In the next import , an"Oh s – t!“panic sunk in .
To counter the concern of becoming young parent we both read . And read and read and take .
We rounded up about a dozen science - backed Holy Scripture , scanned countless research study , download pregnancy apps , and shared 100 of article with each other over the stick to months .
Newborn baby in the hospital bed.Alexandre Meneghini
During that flood of information , a handful ofsurprising factsfloated above the rest , and I ’ve collect them here .
What follows may not surprise an obstetrician , or even seasoned parents , yet it nonetheless highlights the sinful human journeying that is gestation .
man release about 100 million sperm each time they ejaculate , though the semen of some especially fertile men can hold hundred of gazillion of spermatozoan .
Newborn baby in the hospital bed.Alexandre Meneghini
But only a few hundred may ever reach a woman ’s egg . particular receptors on the airfoil of an egg check that only one gets in .
beginning : US National Library of Medicine / MedlinePlus , Oakland University
Since 1836 , doctors have cross out the first day of a fair sex ’s last catamenial period as the first twenty-four hour period of pregnancy , or " gestational age,“notwhen a sperm fertilize an ballock .
Ovulation happen about two weeks after a geological period , on average , and fertilization happens within 24 hour of that . This intend if you ’re eight hebdomad pregnant , your baby is about 15 days untested than that .
Doctor still utilize gestational age , not ovulation eld ( also called postconceptional age ) because it ’s hard to discover ovulation and fertilization even more so . Periods , meanwhile , are hard to miss — and easier to comment when they ’ve go miss .
author : American Pregnancy Association,“Williams Obstetrics”,Business Insider
Nine months work as a very rough estimate , but this oft - said telephone number can lead to a number of misconceptions .
First , it ’s not a object ; a healthy maternity can diverge as much as five weeks around a 40 - calendar week due date . In fact , only 4 % of women redeem on their 40 - workweek due date .
The typical gestation — measured from ovulation , not the last menstrual flow ( which is received ) — actually live about eight months and 24 mean solar day , not nine calendar month .
origin : Business Insider
It takes the first petite ball of dividing cells a few days to move down the Fallopian tubes and reach the uterus , and another few days for the fertilized egg to implant itself .
From there it embeds into the soft wall of a cleaning woman ’s uterus , intoxicate up food , and triggers a cascade of further exploitation .
But up until that point , babies are womb floater .
source : University of California San Francisco Medical Center , NYU School of Medicine
By week eight , a baby ’s centre ticktack regularly about 160 times a minute of arc . The pumping is also audible with the aid of an ultrasound gadget .
When I first heard my baby ’s heartbeat through sonography , at about workweek eight or nine , I laughed out of stupor .
beginning : Mayo Clinic
6 . Babies can hear indoors ( and outside ) the uterus , and the womb is very noisy .
Most of the capitulum anatomical structure require to pick up sound are mould by week 16 . From then on , a mom ’s heartbeat , eating , respiration , walk , talking , drill , belching , and digestive gurgling can easily be heard by a developing baby .
This may help excuse why babe find noise so comforting . There ’s also some grounds to suggest sister discover to recognize and react to mom ’s spokesperson while inside the uterus .
Sources : Pediatrics , CDC , WhatToExpect.com
The sound a mom exposes herself to are what a babe is exposed to as well , but babies ca n’t put in ear plugs .
The CDC read moms should avoid very loud noise outstrip 115 dBA — chainsaws , gunfire , super acid locomotive engine , blaring euphony , loud concerts , and so onward .
Consistent flash interference ( like heavy machinery ) can also damage a sister ’s hearing in the womb .
Although a baby ’s eyes can " see " light starting around week 16 , their peepers are n’t fully organize until about week 20 . The eyes first open between weeks 26 and 28 .
Their vision is rather blurry , but they can see — and respond with a flutter of activity to — bright sources of Light Within like the sun or a torch pointed at a woman ’s belly .
beat outside often might even help a sister ’s eye modernise and keep down the risk of a few heart disorders .
Sources : Office on Women ’s Health , WhatToExpect.com
Morning sickness is no playfulness , but a popular scientific account for all those wave of disgust , nausea , and vomiting intimate that it aid protect a woman ’s foetus during her first trimester ( or first 12 weeks ) .
This " disease - threat " model goes something like this : Anything that looks or smell or feels or try risible is more likely to gross out a pregnant woman , thus protecting her develop baby from toxic and potentially infectious things while her immune system is partially weakened .
A study in 2007 took that idea a step further , expect if pregnant women are more probable to instinctively avoid foreigners , strangers , and other " outgroups . " It found some preliminary though inconclusive evidence in a group of 206 meaning women , suggesting they may perceive " outgroups " more negatively during the first trimester .
Sources : " stock : How the Nine Months Before Birth Shape the relief of Our Lives”,Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B , The American Naturalist , American Pregnancy Association , Evolution and Human Behavior
Babies begin to pee inside the amnic sac around hebdomad eight , though urine production really picks up between week 13 and 16 ( when kidney developing is more complete ) .
They can originate drinking this mix of urine and amnic fluid around week 10 or 11 , or when a layer of cell halt their oral fissure — called the buccopharyngeal membrane — rift , allow the baby to swallow . By week 20 most of the amnionic fluid is urine .
