Life Before Birth - In the Womb

[Music] [Music] congratulations against all odds you were conceived from a single cell to a fully grown baby in just nine months amazing you are a miracle and so am i what you are about to see was my journey it was also yours [Music] this baby is about to be forced from his calm and comforting cocoon and thrust into a noisy bright and terrifying new world [Music] [Music] a new generation of 4d ultrasound scans has opened up a window on the womb allowing us to see the development of the fetus as never before [Music] during his

odyssey in the womb the fetus has learned to grasp with his fingers to smile and frown he can recognize his mother's voice and even dream all before even being born [Music] so during ejaculation a mature healthy man expels up to 500 million sperm inside a woman's vagina and the journey begins each sperm carries its own copy of the father's genetic code [Music] with a basic sense of smell the sperm the smallest cell in the human body sniff their way up the fallopian tube towards the egg the largest cell in the body [Music] each month a

woman's ovaries release one egg containing her own genetic code she made these aids while she was still a fetus herself they've been kept in storage ever since through childhood and adolescence and on into adulthood [Music] it may take up to 10 hours before the actual moment of conception and the mother may be completely unaware of the secret events inside her belly [Music] and so begins my journey through space a micro cosmos planets asteroids molecules chromosomes constellations swirling a genetic whirlpool worlds within worlds a russian doll of universes bursting at each seam [Music] this is not

my voice no more than this is a human being what you see is a human about to be i cannot talk or think or feel i am in limbo but at least i am i have passed from isn't it is until now i wasn't but now i am a promise made by the past to the future a beginning i am the beginning of flesh made word [Music] inside the fertilized egg the plans for this new human life begin to unfold the genetic code is stored in bundles called chromosomes 23 from each parent each microscopic chromosome

contains over 2 meters of supercoiled dna along the double helix of the dna molecules apply the patterns of chemical codes that hold the key to our uniqueness our genes [Music] it is our genes that tell us to become a human rather than a bird or a tree as well as deciding exactly what kind of person we will be [Laughter] the genetic code is a set of instructions for the cells a sort of manual giving directions that tells them how to grow am i already cast in stone or can i break the mold sin francis of

assisi or al capone which will i be when i'm old my dna has lots of presence waiting and i'll find out on my birthday what it brings secretly i'm hoping for a nice pair of wings our parents make an equal contribution to most of our genetic makeup but the sex of the child is all down to the father his sperm can be one of two types x for a girl or y for a boy although they won't know it for many months for these parents it was a wise fern that won the race and they're

going to have a boy the genes he has inherited will have already predetermined his looks much of his character whether he's stubborn intelligent a fruit seeker or good at music and even his vulnerability to certain diseases like cancer schizophrenia or diabetes [Music] the exact course of his life will depend on many things his friends his family his whole environment but at the instant of fertilization much of his future is foretold [Music] the fertilized egg continues its journey traveling along the fallopian tube towards the safety of the uterus [Music] about a day after fertilization the egg

makes its first division [Music] on cue the nucleus splits in two and my cell divides who's keeping time who makes the decision the watchmaker with 2020 vision [Music] this process of division continues as the clump of cells travels down the fallopian tube after four or five days the tiny ball now called a blastocyst has grown to around 100 cells and it begins to divide in two the outer ring of cells is destined to become the placenta while the inner clump will become the embryo itself at this stage these inner cells are all identical they are

dividing rapidly and are known as stem cells they have the remarkable capacity to turn into any one of over 200 different types of cell and grow into any part of the human body [Music] imagine drops of water frozen into the perfect shape of snowflakes each one unique then imagine snowflakes tossed into the air and falling to earth frozen into the perfect shape of a snowman i am being pulled in all directions could go anywhere become anything and yet it feels as if nothing is left to chance [Music] after seven days the blastocyst reaches the end

