A BABY IS BORN

The zygote moves from the fallopian tube to the womb or uterus, where it becomes attached to the wall. Over the next nine months the zygote will develop into a baby. Many of the organs form quite early in this development. Twenty-five days after conception, the heart is already beating inside embryo. After eight weeks the embryo looks like a  miniature person, though only 4 cm. long.

Inside the womb the embryo floats in a sac of liquid which protects it. It is joined to the mother by the umbilical cord, via the placenta. Food and oxygen needed by the developing embryo come through this from the mother, and waste products are returned through it.

The baby is ready to be born after nine months. When the woman has spasms, called contractions, labour has begun. The labour pains gradually become more frequent, until they are only two or three minutes apart.

This second stage marks the beginning of birth. The contracting muscles push the baby ( normally head first) down the uretus to the vagina. After the baby is born, the third stage follows, in which  the umbilical cord is cut and the afterbirth – placenta and membrane – is discharged.

·        Sometimes the baby cannot be born naturally, and a caesarean operation has to be performed. An opening is cut through the mother’s abdomen and uterus, through which the baby can be removed.

·        Your ‘belly button’ is where the umbilical cord used to be attached.

·        In a ‘breech birth’, the baby comes out feet or buttocks first.