Cheers , kids .
Sources : March of Dimes , Nature , American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists , " Gray ’s Anatomy "
Flavor molecules from intellectual nourishment that a mamma use up pass from her blood , through the placenta , and into a infant ’s amnionic fluid .
And since taste buds part to develop around week 11 ( good as the mouthpiece opens up ) , a baby can smack whatever momma eats from then on — though a sense of taste is stronger around weeks 28 and 29 , when taste bud are fully fledged .
child also snort up amniotic fluid , and it ’s thought they can smell food , too .
origin : " The Informed Parent : A Science - found Resource for Your Child ’s First Four Years , " " Origins : How the Nine Months Before Birth Shape the Rest of Our Lives "
12 . Mom ’s dieting affects a baby ’s succeeding solid food preferences .
Since flavor molecules travel so promptly , many study have evince intellectual nourishment preferences and aversions bug out in the uterus in this way ; if mom avert certain foods , sister is probable to pass up those smell outside of the womb .
Pregnant women attend a yoga class in MadridThomson Reuters
The relationship continues after giving birth , too , since flavor molecules regularly show up in boob Milk River .
One bailiwick even showed momma who systematically ate a lot of anise during pregnancy finally gave birth to baby who prefer anise - season milk .
source : " The Informed Parent : A Science - Based Resource for Your Child ’s First Four Years,“American Journal of Clinical Nutrition , Digestion
Called meconium , a baby ’s first stool is made of all the tegument , hair’s-breadth , gall , proteins , white-hot bloodline cells , and other stuff that floats in the amniotic fluid — because a baby drink it all for 20 to 25 weeks .
Meconium bulge forming as soon as a sister open up its mouth and start swallowing amniotic fluid , around week 11 , but meconium production really picks up by week 19 or 20 as a foetus matures .
It typically comes out after nascency as a greenish - black , tarry , and odorless mess . Or at least this was the pillowcase for my babe ; other colouring ( like white ) can indicate a serious medical precondition .
And while 13 % of baby do poop in the womb , too much meconium in the amniotic fluid can block a baby ’s airways before parentage , pass to an O - impoverish state called fetal distress .
Sources : Columbia University , HealthyChildren.org , American Pregnancy Association , Clinics in Perinatology
The bed between a baby ’s placenta and mum ’s uterine wall is so thin to allow food to easily kick the bucket from mamma ’s blood into a baby ’s blood without ever touching .
Source : " origin : How the Nine Months Before Birth Shape the Rest of Our spirit "
The risk has to do with lineage , and it starts with a genetically inherited factor call Rhesus , or Rh factor . When this protein shew up on the surface of blood cells , that person is Rh - positivistic . Meanwhile , Rh - negative people do n’t have it .
If a dad is Rh - electropositive and a momma is Rh - negative , future pregnancies can be tougher to keep — if mammy ’s Rh - damaging blood ever mixes with her Rh - positive baby ’s blood .
While usually not a problem during the first gestation , mom ’s and baby ’s lineage can mix during the disarray of birth , causing mom to develop " Rh sensitization " — when she take a leak antibodies that may snipe future Rh - irrefutable babe , causing miscarriages .
About 2.3 % of pregnancy are at risk of this Rh sensitising , but only 1 % of those moms at risk really develop the antibodies .
Luckily , a guessing of Rh immunoglobulin between calendar week 28 and up to 72 hours after a mom ’s first birthing can prevent the job altogether .
Source : American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists , March of Dimes , Materia Socio Medica
This is why foundation swell and pain come out of seemingly nowhere for many pregnant women . To make room for all the new fluid — which helps consistently nourish a develop baby , and bear away its waste — a hormone called relaxin softens and enlarge mama ’s blood vessels and heart .
These soften vessels can also lead to piles and varicose veins .
Sources : Mayo Clinic , Rice University , " blood : How the Nine Months Before Birth Shape the Rest of Our lifetime "
episode of traumatic tension experienced by a pregnant mom can have surprising effects on her sister . Kids born to parent with post - traumatic stress disorder ( PTSD ) , for example , are more likely to acquire PTSD in their own lifetimes — despite not being exposed to more traumatic events than others .
mamma losing a syndicate extremity during a pregnancy also raise the likelihood of a previous delivery by as much as 23 % .
A mechanism for this connexion stay elsuive .
Sources : March of Dimes , " Origins : How the Nine Months Before Birth Shape the Rest of Our Lives "
The correlation between societal sustenance and gamey birth exercising weight is n’t perfectly understood , but moms with a reliable squad may be less stressed and more likely to sleep substantially , eat better , and make other life-style choices that improve parturition weight .
Having less of a sure stress endocrine call in cortisol around might also profit the baby .
baby cry in the womb .
Researchers accidentally made the uncovering while hit the books female parent who used cigarette or cocain . After playing a sound on the pregnant mothers ' bellies , ultrasound television showed the baby startling , give their mouths , and gasping .
Even the dreaded ( and cunning ) quiver chin is seeable .
origin : ADC Fetal & Neonatal , Discovery Channel ( via YouTube )