of the fallopian tube and arrives in the uterus it's home for the next nine months [Music] oh [Music] the embryo is now starting to take shape during the third week the embryonic ball of cells no bigger than a pinhead folds in on itself to form a long tube [Music] the top of the tube will become the head while the trunk of the body stretches down below the head doesn't look much like a head yet but at day 15 nerve cells begin to form in the brain and in the spinal column exposed and totally unprotected by

skin or bone signals flicker through the neurons and the brain sparks into activity wow is this it the point at which my life begins cognition switched on now there's food for thought i am therefore i think [Music] inside her body the mother is creating a safe environment for the baby to grow protected from the dangers of the outside world as soon as she becomes pregnant drastic changes sweep through the mother's system her blood volume may leap by up to 50 percent to cope with the extra demand for oxygen from the growth in her womb [Music]

once the embryo embeds itself in the uterus it will start to draw from the mother's bloodstream all it needs to grow [Music] one of the first recognizable organs to form is the heart without a heart there is no way of spreading around the food and oxygen the embryo needs to flourish until now the heart has been a dormant clump of muscle cells but after 22 days it bursts suddenly into life when still just the size of a poppy seed one cell spontaneously contracts triggering its neighbors and setting off a chain reaction until all the heart

cells are beating [Music] someone tick-tock has put tick-tock a [Music] will this tick tock go on tick tock until later on when the nervous system is more developed the brain will carefully control the rate of contraction keeping it steadily beating and pumping for the rest of the child's life if he lives to 75 that will be two and three-quarter billion heartbeats [Music] [Music] some women will already be aware of the hormonal changes inside them and may realize they are pregnant without the aid of a test [Music] for others this thin blue line may be the

first clue to the dramatic changes that are about to take place during the next eight months [Music] after four weeks the embryo is as big as a kidney bean and is growing by about one millimeter every day [Music] the heart now pumping nutrients around the body other organs begin to grow black dots on the head are the beginnings of eyes and buds are forming along the body that will become arms and legs [Music] at this stage the fetus still bears signs of our evolutionary past the spinal column extends beyond the leg buds to form a

tail there are rudimentary gills behind the ears [Music] these relics will disappear as the fetus grows but at day 30 even an expert would find it difficult to tell just from looking at it if this embryo is going to become a human a pig or an ape just one and a half percent of our genes make us human we share 98.5 of our dna with chimpanzees three quarters with dogs half with fruit flies and a third with daffodils [Music] come closer look at me do you recognize yourself for what you see is what you were

[Music] to a summer rose do i compare [Music] [Music] after growing for eight weeks the embryo looks more like a tiny human and becomes known as a fetus which in latin means offspring he has reached an important milestone his placenta is now mature [Music] time to welcome my other half all giving all knowing whose sole purpose is to keep me alive inseparable the two of us until birth when the one without the soul will not survive [Music] until now the embryo has been dependent on the nutrients he could extract via his yolk sac a floating

balloon connected to the base of the umbilical cord a human yolk sac is not like a chickens it contains no yolk to store food but for the first few weeks it generates nutrients and blood cells for the tiny embryo by two months the yolk sac has become redundant and shrivels away the crucial job of feeding and nurturing the fetus has been completely taken over by the placenta the mother and fetus have totally separate blood supplies but inside the placenta the fetus's network of very fine blood vessels reaches deep into the mother's blood supply like the

roots of a tree sucking nutrients from the soil the placenta extracts everything the fetus needs from the mother's blood food oxygen water and passes it into his bloodstream the placenta also filters out many harmful substances like the hepatitis herpes or polioviruses that may be in the mother's blood but it can't stop everything alcohol and nicotine for example can pass directly through to the fetus everything the fetus doesn't need all the waste products are siphoned out by the placenta and passed back to the mother's bloodstream [Music] fitness coach dietitian always close at hand health advisor organizer

