Plotting Prenatal Progress

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.

                                               

Embryo to Fetus

Few narratives compare with the startling sequence of events leading to the birth of a fully-formed human baby during a nine month time interval. Obstetricians are specialists in pregnancy and the care of women before and after birth. Their medical skills interconnect with experts in many other fields of medicine. For example, an embryologist is familiar with the formation and development of early prenatal life. In humans, the child is termed an embryo up until eight weeks. Thereafter, it is known as a fetus. The event sequence of the first few weeks of pregnancy is fascinating almost beyond imagination. The mysteries of embryology still puzzle scientists.

Several decades ago one author noted, “Nothing so puzzles embryologists as the way in which cells outfit themselves and trek about to settle different regions of the embryo.” Their puzzlement still persists, not as ignorance about what happens, but as ignorance about the how of certain prenatal phenomena. For example, as I write this post, the startling news broke that adult stem cells are capable of transforming to pluripotent stem cells (capable of forming virtually all of the 220 cell types of the human body). Surprisingly, a simple acid bath under various types of stress in the lab does the “trick” of transforming adult stem cells into any type of cell.

As development slowly proceeds during the first few weeks of pregnancy there are several astonishing events taking place in the tiny embryo. One event is the production of proteins, the building blocks from which body substance is composed. The well-known DNA molecule contains the instructions for countless protein building blocks. Many inquirers marvel with astonished wonder at the body-building processes of protein construction directed by the DNA code. More than 100,000 different proteins comprise the human body. There is, however, far more to this barely beginning story.

The earliest embryo’s pluripotent stem cells set themselves to the task. After the new cells are formed they must settle in the appropriate regions of the embryo to begin the formation of primordia, forerunners of body organs. For example, after only four weeks, the miniature heart inside the grain-of-rice-sized embryo, can be seen to pump blood through tiny arteries and veins. Other masses of cells are already forming, forerunners of nerves, muscles, and the skeleton. The complex detail of how precisely this tiny embryonic entity is assembled in order to lay the correct early foundation for birth of a fully-formed human in less than nine months is beyond our ability to describe.

Chemical triggers insure that the body assembly process goes “according to plan.” Research reveals dozens of chemical triggering events without which embryo integration would fail. The most wondrous and crucial embryonic development may be described under the banner of epigenetics, defined as heritable changes in gene activity that are not caused by changes in the DNA sequence. One example of epigenetic changes in higher forms of life such as humans is the process of cellular differentiation into the hundreds of different cell types we have mentioned in previous posts. The body’s ability to produce a fully functioning new person exceeds application of the wonders of the DNA code, marvelous as it is. Embryologists have assembled substantial knowledge of what happens. The knowledge of how the marvels occur is a source of even greater wonder. As we discover more answers to what happens, our Creator gifts scientists with slow accumulation of answers to the how questions.

When the embryo transitions to a fetus after the eighth week, sheer physical growth of the new human overtakes the complex wonder of the early, nascent physical bio-construction. Parents and their doctors may look ahead to viewing an ultrasound of the baby in which “humanity now covers the embryo’s countenance,” even though at twelve weeks the baby will be only about four inches long and weigh less than three ounces. Our wonderment and fascination at the oncoming arrival of a new human soul with the potential to achieve active consciousness soon after birth overwhelms us.

The Creator who brought the universe into existence brings new human life into existence approximately 370,000 times per day worldwide.

Let the Building Begin

Homeowners exult when the preliminary preparations for a home building project are complete. Months of planning and consultation assumes a new trajectory when the actual initial building process begins. Careful planning is now complete; actual construction soon follows. This building sequence reminds us of far more majestic and miraculous events associated with human development from conception to birth. These events call forth exultation of a different sort.

The 8-9 day period following conception precedes implantation of the embryo into the mother’s uterine wall. These are important days of preparation for the actual body building project to follow. Events prior to implantation are wonderfully eventful and significant. The mother is host to the embryo during the 8-9 days prior to implantation. The blastocyst is formed during this time, a hollow, spherical structure. It forms two outer layers from which the placenta is generated. Later the placenta will supply the developing embryo with nutrients and oxygen from the mother. The inner layers of the blastocyst form the well-known embryonic stem cells. These embryonic stem cells will later become the “body builders” for the construction of a complex and complete human.  

