system. The vernix (consisting of dead skin, lanugo cells, and oil from glands) is now clearly formed and visible covering the skin. Week 20 Post Fertilization... Fetus may suck on thumb. HEAD Extremely rapid brain growth (which lasts until five years after birth) begins. Eyebrows and scalp hair become more visible and fetus blinks more often. Lanugo covers body completely, although concentrated around head, neck and face. Testes of male fetuses begin descending from the pelvis into the scrotum. Week 22 Post Fertilization... As the fetus continues to grow, it has less space to move around in the uterus. HEAD Bones of the ear - hammer, anvil and stirrup - harden, making sound conduction possible. Fetus recognizes maternal sounds such as breathing, heartbeat, voice, and digestion. Her skin is translucent and wrinkled. One can see blood vessels and organs through her skin. Week 24 Post Fertilization... Fetal brain waves begin to activate auditory and visual systems, both mouth and lips show more sensitivity. Eyes respond to light, while ears respond to sounds originating outside uterus. Permanent teeth buds appear high in gums. Nostrils begin to open. Reflex movements improve. Blood vessels start to develop in lungs to prepare fetus for life outside the uterus. These bloods vessels will eventually exchange oxygen and circulate it to tissues. Air sacs, alveoli, have developed in lungs and begin to produce surfactant, a substance that keeps the lung tissue from sticking to itself. The spine consists of 33 rings, 150 joints and 1,000 ligaments, supporting fetal body weight as it develops and strengthens. Week 26 Post Fertilization... Brain wave patterns resemble those of a full term baby at birth. Forebrain enlarges to cover all other developed brain structures, while still maintaining its hemisphere divisions. Eyes are partially open and eyelashes present. Sucking and swallowing improves. Lungs are capable of breathing air. Fetal body is two to three percent body fat. Testes of male fetuses are completely descended. Week 28 Post Fertilization... The surface of the baby's brain appears wrinkled. Her brain is controlling rhythmic breathing and body temperature. Most of the lanugo hair has disappeared, but she has hair on her head. The baby's fat keeps her warm and serves as an energy source. It causes her skin to become smooth. The bone marrow is producing red blood cells. Week 30 Post Fertilization... The baby's body now grows more slowly. Her iris is colored, and her pupil responds to light. Her head hear is thicker, and her toenails are completely formed. She must fold her legs to fit into her mother's uterus. Her brain is much more complex. Week 32 Post Fertilization... The baby can no longer float. Her eyes are open when she is awake, and closed when she is sleeping. Her immune system is developing. Her fingernails are long enough that she can scratch herself. She is forming white fat under her skin. At this stage, most babies' eyes are blue. Some authorities claim that the eye color is not final until the eyes are exposed to light, for awhile, after birth. However, babies of races other than Caucasian may have dark brown eyes at birth. Week 34 Post Fertilization.... Placenta is now one-sixth of fetal weight. The baby's digestive system is immature, and will remain so for several years. Her head may now be pointed downward for birth, although some babies do not turn until the time of birth. Her gums look ridged, somewhat like teeth. Week 36 Post Fertilization... The baby has a stronger grasp. She will move toward light. Her bones are hardening, and at birth, the tibia, or long leg bone, is completely hardened. Week 38 Post Fertilization... The baby's lungs have surfactant so she can breathe air when she is born. Her eyes will not develop tear ducts until a few weeks after birth. She may still have vernix on her skin. Her liver is producing red blood cells, and causes her abdomen to appear large and round. Week 40 The baby is now considered full term. Her body is 15% bodyfat. She has 300 bones, but some of them will fuse later. An adult has only 206 bones. She can demonstrate more than seventy different reflex system behaviors. 4th week The embryo's somites, arms, and eyes are forming. The heart can be seen. The heart has been beating for a week. Neurulation is almost complete. The notochord has formed. 5th week The embyo's arms and legs are forming. She now has 38 to 44 pairs of somites, which are developing into organs. 5th week Her eyes are forming. 7th week Some authorities state that the seven week old unborn baby can feel pain. She is now growing eyelids and genital structures. 8th week At this point, the baby is no longer classified as an embryo, but is now called a fetus. This is because all the body organs are now present. Most abortions are done after this point. 10th week The baby has fingernails. 15th week The baby has toenails. Her face and head look more like the newborn's. 20th week Head and body hair (lanugo) are visible. The prenate is viable. 30th week The baby now has fingernails, toenails, and eyelashes, and may have hair on her head. Her eyes are partway open. 38th week The baby is ready to be born. The lanugo is gone; the fingernails are now longer than the fingertips. The testes have descended. Introduction By David Chamberlain, Editor Ironically, in modern hospital birth, violence and pain have become routine for babies. For most of the 20th century, neither obstetricians nor psychologists have regarded pain as a reality for newborns. Therefore, doctors have not hesitated to expose the baby to a harsh environment at birth, or to introduce painful routines, or painful instruments. Nor have they hesitated to use powerful chemicals in the form of drugs and anesthetics. All these departures from what normally happened at a home birth have profoundly altered the experience of birth for the baby. Babies protest being jabbed with needles for blood samples and vitamin K shots, don't like to be turned upside down, rushed through space, and handled by different people. Their skin is extremely sensitive and they complain when rubbed and cleaned. We have been making them angry, afraid, defensive, sad, and confused--for the greater part of the century. Aware Parent