each day carefully planned [Music] bodyguard comfort blanket angel is what you are self-sacrificing self-effacing placenta guiding star many women experience morning sickness during the early months of pregnancy as the placenta releases a host of hormones one of these progesterone is secreted throughout the term and prevents the mother releasing any more eggs others stop the mother's immune system rejecting the unfamiliar growth inside her nurturing protecting and controlling the placenta is the nerve center of pregnancy [Music] [Music] [Music] internally the mother will have been feeling the effects of pregnancy changes in taste mood swings anxiety and nausea

but now she will start to notice the first changes on the outside she will begin to gain weight she will be thirstier than normal and her heart will beat faster as her body begins to work harder in his first 10 weeks the fetus has been hidden from the world but the mother is about to get her first glimpse of the secret events unfolding inside her womb [Music] [Music] so [Music] between 10 and 14 weeks a pregnant woman will usually go for her first scan [Music] ultrasound scans have revolutionized our understanding of fetal development as well

as our provision of care for pregnant women so here we have your little baby here oops now there's a bit of activity stuart campbell of the create health clinic in london is one of the world's leading experts in obstetrics babies looking to the side it all makes sense to you when the boost starts to move this first scan is also a chance to establish a more accurate due date based on the baby's size rather than guessing from the date of the last menstrual period there's an arm going up here right the scan can also show

early but not conclusive diagnostic features pointing towards genetic abnormalities just do the nuclear translucency in the spine no that's a test for down syndrome now it doesn't definitely say that baby's got down syndrome or not but it tells you if you're at risk until recently non-invasive research into the development of the human fetus has been restricted to analysis of stillborn specimens or what can be gleaned from grainy two-dimensional ultrasound scans but now this area of exploration has been revolutionized with the development of three-dimensional scans and even more remarkably 3d scans which move in real time

known as 4d scans [Music] for obstetricians this tool has been the equivalent of the hubble space telescope and for the first time it has been possible to open up a window on the womb and to see babies growing before our eyes [Music] these images show the incredible range of behavior that even a very young fetus is capable of these 4d scans are some of the earliest ever taken inside the womb this scan shows an embryo of just six weeks old here is an embryo of just eight weeks less than three centimeters long making its first

movements [Music] obstetricians can directly observe how the fetus grows how it behaves how it reacts to stimulation how its reflexes help it prepare for birth and for survival outside the womb [Music] professor campbell a world-renowned pioneer of these new scans is responsible for taking these incredible images this scan shows a 30-week fetus yawning and this one a 32-week fetus exploring the feel of its nose [Music] is lights action here we go the magic of ultrasound and it's on with the show i don't like the title although it's obviously true i play the leading role in

a womb with a view but seriously i'm nervous will they like what they see if i'm not the perfect baby will it be curtains for me ultrasound scans provide a crucial service in predicting any possible complications in pregnancy but they also offer a beneficial role in developing a bond between the baby and his parents the baby's kneeling you see that yeah hopefully get a lovely picture now the baby's looking down seeing your baby's face and expression while it's still inside the womb can be an intense experience and such early bonding can provide an important boost

to the baby's development once it's born and to the long-term relationship between the child and his parents and that's the arms there there we are see the arm going up to the face as well as checking the health of the baby this scan will be the first opportunity to tell if you're pregnant with one baby or two or more twins twins alike as new pins triplets quadruplets even quinns sounds cozy but overcrowded i'd say i'm pleased to be single so far anyway multiple births run in families if your mother's family has a history of non-identical

twins then you are far more likely to have twins yourself if two eggs are released and fertilized at the same time then the twins will be non-identical or fraternal in this case the twins will be separated in the womb they will also have separate placentas and the blood flow to each twin is carefully monitored throughout pregnancy [Music] twins twins alike as new pins like friendly neighbors living back to back each with their own amniotic sac [Music] when an egg splits in two identical twins are formed in this case twins will be in the same sack