Before implantation the blastocyst produces a cluster of embryonic stem cells called the inner cell mass (ICM). After the blastocyst is implanted into the uterine wall, the toolkit for body building is in place. Let the building begin! Among many other events taking place, the stem cells are able to self-renew and to differentiate. All embryonic stem cells are pluripotent. This means these cells are able to differentiate into all of more than 220 cell types needed to construct the many tissues which form organs and eventually, the integrated systems of the living body.

One cultural issue triggered by prenatal medical knowledge has been the discovery that pluripotent embryonic stem cells have the potential to be cultured outside the human body for possible transplantation. The potential for healing of disease or replacement of damaged organs using stem cells has captured the imagination of the professional medical world. Balancing this potential is a familiar outcry from the pro-life camp revolving about the necessity of destroying a human life to harvest the embryonic stem cells. Deliberate termination of viable life even at a very early stage in the womb is morally and ethically unacceptable.

Several years ago a possible solution to this ethical dilemma was discovered. In 2006 a Japanese scientist, Shinya Yamanaka, discovered how to reprogram different types of stem cells found throughout the human body, adult stem cells, back into their pluripotent state. Stem cells throughout the body are multipotent (able to become multiple, but not all types, of human cells), oligopotent (able to become a few types of human cells), and unipotent (able to become one other type of human cell). In 2012 Yamanka and another scientist from the UK, John Gurdon, won a Nobel Prize for their groundbreaking work.

Modern scientists experience empowerment with their new discoveries. Reprogramming an adult stem cell is a method of hastening and enhancing essentially natural phenomena. Theistic scientists give glory back to God for their ability to discover and apply design features originally authored by God. Naturalistic science researchers deservedly revel in their discoveries but their breakthroughs do not necessarily channel them to wonder for the Creator. The mindset of scientists is a subjective trait. It is not necessarily related to fundamental discovery of truth.

When a newborn arrives in a family, the parents and relatives focus on the exterior of the “building.” Does he or she have all the appropriate body parts-- all the fingers and toes? Who does the child resemble most? How much does he weigh? What is her length? More remarkable is the knowledge of internal organ structure and the operation and function of the organ systems. Even more remarkable is a modicum of knowledge of how the body systems were assembled. We ask how embryonic stem cells produce more than 220 separate body cell types. How are these separate cell types assembled by the “building” team? May praise to the Creator be blended with our inquiry!

Prenatal Science and Theology

C. H. Spurgeon (1834-1892) was a powerful “Prince of Preachers,” and prolific author. By one estimate he preached to over ten million people. My personal favorite is Spurgeon’s The Treasury of David, a lengthy commentary by Spurgeon blending his own sayings with those he assembled from other authors. Virtually every chapter and verse in the Book of Psalms is covered. Primarily a theologian, Spurgeon also possessed an enlightened view of the harmonious relationship of science and theology. In our modern times, many Christians thrive on this relationship. Others stumble, sometimes perceiving the link to be a barrier.

Spurgeon articulated his lofty respect for both science and theology. In his commentary on Psalm 19, he opined that King David “had devoted himself to the study of God’s two great books—nature and scripture.” Today some conservative theologians diminish the “book of nature,” elevating their personal interpretation of Scripture as though it were superior to the revelation of God as he has revealed himself in creation. The discussion of general revelation (man’s correct reading of nature’s “book”) versus special revelation (the inspired words of God, subject to man’s interpretation of that revelation) should never contradict each other.

Charles Spurgeon may be amused, even distressed at the discomfort experienced by some conservative Christian commentators as they study modern scientific discoveries in the world of geologic history. This is particularly true with respect to the age of the earth. Secular scientists would also experience amusement and distress when experiencing the “conflict model” of the relationship between science and theology by church spokesmen dismissing undisputable mainstream science.

The 30-page commentary on Psalm 19 begins with a paragraph containing this quote: “How foolish and wicked are those who instead of accepting the two sacred tomes, and delighting to behold the same divine hand in each, spend all their wits in endeavoring to find discrepancies and contradictions. We may rest assured that the true “Vestiges of Creation” will never contradict Genesis, nor will a correct “Cosmos” be found at variance with the narrative of Moses. He is wisest who reads both the world-book and the Word-book as two volumes of the same work, and feels concerning them, “My Father wrote them both.”

