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  • Everything starts the day your mum's egg meets your dad's sperm.

  • Four weeks later your little brain begins to form. Epidemiologist David

  • Barker says, that whilst developing inside our mother, we are receiving

  • postcards from the outside world. These postcards tell us if this world is

  • dangerous or safe, if food is plentiful or scarce. Knowing nothing else, we learn

  • from those messages. Let's watch what we experience and learn inside the womb

  • from the fetus perspective. Month 1: only 24 hours alive every bit of genetic

  • information is already present in a single cell: from our hair color to our

  • talent as a future pianist. Then we divide ourselves again and again. After

  • around a week we travel from the ovaries to the uterus where we then undergo the

  • great divide - splitting into two, half of which will become us while the other

  • half forms the placenta which brings us food and oxygen and carries away waste.

  • By week four we have developed into a small being that is growing at a rate of

  • 1 million cells per second. Our spinal cord, heart and brain are now clearly

  • visible, even if we adjust the size of a poppyseed. Month 2: at about week four to

  • five our heart starts to beat and we are now ten thousand times bigger than we

  • were at conception. This is a crucial point in our neurological development as

  • our brain grows at a rate of around a hundred thousand cells each minute. If

  • our mother consumes alcohol and drugs or experiences extreme stress or trauma our

  • tiny brain can get damaged. This can lead to maths problems at school or even

  • schizophrenia some forty years later. If our mum stays healthy and can relax our

  • brain can develop to its full potential. We are now the size of a raspberry.

  • Month 3: at the beginning of month three we start to react to stimuli. Our

  • sense of smell is developing and exposure to toxins can make us cringe.

  • Our brain is continuing to grow very fast our Ears start forming and we can

  • soon hear our mum's heartbeat and voice speak. Still small enough we have plenty

  • of space to move inside the belly. Our mother's womb becomes our sensory

  • playground we learn to move our arms, stretch our fingers, smile or suck our

  • thumb. 75% of us are now showing a preference to use the right hand we are

  • now around the size of a lemon. Month 4: our head makes up about half our total

  • size. We learn to kick, pee and how to swallow. Our taste buds are developing. If

  • our mother eats a wide variety of things we learn to appreciate different tastes

  • and become less fussy eaters later in life. If we receive inadequate or poor

  • nutrients we adapt our physiology to sustain our development. This process is

  • also called fetal programming. Some researchers have found that this can

  • result in health problems such as obesity, heart conditions and diabetes

  • later in life. We are now around the size of a big tomato. Month 5: while earlier

  • our mums voice sounded muffled now it is starting to become clear. We are also

  • experiencing a big growth spurt and we start the development of our teeth and

  • our first real hair, fingernails, eyebrows and eyelashes. We are becoming more

  • active each day and enjoying flexing our tiny muscles. As we wriggle, kick and turn

  • our mother will start to feel as moving. If she responds we learned that for

  • every action there is a reaction. We are now around the size of a dragon fruit.

  • During this sixth month a major mark of brain development occurs. Our brains

  • cerebral cortex splits into two hemispheres. But it's also an exciting

  • month for our eyes which open for the first time. Even though we see only blurs

  • we start to respond to light. Some say it's good if our mum now takes us into

  • the sun. We are now starting to make simple facial expressions such as

  • forming a grin. We probably learn to communicate for the time when we are

  • born when we want to show our feelings. We are now around the size of a small

  • cauliflower. Month 7: we begin to develop regular intervals for sleeping and being

  • awake. The hair on our head is now clearly visible and our milk teeth have

  • formed under our gums. When we hear our mum speak we may respond with an

  • increased heartbeat and movement. Some researchers claim that we now begin to

  • learn language from hearing the voices from outside because once born we seem

  • to show a preference for our dads and mums native language. If we were to be

  • born now we would have a 90% chance of survival and arrived the size of a

  • pineapple. Month 8 we are now behaving like a newborn. Our brain is functional

  • and our nervous system ready. Our lungs are almost fully formed and we are

  • practicing breathing by inhaling and the amniotic fluid. Ee now spend almost all of

  • our time as sleep, maybe dreaming about our near future. In preparation for birth

  • most of us will have now turned upside down. To get through that tiny hole at

  • the end of the tunnel our bones and skull are still extremely flexible. Only

  • the immune system is still in its infancy.

  • It will take many months after birth until our internal body guards can fully

  • protect our health. We are now around the size of a melon.

  • Month 9: in the last month we keep practicing our motor skills and kicks.

  • When our mum laughs eat sweets or drinks an ice tea we might respond by bouncing

  • up and down. If we could already understand research papers we would now

  • hope that our mum can bring us to the world through natural birth which

  • protects us through a stronger immune system for life. The puzzle of what is

  • nurture and what is nature is now well underway and already shows a first image

  • of our character. The most important missing piece will be added in our early

  • childhood. At the end of the nine months we are around the size of a jackfruit.

  • After many hours of hard labour we will be welcomed into this world. Some

  • will then be instantly taken away for various checkup procedures and bathing.

  • But if we are lucky we will first spend some time with our mum. If placed on her

  • belly we will instinctively crawl to her

  • breast and then show us sucking skills. This makes us happy, full and feel safe.

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Everything starts the day your mum's egg meets your dad's sperm.

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