in the womb and will share a placenta identical twins show early contact at 12 weeks and by 14 weeks attaching arms legs bodies and mouths this constant contact in the womb is mirrored in early life and is partly responsible for the incredible close bonds that twins feel throughout their lives even though he won't be able to walk until he is around a year old the building blocks to his first steps are there after just 11 weeks in the womb [Music] these 4d scans show 10 and 11 week old fetuses kicking and pushing out their legs

in what is known as the stepping reflex [Music] a reflex action is a pre-programmed biological impulse when his feet touch the base of the uterus the nervous system triggers an automatic muscle reaction in the legs i skip i hop look i'm jumping i tire i stop listen i'm thumping [Music] at this age there is so much space in the uterus the fetus bounces and leaps around using the walls of the womb as a trampoline [Music] the ability to walk is an important survival skill and the more the fetus moves the stronger the reflex will grow

[Music] i'm humpty dumpty without the wall rock-a-bye baby without the form i'm a rubber duck bouncing inside a rubber ball [Music] [Music] the period from 6 to 11 weeks has seen the most dramatic transformation of the entire pregnancy with the fetus undergoing a metamorphosis from being to human being [Music] he has grown nearly five times bigger in a frantic five-week burst over 200 different types of cell have been made and put in the right place muscles and nerves are twitching there is a liver two kidneys and a stomach the size of a grain of rice

as they develop initially male and female fetuses have identical genitals both sexes have a protrudence which for boys will become a penis and for girls a clitoris at 12 weeks the only difference is that they stick out at different angles looking at an ultrasound an expert might guess the sex of the baby based on this angle but it will be a few more weeks before there's a clear difference between male and female genitals but in each case the sex organs will already be hard at work a boy's testicles will be busy producing testosterone and by

the time a baby girl is born her ovaries will have made her own lifetime supply of eggs [Music] at this point after 12 weeks the fetus enters the second trimester the middle three months of pregnancy he is still less than 10 centimeters long but having achieved his basic shape and with the placenta mature he is now less at risk of a miscarriage only 50 percent of fertilized eggs survive all the way through pregnancy an imbalance in the immune system stress even the mother having previously given birth to a boy all are factors that increase the

risk [Music] my chances are 50 50. not great odds and that's only to get to the starting line the human race is not for the faint-hearted when half the runners are doomed to die before the race gets started [Music] from 16 weeks as the brain extends its reach the fetus begins to practice a wide range of intricate movement [Music] he is much more mobile now muscles are flexing fingers and toes are separate and defined and bones are hardening [Music] a hand i think i've grown a hand on what appeared to be a tentacle and look

there's another that's good it means the first has a brother that's identical [Music] [Music] touches and feelers holders and hitters grippers graspers growers and kills open and greeting rung in despair clenched in fueling steepled [Music] this could be because hands are going to be used first once the baby is born what's this another pair of hands over-egging the pudding if you ask me [Music] feet therefore i know this [Music] this little piggy [Music] the fetus is beginning to develop an awareness of the space around him it's called proprioception this unconscious sense of body in space

helps us to interact with our environment we take in information from a variety of sensory organs eyes ears nose and limbs and we build up a mental understanding of the outside world as we grow we take for granted the ability to coordinate our movements to stand without falling over to run and jump and roll down a hill we have an understanding of where our body is and what it's doing that's been developed and refined over the course of our early lives from a constant system of feedback this awareness and control is something we've been developing

since we were in the room sensors give constant feedback to the brain and the movement can then be refined and gradually perfected [Music] getting to know me getting to know all about me the excitement is the discovery that i am not infinite that i exist only as far as my extremities reassured by boundaries and edges i welcome my limitations celebrate my concernity [Music] after just over four months of pregnancy the mother may become aware of her growing babies movements for the first time [Music] although the fetus has been active for quite some time it's only