BirthingTheFuture (Suzanne Arms)

The Bradley Method of Natural Childbirth

Adoption Information (Marcy Axness)

British Medical Journal (Archives)

Child Development (journal)

The Compleat Mother

Robbie Davis-Floyd

Freestone Innerprizes (Jeannine Parvati Baker)

Genetics Information (USA Today)

Gentle Touch

The Infant Parent Institute

Internet Grateful Med

ISPPM Website (in English)

The Liedloff Continuum Network (Jean Liedloff)

National Assoc. of Childbearing Centers (NACC)

Prebirth.com

Primal Health Research (Michel Odent)

Waterbirth Information (Global Maternal Child Health Association)

Step Forward for Advanced Studies Thomas Verny M.D., D.Psych., F.R.C.P. (C) is author of the international best seller The Secret Life of the Unborn Child (Dell, 1986), editor of Pre- and Perinatal Psychology: An Introduction (Human Sciences Press, 1987), and Co-author of Nurturing the Unborn Child: A Nine-Month Program for Soothing, Stimu-lating, and Communicating with Your Baby (Delacorte, 1991). Dr. Verny noted that science has its prejudices just like society, and that Piaget's belief that an infant could not mimic until 6 to 9 months after birth was incorrect, since psychologist Andrew Meltzoff had shown babies doing it at only two hours of age. When Verny expressed his concern about the pain of circumcision, White claimed babies were "protected from pain." Verny said babies could recognize their parents but White disagreed. They could not do that until the third month of life, he said. And, you can join a discussion in the forum area of the CIMS website: http://www.healthy.net/cims or send email to CIMS. F. Rene Van de Carr, M.D. and Marc Lehrer, Ph.D. have a new title for the update of their pioneering course work in prenatal stimulation: While You're Expecting: Creating Your Own Prenatal Classroom, published by Humanics Trade, P.O. Box 7400, Atlanta. Michel Odent, MD: We Are All Water Babies, published by Celestial Arts, Berkeley, CA. This book contains photos of underwater births and of babies swimming joyfully underwater. prenatal education starting at twenty weeks. Systematic testing and comparisons show that the program has been a resounding success. Testing revealed that the stimulated babies have been consistently superior in visual, auditory, language, memory, and motor development compared to those who did not have the program of prenatal enrichment. At age three, to give just one example, the stimulated babies had an advantage of 14 IQ points, as measured by the Stanford-Binet scales, over those who had missed the program. In addition, mothers gained in confidence, were more active at birth, more successful in breastfeeding, showed more intense bonding, and had greater family cohesion (husbands remaining in the household after birth.) www.primal-health.org. Abortion The Medical Profession Speaks - "..it has been necessary to separate the idea of abortion from the idea of killing, which continues to be socially abhorrent. The result has been a curious avoidance of scientific fact, which everyone really knows, that human life begins at conception and is continuous whether intra- or extra-uterine until death. The very considerable semantic gymnastics which are required to rationalize abortion as anything but taking a human life would be ludicrous if they were not often put forth under socially impeccable auspices." An editorial in California Medicine "Official Journal of the California Medical Association," Vol.113, No. 3,1970: pp. 67-68. The Developing Human: Clinically Oriented Embryology, Moore (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1988), pp. 2-5, 89 (most developmental information). "Life or Death by EEG," Journal of the American Medical Association, Hamlin, (Oct.. 12, 1964), p. 113 (Week 6). "Life Before Birth," Life, (Apr. 30, 1965). (Weeks 6, 8, 11). "What the Fetus Feels," British Medical Journal, Valman, Pearson, (Jan. 26, 1980), p. 234 (Weeks 9, 10, 1 I ). African Medical News, Levi (Feb. 1, 1983), (Week 17). American Medical News, Levi (Feb. 1, 1983), (Week 17) ISN'T FETAL PAIN REALLY JUST A PRO-LIFE PROPAGANDA PLOY? An Abortionist Speaks - "We have reached a point in this particular technology where there is no possibility of denial of an act of destruction by the operator. It is before one's eyes. The sensations of dismemberment flow through the forceps like an electric current. It is the crucible of' a raging controversy, the confrontation of a modern existential dilemma. The more we seem to solve the problem, the more intractable it becomes." (Dr. Warren Hern, director of the Boulder (CO) Abortion Clinic addressing the