1. Human Ovum [Egg] Largest cell in your mother’s body is released from her ovary. Egg travels down her fallopian tube [It will survive only 12-24 hours Some of the 500 million sperm from your father travel up into the fallopian tube. Only one penetrates the egg and the nuclei unite. You were called a Zygote. The Moment of Conception The Wonder of Life

2. At the moment of conception, you are a living human being. Each parent contributed 30,000 chemical genes that determined not only what you look like, but also your health, talents, tastes, athletic abilities, intelligence, allergies, and more! The Moment of Conception The Wonder of Life You grow into a hollow ball and are called a blastocyst and consist of 107 cells

3. On day 7 you had traveled to your mother’s uterus and implanted in its lining. At IMPLANTATION, you produced a hormone HCG [Human Chorionic Gonadotropin]. This hormone overrides your mother’s hormone cycle. So much is produced that it gets into your mother’s blood stream and then into her urine. {Positive pregnancy test] The corpus luteum continues to produce the hormones progesterone and estrogen that stimulate the uterus wall to thicken and provide nourishment. At the same time you produced hormones prevent the mother's body from rejecting it as a foreign tissue.

5. 17 DAYS: The new life has developed its own blood cells; the placenta is a part of the baby and not the mother. 14 DAYS: The new life stops her mother's menstrual cycle. 15 days: Head and spinal cord are starting to develop.

6. 18 DAYS: The baby's heart has begun beating and has set the rhythm of life for this preborn baby.

7. The Wonder of Life By 3 weeks, your heart was already beating! (Your mom probably didn’t even know about you yet!) 3 weeks

8. . 19 DAYS: The eyes start to develop.· 20 DAYS: The foundation of the entire nervous system is intact. 24 DAYS: The heart has regular beats or pulsations, a legal sign of life. 28 DAYS: 40 pairs of muscles are developed along the trunk of the new life; arms and legs are forming.·

9. 30 DAYS: Regular blood flows within the vascular system; the ears and nasal development have begun. Size of a kidney bean

10. 40 DAYS: The heart output is reported to be almost 20% of an adult. 42 DAYS: The skeleton is complete, and the reflexes are present.

11. The Wonder of Life Did you know? By the time you were 6 weeks old, you had recordable brain waves. I wonder what you were thinking about? You also became sensitive and responded to touch at this age. 6 weeks

12. Did you know that you started sucking your thumb when you were only 8 weeks old? At 8 weeks, all of your major organs were in place. Now all that’s needed is time for you to grow! 8 weeks The Wonder of Life

13. 56 DAYS: The scientific name is changed from 'embryo' to 'fetus.' All organs are functioning: stomach, liver, kidney, brain.

14. Since you were still small and not cramped for space, you had plenty of room to move. Even though your mother couldn’t feel you yet, you had already perfected a somersault, back flip and scissor kick! 8 weeks The Wonder of Life

15. 8 weeks The Wonder of Life If you kept growing all 9 months as fast as you did during your second month, you would have been born as big as a pair of overfed elephants! You stop using your yolk sac, the source of nourishment and blood cell production up until now.

16. 8 weeks The Wonder of Life Yolk sac disappears and your placenta takes over getting food, water, oxygen and other chemicals from your mother’s uterus The wastes you produce are given to your mother to dispose of by your placenta.

18. Your bones start out as cartilage that is later replaced with bone.

19. 9 TH -10 th WEEKS: Baby squints, swallows and retracts tongue. Nervous system grows at an amazing rate: 2.5 million neurons/minute

20. 11th. 12th WEEKS: The baby moves arms and legs, sucks thumb, inhales and exhales amniotic fluid. Finger nails start to appear. All systems are present and functioning and only need time and nutrition to mature. If allowed to continue, Baby will grow until ready to be born at 9 months of age. The stepping reflex begins to develop at 11 weeks.

21. At 12 Weeks baby boys are producing the male hormone testosterone that stimulates male development. Baby girls start producing eggs in their ovaries. The heart is beating 140-150 beats per minute and is controlled by the brain. The baby is now sensitive to touch.

22. 12th Week most common age for abortions to be performed. The baby is killed!