now that the movements are strong enough for her to feel women who have previously been pregnant will be more alert to this slight fluttering sensation and may pick it up when the baby is just 15 weeks old [Music] the eyes now in their correct position are generally thought to remain fused shut until 24 weeks but 4d ultrasound has revealed some babies opening their eyes as early as 18 weeks [Music] it's dark of course so there's nothing to see but even if there were light the eyes don't work this early it's just the first sign of

the blinking reflex [Music] memo to myself practice seeing in the dark why because one day i suspect dark will be replaced by something else dark is heavy will there something else be lighter after six months of pregnancy at the end of the second trimester everything has developed and is functioning as it will in the fully grown baby it's all there just very small and immature in the next phase he will embark on one of the most dramatic challenges of his time in the womb the development of the census [Music] [Music] [Music] the fetus is six

months old now and has reached a major landmark though barely longer than his father's hand it is possible that he could survive outside the cradle of the womb [Music] [Music] it's good to know that if push came to shove i could give it a go out there but i know i'm not ready haven't got what it takes i'll hang a while on the bow wait till it breaks any baby that is born prematurely faces an increased risk of brain damage the big problem is the lungs which are barely capable of this tender age of taking

enough oxygen into the bloodstream to keep the baby alive in britain the ability to survive outside the womb also informs the age limit on abortions can currently be carried out until the fetus reaches 24 weeks what is the egg fertilized what is the point the cell divided what is the point at which the brain sparked what is the point to which life the heart pumped what is the point at which life begins the lungs inflated what is the point what is the point [Music] for most babies as they enter the third trimester it's time to

put on some fat and learn how to work their bodies [Music] the mother is becoming increasingly aware of movements made by the fetus her abdomen will be growing and she is likely to be feeling better now than at any time throughout her pregnancy and at her most energetic and active [Music] [Music] from 24 weeks the fetus enters one of the most exciting and dramatic periods of development as his senses flicker into life [Music] eyes ears nose taste buds and the nerves that respond to touch are now maturing throughout his life they will be his key

to the world beyond they will allow him to develop a sense of self to interact with others to explore and to learn [Music] [Music] during his time in the womb the fetus's mouth and nasal passages are filled with amniotic fluid [Music] strong flavors from the mother's food will easily pass through the placenta into the baby's bloodstream and will then be passed out into the amniotic fluid and the baby can get an early taste and smell of his mother's cooking hmm is this what taste is a sparkle on the tongue a caress sometimes a sensation so

sweet i want to become it sometimes a surprise and a nasty one at that tongue stop it tongue you're hurting me that's better sweetness highest i could acquire a taste for taste one reason for having such an advanced sense of taste and smell while still in the womb is to help establish breastfeeding when the baby is born just like the amniotic fluid breast milk will contain a selection of tastes and smells from the mother's food so if the baby is already familiar with these flavors and likes the taste this will encourage him to latch onto

his mother's nipple and begin feeding [Music] this 4d scan shows a 24 week old fetus opening and closing his eyes although the eyes are fully formed by halfway through the pregnancy seeing is the one sense a fetus can't experience until he's born it's too dark [Music] it's possible that some very bright light could penetrate into the uterus direct sunlight for instance and the fetus may be able to detect a faint glow but the uterus wall is so thick buried under a layer of skin and fat that most of the time the fetus evolves in total

darkness [Music] i think that i can see although all that i can see is nothingness i will outstare it i will make the darkness blink look for shapes and movement in this endless night light what is light i wonder without it sight will be a gift i cannot use at 25 weeks the eyes are so intricate that even the eyelashes have grown but there is one detail that may not fully develop however much time the fetus spends inside the womb the color of the eyes some pigments need light to form properly and the baby's eyes

may change color during the first months of life [Music] babies of asian or african descent will usually be born with brown or dark gray eyes that mature to deep brown or black [Music] a caucasian baby will almost always have blue eyes in the womb even if they're destined to become green or brown [Music] perhaps the most keenly developed of all the fetal senses is hearing [Music] the fetus may be completely surrounded by amniotic fluid but because sound travels through fluid about four times faster than it does in air he has plenty to hear [Music] a