Association of Planned Parenthood Physicians, San Diego, October,1978) LUTHERANS FOR LIFE Web Site www.lutheransforlife.org Heritage House 76, Inc. 919 So. Main St. Snowflake, AZ 85937 Orders: 1-800-858-3040 or http:\\www.heritagehouse76.com http://www.w-cpc.org/ Hayes Copyright 1985,1988,1990 by Hayes Publishing Company, Inc; used with permission Books available in English, Malayan, French, Continental Spanish, Italian, Chinese, Portuguese, Swedish, German, Japanese, American Spanish, Russian, Czech, Slovak, Lithuanian, and Polish. Hayes Publishing Company, Inc. 6304 Hamilton Avenue Cincinnati, Ohio 45224 Phone (513) 681-7559 Phone/Fax (513) 681-9298 e-mail: hayespub@aol.com Ohio Right to Life http://www.ohiolife.org/ Baby http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0152009256/westsidecrisispr/002-2811346-8535221 A Child is Born http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0385302371/westsidecrisispr/002-2811346-8535221 http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/odyssey/nilsson.html NOVA interview with Lennart Nilsson Sources Nine Month Miracle (CD ROM software) , A.D.A.M. Software, Inc., 1600 RiverEdge Parkway, Suite 800, Atlanta, GA, 30328 The First Nine Months of Life, (brochure) Focus on the Family, Colorado Springs, CO, 1995. Introduction to Child Development, 6th ed., (text book) John Dworetzky, West Publishing Company, San Francisco, CA, 1996. Psychology Today, (magazine) "Fetal Psychology," Janet L. Hopson, October 1998. Westside CPC, http://www.birthpsychology.com/index.html © gives copyright symbol. © "It's not good for women to go through the procedure [abortion] and have something living sucked out of their bodies. It belittles women. Even though some might women say, 'Oh, I don't mind to have one,' everytime a woman has an abortion, it just crushes her self-esteem smaller and smaller and smaller." - Dolores O'Riordan of the Cranberries Hopefully, one day soon we can dispense with the labels entirely and say with Mattie Brinkerhoff, another early feminist: "When a man steals to satisfy hunger, we may safely conclude that there is something wrong in society-so when a woman destroys the life of her unborn child, it is an evidence that either by education or circumstances she has been greatly wronged." Feminists for Life of America National Office 733 15th Street NW, Suite 1100 Washington, D.C. 20005 202-737-FFLA Or, at their web site: www.serve.com/fem4life/ Alice Paul * The author of the original Equal Rights Amendment (1923) opposed the later trend linking it with abortion. A colleague recalls her expressing the opinion that \ "abortion is the ultimate exploitation of women." This baby is 10-11 weeks old. The baby can "breathe" amniotic fluid and urinate.[10] At this age she or he will seize an object placed in the hand.[11] Scientists know that the baby begins swallowing amniotic fluid as early as eight weeks.[13] A 7-week-old unborn baby swims freely in the amniotic sac with a natural swimmer's stroke.[14] Even though the baby is moving around in the uterus, the mother does not begin to feel the baby until about 4 1/2 months into pregnancy.[15] * Aida Torres and J.D. Forrest, "Why Do Women Have Abortions?," Family Planning Perspectives, vol. 20, no. 4 (July/August 1988), pp. 169-176. Richard D. Glasow, Ph.D., "Recent Polls, Survey Provide New Pro-Life Education Tool," National Right to Life News (June 6, 1989), p. 1. @@@@@@@@ Thomas Jefferson also wrote, "The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only legitimate object of good government." MONTH 2 1. Brain waves recorded between 40th and 43rd day 2. Lungs are forming 3. Muscles work together 4. Reflexes are present 5. Begins to move 6. Skeleton is formed 7. Ears and earlobes are formed 8. Eyelids forming 9. Responds to touch 10. Fingers and toes defined 11. Permanent fingerprints ae present 12. Sex is identifiable 13. At end of 2nd month, 1 1/4 inches long Note: At the end of the 2nd month (56th day), the name is changed from embryo to fetus. MONTH 3 1. Can suck thumb and hear 2. Begins to hiccup 3. Fingers can grasp objects 4. Lung and brain growth is largely complete 5. Eyelids close if touched 6. Baby moves vigorously, but mother still doesn't feel the movements 7. At the end of the 3rd month, baby is 3 inches long, weighs approximately 1 ounce and looks like a tiny human doll MONTH 4 1. Quadruples weight in the 4th month 2. Grows from 4 inches at 14 weeks to 9 inches at 16 weeks 3. Heart pumps 6 gallons of blood every day 4. Downy hair covers the body 5. Mother can feel the baby moving MONTHS 5 & 6 1. At five months, the baby weighs approximately 