How Soon Does a Baby Start to Develop?
Your baby’s development is a fascinating process! While most women don’t feel the presence of ‘life’ inside their womb until a couple of months along, your baby is already growing by leaps and bounds even in the first few weeks of pregnancy! Here are some interesting facts about your baby’s development inside your body:Heartbeat: Your baby’s heart begins to pump blood as early as 21 days after conception. You can hear your baby’s heartbeat at the seventh or eighth week using an ultrasonic stethoscope.
Brain: Your baby’s brain begins to function as early as eight weeks into gestation or six weeks after conception. Brain waves have been recorded at 40 days through an EEG (Electroencephalogram).
Other organs: Did you know that a fetus’s eyes, ears, and respiratory system begin to form just four weeks after fertilization? In fact, by eight weeks (or two months), all of your baby’s body systems are present. At eight weeks, the baby’s stomach begins to produce gastric juice necessary for digestion.
Teeth: Your baby’s milk-teeth buds (all 20 of them!) are present at six and a half weeks.
Fingernails: You will be surprised to know that your baby’s fingerprints are fully formed by the fourth month of gestation and fingernails are present by 11 to 12 weeks. Even eyelashes are formed by 16 weeks!
Movement: Your baby can make some movement as early as the ninth or 10th week. Your baby can squint, swallow, move the tongue, and even make a tight fist at this stage!
Breath: At 3 months, your baby can breathe fluid and will continue to do so until birth. Since your baby obtains oxygen through your umbilical cord, he or she will not drown by breathing the fluid inside the womb. It is this breathing that helps to develop the respiratory systems.
In short, your baby is very much alive even a few days after conception and is not something with gills and a tail or just a random group of cells!
There is tons of info out there about your pregnancy choices, if you can just reach out and take it. To learn more about your pregnancy choices, including adoption, please call or text us at 1-800-923-6784. Or, you can visit PregnancyHelpOnline.com.
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