cacophony of sloshes beats and burps mark the passage of food blood and air in and out through the maze of passages and tubes just inches from the baby's ears the fetus can also hear noises from the world outside conversations loud noises and music filtered and distorted through the mother's abdomen [Music] higher sounds will be most muffled by the layers of skin and fat only the lower base notes of a piece of music will have much impact [Music] hmm vowels are generally lower in pitch than consonants so the fetus will just hear the melody of speech

without the percussion of consonants [Music] um [Music] in the beginning was the word and the word is my beginning floating i'm caressed by the lapping of sound waves rocked by the rhythm of lullabies words my father and mother are talking me into life bathed and soothed i become human in a sea of language [Music] is different from any other since it travels directly through the fluids of the body this may help the baby develop the very different kind of relationships [Music] i said you're always in trouble for the last couple of months since the fetus

was about 16 weeks old he's been exploring the feel of his limited world his sense of touch is so advanced now that he'll react if prodded through his mother's belly until now i thought i was the universe that everything that is was within me but now that i can touch these walls i realize i must be deep inside a greater universe [Music] there is a world beyond and i am in a world within a world within oh it makes me tired thinking is this thinking it doesn't get me anywhere wow [Music] along with the development

of touch comes the capacity to feel pain during an ultrasound scan it's sometimes necessary to maneuver the fetus into a better scanning position professor campbell has seen fetuses grimace and frown as he manipulates them through the mother's abdomen pain this is one sense i could do without or could i a warning signal that something's not right that something out there might cause me harm a built-in uncomfortable safety alarm [Music] [Music] during the final trimester the fetus must prepare for life outside his comforting cocoon apart from being physically robust he must also learn how to behave

many of the tricks and skills he will use on the outside are innate reflexes that he can perfect in the womb some of these like sucking breathing swallowing he will depend upon for survival others are more baffling in their origin [Music] [Music] he may react to sudden sounds with the startle reflex the starting reflex is thought to have originated at a time when we were more at risk of being eaten a sudden noise or touch from a predator will trigger the reflex and cause the arms to fling out to the side in what may be

an attempt at self-preservation [Music] [Music] during this trimester the fetus will swallow up to half a liter of amniotic fluid every day [Music] this will help his suggestive system develop but its main purpose is to practice swallowing ready for birth from the moment the cord is cut he will need to have perfected the art of taking food from his mouth to his stomach [Music] alongside swallowing one of the most important reflexes to have perfected before birth is sucking anything vaguely nipple-sized that comes close to his mouth will trigger his attempts at the sucking reflex [Music]

why do i breathe when there's no air why swallow when there's no food why yawn when i'm not tired practice practice what for i am the faintest i'm putting my body through its paces the race is on rehearsing rehearsing for the big one [Music] which big one i haven't the faintest [Music] at 26 weeks the fetus measures 25 centimeters from head to bottom as he moves through the third trimester towards birth the fetus will triple his weight and double his length there will continue to be dramatic growth in the brain and nervous system and the

fetus will create his first memory [Music] by week 26 it may just be possible to hear the fetal heartbeat by putting your ear against the mother's abdomen the fetus's heart beats about twice as fast as the mother's monitoring the baby's heartbeat gives a good indication of his general condition it's more of a vibration [Music] let's see the mother's heart rate and blood pressure are directly affected by her emotional state and her moods can be passed on to her baby [Music] i can hear my mother thinking i eavesdrop not on words but on what she is

feeling i can hear my mother thinking i am imbued with her nostalgia brainwashed by her longings if she's calm the mother's heart will slow down and her blood pressure will drop if she's tense and stressed her heart will beat faster but her blood pressure will rise although the fetus has his own separate blood supply these increases in heart rate and blood pressure are easily passed through the placenta and have a direct impact on the baby it takes a while for the effects to filter through but when the mother is recovering from the impact of stress

that her heart rate is returning to normal her baby's heart begins to race as the physiological effects of stress creep through the placenta [Music] in the short term stress in the mother can lead to low birth weight or premature birth but it's also possible that a mother's prolonged anxiety and stress can be passed on establishing a tendency for stress in the child and making him more likely to develop chronic health problems heart disease diabetes as an adult it can even have a harmful effect on the child's mental development in the early years of his life