1 pound and is around 12 inches long 2. Viability occurs during these two months (ability to survive outside the womb) 3. Fingernails and toenails are present 4. Mother can feel baby hiccup CANEM Pro-Life http://sites.netscape.net/canemforlife/ http://www.nrlc.org/ Westside Crisis Pregnancy Center http://www.w-cpc.org/ Week 4 The embryo may float freely in the uterus for about 48 hours before implanting. Upon implantation, complex connections between the mother and embryo develop to form the placenta. Week 6 The embryo is about 1/5 of an inch in length. A primitive heart is beating. Head, mouth, liver, and intestines begin to take shape. Week 10 The embryo is now about 1 inch in length. Facial features, limbs, hands feet fingers and toes become apparent. The nervous system is responsive and many of the internal organs begin to function. Week 14 The fetus is now 3 inches long and weighs almost an ounce. The muscles begin to develop and sex organs form. Eyelids, fingernails, and toenails also form. The child's spontaneous movements can be observed. COLOR PHOTOS Week 18 The fetus is now about 5 inches long. The child blinks, grasps, and moves her mouth. Hair grows on the head and body. Week 22 The fetus now weighs approximately 1/2 and spans about 10 inches from head to toe. Sweat glands develop, and the external skin has turned from transparent to opaque. Week 26 The fetus can now inhale, exhale and even cry. Eyes have completely formed, and the tongue has developed taste buds. Under intensive medical care the fetus has a over a 50% chance of surviving outside the womb. COLOR PHOTOS Week 30 The fetus is usually capable of living outside the womb and would be considered premature at birth. Week 40 This marks the end of the normal gestational period. The child is now ready to live in outside of his mother's womb. Day 21 The heart begins beating. Day 28 The backbone and muscles have started forming. The arms, legs, eyes and ears are now visible. Day 30 The embryo has grown 10,000 times bigger than the original egg on the day of fertilization. The placenta, which forms a barrier keeping the mother's blood separate while allowing food and oxygen to pass through to the embryo, will be the its lifeline throughout the pregnancy. Day 35 Five fingers are now visible on the hand. Pigment is produced in the eyes, causing them to darken. Day 40 Brain waves can now be detected and recorded. The embryo is now able to feel physical pain. Week 6 The liver has begun taking over the production of blood cells, and the brain begins controlling the movement of muscles and organs. Week 7 The embryo begins moving spontaneously. The jaw is formed, including teeth buds in the gums. Week 8 It is now referred to as a fetus, and is a little more than an inch long. The word "fetus" is Latin for "young one" or "offspring." The fetus now has everything present that will be found in a fully developed adult. The heart has been beating for over a month, the stomach is now producing digestive juices and the kidneys have begun functioning. Forty muscle sets have begun to operate in conjunction with the nervous system. The fetus' body will now respond to touch, although the mother will not be able to feel movement until sometime in the fourth or fifth month. Week 9 The fetus now has uniquely identifiable fingerprints. Week 10 The fetus can squint his or her eyes, swallow and wrinkle his/her forehead. Week 11 The fetus is about two inches in length. He/she is able to urinate. Movements are more coordinated. The face has assumed the profile of a baby. Week 12 The fetus now goes through periods of sleeping, waking up and exercising its muscles. It can open and close its mouth, turn its head, and curl its toes. Week 13 Hair has begun to grow on its head. The sex of the child is now apparent. Month 4 The fetus is 8-10 inches       !"#$%&'()*+,-./0123456789:;<=>?@ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ[\]^_`abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz|}~long. It can hear the mother's voice and heartbeat as well as sounds outside the womb. Month 5 The fetus is about 12 inches long. The mother has felt the fetus move by now. A loud noise may startle the baby, causing it to jump. Month 6 Babies born in this month, given the proper care, would survive. Month 7 The baby recognizes his mother's voice. Month 8 The skin begins storing a layer of fat underneath for insulation and nourishment, causing it to thicken. Month 9 The baby normally weighs between six and nine pounds. His heart pumps approximately 300 gallons of blood per day. 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