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Stages of development from conception
Summary on the human body system
Stages of development from conception to birth
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AC 2.3 THE STAGES OF A DEVELOPING EMBRYO
An embryo is an unborn baby in the process of development, this development process lasts 8 weeks and is called the embryonic stage. An embryo turns into a foetus after the eighth week of development. Below is a table showing the weekly development of the embryo.
AC 2.4 THE ROLE OF THE PLACENTA
THE PLACENTA
The Placenta is an organ which is attached to the uterine lining during pregnancy. The placenta begins its development from implantation of the blastocyst into the mother’s uterine lining. It connects to the foetus via the umbilical cord and resembles a piece of liver with its reddish brown hue and meat-looking exterior. It is usually delivered after the birth of the baby through the combination of the release of hormones and contractions. The contractions help separate the placenta from the uterus wall. The placenta is about 9 inches long at delivery and weighs 1/6th of the baby’s weight. In multiple births the babies share the placenta but have individual umbilical cords.
THE ROLE OF THE PLACENTA
1. The Placenta provides the baby with adequate nutrition, glucose, minerals, vitamins and amino acids. The placenta also allows the diffusion of these substances.
2. The placenta produces hormones such as oestrogen and progesterone, which have the ability to prevent premature contractions before the baby’s birth and prepare the uterus for labour, the placenta also produces a hormone called placental lactogen, which enables the mother to have more glucose in her circulation to supply her baby.
3. The placenta serves as a protective barrier, ensuring disease causing microorganisms, cannot cross to the baby.
4. The Placenta serves as an effective filter by keeping maternal blood separate...
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Even before women know they’re pregnant important changes are already happening in their bodies. The first week of conception the zygote this is when the egg and sperm join it now has divided into many cells. Within two weeks the embryo will attach to the woman’s uterine wall. The embryo will continue to grow climaxing with the baby’s birth.
During pregnancy the organ systems change in efforts to make room for the growing baby and to support the both the mother and the babies life. The digestive and the urinary systems are impacted primarily due to the growth of the uterus. Because the uterus is growing it may cause heartburn, and the growing uterus puts pressure on the urinary track which may cause the mother to be, to use the bathroom more often. The circulatory system changes because the blood flow increases.
Choosing to breastfeed is one of the best decisions you can make for yourself and your baby. A change in hormones during pregnancy causes your breast tissue to grow and increases the number and size of your milk ducts. These hormones also allow proteins, carbohydrates, and fats from your blood supply to make breast milk in your milk-producing glands. Hormones prevent breast milk from being released before your baby is born. They also prompt milk flow after birth. Once breastfeeding has begun, thoughts of your baby, as well as his or her sucking or crying, can stimulate the release of milk from your milk-producing glands.
It is used to make sure the baby has and gets enough nutrients. The placenta makes several hormones which make it hard for insulin to control blood glucose and block the action of the mother’s insulin in her body (American Diabetes Association, 2010). Hormonal changes during the pregnancy cause the body to be less sensitive to insulin. Insulin has the job of opening up the cells so that the glucose can get inside, regulating the amount of glucose in the blood while glucose is the amount of sugar in the blood stream. In pregnancy, the body needs to make three times more insulin to control the blood sugar.
The unborn child must be protected from and must endure certain teratogens, depending on the lifestyle of the mother, to be successfully born as a healthy baby.
March Dimes Foundation: Pregnancy and Newborn Health Education Center. Retrieved from http://www.marchofdimes.com/materials/teenage-pregnancy.pdf
There are two different ways to break down the prenatal time period: by trimester or by periods. The first period is called the germinal period. This time frame consists of the first fourteen days of the baby’s development starting with conception. During these two weeks, the fertilized egg makes it’s way into the uterus for implantation in the lining of the uterus. The next period, the embryonic period starts here. The embryonic period lasts the third through the eighth week of pregnancy. During this time period, according to Kathleen Stassen Burger, Author of The Developing Person: Through Childhood and Adolescence, “…the formless mass of cells becomes a distinct being-not yet recognizably human, but worthy of a new name, embryo” (Burg...
Alexander, B. (2005, May). Glamour: How far would you go to have a baby?, 116-122.
Thus the reason fetal monitoring is important in the case of
Every woman when pregnant has a 3-5% chance of having a baby born with a birth defect, and these chances increase when the developing fetus/ embryos are exposed to teratogens, whether it’s intentional or unintentional (Bethesda (MD), 2006). Teratogens can cause severe birth defects, malformations, or terminate the pregnancy altogether (Jancárková, & Gregor, 2000). The placenta is known as an effective barrier from any detrimental pathogen that can potentially hurt the fetus. The timing of exposure of any teratogen is critical to the impact of prenatal development (Bethesda (MD), 2006). The most vulnerable time of the fetus for severe damage is during early pregnancy when all the major organ and central nervous system (CNS) are developing. Miscarriages have an important role in keeping a pregnancy from evolving when there is something serious going on with the developing fetus/embryo. Miscarriages are more common than we think and are the most familiar type of pregnancy loss (Bethesda (MD), 2006).
This journal was useful for me because it gave me the background details on why women are opting for delayed motherhood by the age of 30 or 40. Accordingly, I was able to build up my points on how it will affect the health conditions of both baby and mother and also the risk of taking that challenge.
Pregnancy is an interesting time in women’s life, because she creates a new human to the world. Even though it’s an interesting time for the mother, it also could be dangerous time for the mother and the baby. Pregnancy is divided into three trimesters, and each trimester consists of three months. Complications happen throughout all the trimester, but the third trimester has a lot of complications. Complications in the third trimester are not just dangerous for the baby, but for the mother also.