[Music] mother when you're stressed then i am too you may not mean to but you do can't you keep anxiety to yourself passed on it deepens like a coastal shelf [Music] by now the mother will be feeling her baby move every day usually this will be the fetus kicking or pushing but sometimes she may feel the regular twitch of her baby's hiccups why we hiccup is a bit of a mystery there is a theory that it's a reflex to help a newborn baby latch onto its mother's nipple hiccups are an involuntary sudden contraction of the

diaphragm the spasm of a fetuses hiccup is strong enough to feel but because the fetus lives in fluid there is no hiccup sound [Music] the last of the major organs to form are the lungs they serve no purpose before birth the fetus gets all the oxygen he needs from his mother's blood via the placenta [Music] inside his lungs the branching network of tubes are filled with amniotic fluid and the tiny air sacs that extract oxygen remain closed for the entire time in the womb [Music] the fetus still makes breathing movements with his fluid-filled lungs this

helps the diaphragm and chest muscles practice ready to expand and fill the lungs with air the moment the baby is born [Music] breathe in out [Music] but if breath becomes a habit will it be difficult to break [Music] at 28 weeks the baby is more than two-thirds of the way through his time in the womb and is gaining weight fast as he lays down a layer of fat under his skin his senses are buzzing and over the next four weeks his nervous system will become as advanced as a newborn babies he is becoming increasingly aware

of the world around him his brain has matured enough to support consciousness and for the first time he is beginning to create memory [Music] mothers were asked to repeat a nursery rhyme each day during the final month of pregnancy the little dog laughed to see such fun the cow jumped over the moon at the end of the experiment the fetus's heart rate would slow down when it heard the same rhyme [Music] a new unfamiliar rhyme on the other hand would produce no response this was evidence of long-term memory at work before a baby is born

the cow jumped over the moon [Music] [Music] the type of music his parents listen to can alter the baby's mood [Music] fast music will stimulate and excite him [Music] music that is closest to the natural sounds and rhythms of the human voice such as classical or choral music will have a sedative calming effect [Music] [Music] shall i tell you what i like choral music sung with feeling rock and roll play too loud will have me banging on the ceiling give me a steady beat and i'll dance but what i prefer is a slow pulse music

that comes that almost hypnotizes shall i tell you what i don't like surprises [Music] at 33 weeks the fetus may recognize a particular piece of music and can even jump in time [Music] i can heartless [Music] once it seemed that the mental development of a baby began at birth now it appears birth could be a relatively insignificant event in developmental terms there is very little difference between the brain of a newborn baby and that of a 32 week old fetus he may have to support himself after birth but as for the process of thinking learning

and remembering he will already have been hard at work for three months it's like there are two of us the real me the one you can't see who thinks and feels and loves and looks ahead and the one you see who lags behind a victim of appetites strange desires bodily needs i can only guess at looking ahead i see it now a lifetime of being held back and weighed down will i ever be free of that me [Music] the final phase of pregnancy is a demanding one for the mother many women feel uncomfortable during the

last couple of months the weight of the baby together with pressure on the spine and a battle for space can all cause back and legs to ache she may be feeling anxious about the birth and is likely to feel breathless as her lungs struggle to absorb 20 percent more oxygen than normal [Music] during this stage babies spend about 90 of their time asleep and when they sleep nothing will wake them [Music] ah look at me sleeping like a babe i'm practicing to be a teenager one of the things revealed by the 4d scans is the

