Ta’Nia Evans Prenatal Development & A Healthy Pregnancy

Prenatal Development The process normally takes nine months for full-term pregnancy, one that goes to completion. A full-term pregnancy typically lasts about 280 days, counting from the first day of the last menstrual period. The timeline of pregnancy can be divided into three trimesters, or three month time period. Each is a time of remarkable growth and development.

First Trimester During first trimester, the first three months of pregnancy- rapid sequence of prenatal development occurs. It begins at the moment of conception. At the early stage, the developing life it’s know n as the zygote. Fertilized egg is a single cell, but it soon begin to divide. In the implantation into the uterine wall through about the eighth week pregnancy, the developing baby is called an embryo. Three layers of cells form that eventually will develop into all the structures of human body.

Second Trimesters The fetus grows dramatically. By the end of this period, the fetus will typically weigh nearly 2 pounds. During time, the eyebrow and lashes appear, and fine hair called lanugo, begins to cover the fetus’s skin. Fat tissue, which later will keep the newborn warm, begins to form under the skin. The fetus can move around and movements, a milestone that is often called ‘’quickening’’. Other muscle movements, such as prenatal thumb sucking can also begin during the second trimester.

Third Trimester The seventh, eighth, and ninth months of pregnancy the brain and other parts of nervous system continue to develop. Brain scans by researchers have shown that the fetus sleeps and may dream. The heart and other parts of the circulatory system also continue to mature in preparation for the newborn’s independence from the woman’s body.