Psalm 19 proclaims the “heavens declare the glory of God.” The cosmos was the subject of King David’s discovery. Psalm 29, Spurgeon instructs, is “best rehearsed beneath the black wing of tempest, by the glare of the lightning, or amid that dubious dusk which heralds the war of elements.” He instructs us that even nature’s severe events are within God’s purview and will. Spurgeon reminds us once more that “…we have God’s works and God’s word joined together: let no man put them asunder by a false idea that theology and science can by any possibility oppose each other.” In Psalm 139, the pre-born child was the inspiration for David’s exultant praise. We remind readers that modern scientific knowledge has reinforced the inspired words of the Psalmist. Scientifically, however, there is no error or inaccuracy in Psalm 19, Psalm 29, or Psalm 139.

We close with a few modern facts relating to prenatal life and fetal development. Modern science extends far beyond the inspired vision and knowledge of King David. It is able to provoke spiritual wonder matching and exceeding the insights of the ancient king of Israel. Our recent post on the blueprint for prenatal building of the human body was only the beginning of the story of human life from “conception to consciousness” in one calendar year.

The union of male sperm and female ovum is classic modern knowledge. This union forms the human zygote, a single diploid cell containing two sets of chromosomes—one set from each parent. The human zygote cell divides numerous times and after about five days has formed a 200-300 cell blastocyst, a hollow, spherical structure. By now the blastocyst has migrated to the uterus and prepares for implantation 8-9 days following fertilization. Implantation is a critical event for survival of the embryo and finally establishes a physical connection with the mother. Until then the mother was a “host” for the embryo. The embryo, therefore, is a separate and fully human being from fertilization until implantation. From implantation onward, this separate human being receives nourishment from the mother throughout her pregnancy.

The wonders of creation and development of human life in the womb speaks loudly that every pre-born child is fully human and worthy of tender care. Neither faulty science nor faulty respect for the living may destroy this fact. We hope to build upon this preliminary foundation in future posts.   

Body Building Blueprint

When we reside in a home for many years, our awareness of the initial steps in design and construction of the home may diminish with the passage of time. Encountering the designer’s blueprints for our residence in a basement file cabinet after many years triggers a renewed adventure for the homeowners. The object lesson provided by rediscovery of the original blueprint for our homes calls to mind the creation of our human body from the moment “God saw our unformed body” to birth and onset of consciousness.

The initial idea for a home building project often originates in our creative imagination. On a personal level, my wife and I recall sketching the basic concept for our current residence on an automobile trip while driving east along Interstate 80 to visit relatives. When we returned to the Midwest and our rented condo, there was much to contemplate. We needed to purchase a building lot. Then we retained a professional architect who finalized our initial concept sketch after considerable consultation. The joy of experiencing the complex construction process followed. Our residence blueprint is a treasured family historical artifact.

Home design and building projects illustrate the scriptural model for preliminary conceptualization and detailed planning. Luke 14:28-30 offers a parallel. In this passage, the builder wished to construct a tower. Implied is creation of an original concept and the process for completion of the structure. Surely this involved creation of a New Testament version of a “blueprint,” detailed implementation of sequential steps in tower building, and awareness of cost accountability.

Several Bible passages, including the oft-cited Psalm 139, are exceptional in the context of this discussion. They refer to the miracle of God’s omniscience concerning the pre-ordaining of King David’s days before they even came to be, the miraculous knitting together of the king’s unformed body in his mother’s womb, and the fearfully and wonderfully made person whose frame was structured and woven together in “the secret place.” All of these were written in God’s book even before one of David’s days came to be. Old Testament Israelites reveling in David’s inspirational writings understood the miracle of prenatal events several millennia prior to the detailed medical science of our day. Then as now, these scripture passages provoke powerful worship of the Creator and his involvement in the wonderful workings of our daily lives according to the operational laws set in place by God.

In the 21^st century, the sequence of pre-natal events has been discovered in detail unimaginable to the Psalmist. Knowledge of the fundamental component of living things--the cell--has exploded. This includes knowledge of genetics and the structure and functional secrets of heredity possessed by the incredible DNA molecule. The blueprint for human life in King David’s time lacked the most fascinating details. Even in our era knowledge of the many fundamental secrets of prenatal development was a distant dream when many of today’s senior citizens were in high school. The story of human development from conception to consciousness is an occasion for our most profound worship of the Creator.