23. By 16 weeks, a baby has everything it needs to feel pain. In fact, babies feel about 3 times more pain than us, because their nervous system is so new, and because they haven’t been exposed to medicine yet! 16 weeks The Wonder of Life

24. A baby’s sleeping habits can be detected at this time, but a slammed door will produce activity. The baby also responds to sounds that are too high or low for adults to hear. 16 weeks The Wonder of Life

25. By the time you were 4 months old, your mom could feel you kicking. Your hands have developed your grasping reflex. 16 weeks The Wonder of Life

26. 18 weeks The Wonder of Life By now, your fingernails are growing very fast, and you easily scratch yourself. You had fully developed vocal cords and use them to cry, but you couldn’t be heard because there is no air. Your living space is getting a bit cramped…

27. 18 weeks The Wonder of Life Your digestive system has activity and you swallow amniotic fluid. Your mother may feel your movements Your eyes open and close. You are 7” long.

28. Did you know? You started getting hiccups at 5 months old! This happened when you would swallow amniotic fluid, which is full of glucose (sugar). Swallowing the fluid was also good practice for your digestive system. 1 pint/day 20 weeks The Wonder of Life

29. Half of the pregnancy has now passed. You are about 12 inches long now. You jumped in reaction to startling sounds 20 weeks The Wonder of Life

30. Your mom could definitely feel you kick by the time you were 5 months old! The Wonder of Life

31. At 5 months, your eyebrows, eyelids, and eyelashes appeared. Your internal organs were still maturing. 20 weeks The Wonder of Life

32. ; 22 WEEKS: Baby could survive outside of the womb.

33. You were swimming with natural swimming strokes when you were 6 months old. You are beginning to grow hair. (believe it or not) 6 months The Wonder of Life

34. Your brain developed rapidly at this time. You led an active emotional life and could even learn things! You had REM Sleep [Your were dreaming!] The Wonder of Life 7 months

35. Your body fat began growing, making your skin smoother. The Wonder of Life 7 months

36. You began crying at 28 weeks. Even your bottom lip quivered! The Wonder of Life 7 months

37. Your first teeth were present. Your eyelids now open and close. Your hands could grip strongly. You could recognize your mom’s voice from others. The Wonder of Life 7 months

38. Your brain developed rapidly at this time. You led an active emotional life and could even learn things! Your body fat began growing, making your skin smoother. The Wonder of Life 7 months

39. Your lungs were last to develop but when they are fully developed they produced a hormone that caused your mother to start producing a hormone oxytocin that stimulates your mother’s uterus to start contracting and your birthday is not far off.

40. During your birth process you produced the hormone adrenalin that increased your heart rate and helped get your lungs ready for their first breath of air.

42. 21-week-old unborn baby named Samuel Alexander Armas, who is being operated on by a surgeon named Joseph Bruner. The baby was diagnosed with spina bifida and would not survive if removed from his mother's womb.

43. During the procedure, the doctor removes the uterus via C-section and makes a small incision to operate on the baby. As Dr. Bruner completed the surgery on Samuel, the little guy reached his tiny, but fully developed hand through the incision and firmly grasped the surgeon's finger. Dr. Bruner was reported as saying that when his finger was grasped, it was the most emotional moment of his life, and that for an instant during the procedure he was just frozen, totally immobile. The photograph captures this amazing event with perfect clarity.

44. During the procedure, the doctor removes the uterus via C-section and makes a small incision to operate on the baby. As Dr. Bruner completed the surgery on Samuel, the little guy reached his tiny, but fully developed hand through the incision and firmly grasped the surgeon's finger. Dr. Bruner was reported as saying that when his finger was grasped, it was the most emotional moment of his life, and that for an instant during the procedure he was just frozen, totally immobile. The photograph captures this amazing event with perfect clarity.

46. There are two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle. -- Albert Einstein

47. "Probably nothing has been as damaging to our cause as the advances in technology which have allowed pictures of the developing fetus, because people now talk about the fetus in much different terms than they did 15 years ago. They talk about it as a human being, which is not something that I have an easy answer on how to cure, “ - Harrison Hickman, pollster for the National Abortion Rights Action League at an address at their Twentieth Anniversary Celebration and Conference, October 1989, Washington, D.C.