The astonishing
beginning and subsequent development of the human embryo and its transition to
the category of fetus at roughly eight weeks is known to medical scientists in
stunning detail. For forty weeks these events are hidden from the outside
world. At birth the child makes its grand entry to the vision of outside
observers, the world of conventional photography, and the world of unmuffled
sound. The newborn experiences an immediate need for an independent food and
air supply. With dramatic suddenness the infant transitions from the silent
prenatal development venue to the bustling activity of the world of the
nursery.
The first eight
weeks are crucially important. The foundation for cellular organization is laid
in the tiny embryo during the first few weeks following conception. This is an
incredibly eventful and delicate time interval. At four weeks the embryo is
smaller than a grain of rice. Many of the 220 types of body cells navigate
their way to their proper positions in the newly forming human body. At eight
weeks every body organ is in place. Bones have begun to replace cartilage,
fingerprints form, and the baby can begin to hear. The baby has grown to one
inch in length and “humanity now covers the embryo’s countenance.”
The body structure
at eight weeks is visibly locked in place. Hereafter the fetus mainly increases
in size and completion of already formed bodily features. The National Right to
Life Committee (NRLC) website link on “Fetal Development” details the transition
from one inch in length and 1/8 ounce in weight to the average birth length of
18-20 inches and average body weight of seven pounds.
In the following
paragraphs we quote information published by NRLC on fetal development prior to
birth.
During weeks nine
and ten teeth begin to form. The baby can turn its head, frown, and hiccup.
Weeks ten and eleven find the baby able to “breathe” amniotic fluid and
urinate. Objects placed in its hand may be grasped. All organ systems are
functioning. The baby has a skeletal structure and circulation.
In week twelve the
baby is three inches long, weighs one ounce, and has all the parts necessary to
experience pain, including nerves, spinal cord, and thalamus. Its vocal cords
are complete. The baby can suck its thumb. At fourteen weeks the heart pumps
several quarts of blood through its body every day. At sixteen weeks the baby
is four to five inches long, weighs three ounces, possesses a complete
skeleton, and has an adult’s taste buds.
At the close of the
fourth month the baby has grown to eight to ten inches in length and weighs one
half pound. Bone marrow is beginning to form. The heart is pumping 25 quarts of
blood each day. The baby recognizes its mother’s voice at twenty weeks. During
months five and six the baby practices breathing by inhaling amniotic fluid
into its developing lungs. The baby grasps at the umbilical cord when it feels
it. A mother feels movements from her baby which has achieved twelve inches in
length and a weight of one and one-half pounds.
During months seven
through nine the baby opens and closes its eyes. It makes use of four of its
five senses--vision, hearing, taste, and touch. It knows the difference between
waking and sleeping and can relate to the moods of the mother. The baby’s skin
begins to thicken, and a layer of fat is produced and stored beneath the skin.
Antibodies are built up, and the baby’s heart pumps 300 gallons of blood per
day. Approximately one week before birth
the baby stops growing and descends, head down, into the pelvic cavity.
The first eight
weeks of gestation is the time frame most shrouded in mystery. Professionals in
embryology have written voluminously on chemical and physical processes taking
place in the miniscule, kernel-sized embryo of the first month of pregnancy. In
the first four weeks the embryo becomes ten thousand times larger than the
fertilized egg but it remains barely visible. We repeat the colorful imagery in
one volume on reproduction: “Nothing so puzzles embryologists as the way in
which cells outfit themselves and trek about to settle different regions of the
embryo.” We hasten to explain the cells’ “trek” occurs in a tiny piece of
embryological tissue.
At the end of two
months the embryo stage concludes and the fetus stage begins. The foundation of
the human frame has been laid. The seven-month fetus stage mostly builds on a
structure already in place after two months. Interrupting the events of a
healthy pregnancy at any stage is a procedure bringing
grief to ethical parents who think profoundly. More significant is the grief
this procedure brings to the Creator who planned and created life and sustains
it from moment to moment.