fact that babies have rem rapid eye movement sleep a period of sleep where the eyes flick around behind the eyelids later in life we know this is an indication of dreaming this gentle flicker of an eye could be a sign that the fetus still with a month to go before even being born is already dreaming in adulthood dreaming plays a vital role in allowing us to make sense of events around us and to develop strategies to deal with the world in a fetus dreaming however simple the dreams may be the crucial process that stimulates the

brain to grow [Music] what do i dream of i dream my mother's dreams i dream my mother she dreams me i dream about our past our future what it may bring i hear my mother crying i i dream about our past our future what it may bring i hear my mother crying i hear her sing [Music] i hear my mother crying i hear her sing [Music] each minute the fetus makes two and a half million nerve cells and now after eight months his brain is filled with more than a hundred billion neurons with a hundred

trillion connections as many as there are stars in our galaxy the baby's brain and head have grown as big as they can in the womb and still be able to squeeze through his mother's pelvis as he puts on fat he is taking more resources than she can provide it's time to emerge the countdown is on it's impossible to tell when the baby will be born exactly only five percent of babies are born on their due date most will emerge anytime two weeks either side of that the mother is kept guessing and waiting for signs [Music]

the contractions are coming faster now every few heartbeats or so a crush of pain made bearable only by the certainty of its passing my mother's leaving me i know a journey's end a show it must go on the floodgates open a universe implodes [Music] nobody knows what exactly initiates labor but it's the baby's lungs together with the placenta that are the key to the timing when the lungs are mature they secrete a protein into the amniotic fluid that alters the placenta's production of hormones it slows the release of progesterone and triggers the release of a

new hormone oxytocin which kick-starts the contractions of the uterus wall and labor begins oxytocin also inhibits memory and may have a role in helping women to forget the pain of birth and to bond with their new babies during the first stage of labor the baby's head is locked in the bottom of the uterus and is bearing down on the cervix the barrier between the uterus and the vagina the last thing to pass through the cervix was a tiny sperm 38 weeks ago now it must stretch 10 centimeters wide to allow the baby's head its largest

part to pass through [Music] [Music] the pain oh the pain my time has come the end is near i can't complain it comes to us all and i've enjoyed the adventure is there life after birth i wonder a light at the end of the tunnel i'll find out soon enough when i pass into the hereafter and meet my maker [Music] wonderful okay slow down slowly breathing down the pain's gone for the mother either the pain of birth can be eased if she gives birth standing up sitting or squatting rather than lying [Music] this could also

speed up the first date labor is also painful and stressful for the baby the squashing of the umbilical cord can easily constrict the supply of oxygen to help the baby cope his body releases large quantities of adrenaline to keep his heart pumping fast enough adrenaline also helps prepare the lungs for the lifetime of work they're about to begin [Music] once the cervix is fully opened the second stage of labor the actual delivery begins with each contraction of the uterus the baby is pushed further through the cervix in the vagina until eventually his head is just

visible the contractions are only minutes apart now and after each one the midwife encourages the mother to push down hard to help squeeze the baby out take a push a little bit more for me keep going bit more oh [Music] now breathe breathe breathe breathe good girl here's your baby your baby's head just checking back next contraction we'll have this baby out okay i think he's got a hand here as well he's brought a hand out with him okay you got a contraction yet darling okay give me a big push [Music] here we go hello

[Music] as soon as the baby is delivered his lungs drain of fluid and air rushes in expanding the air sacs and in an instant begin extracting oxygen to keep the baby alive let's pop them through here all his vital life systems are now working independently and the umbilical cord can be cut [Music] just in between that dude it's a bit chompy so just here we go [Music] the placenta is now redundant and in the third stage of labor it detaches from the uterus wall and follows the baby out through the vagina after growing painstakingly inside

her womb for nine months the baby finally comes face to face with his mother the smile seen inside the womb has gone now as the baby is thrust into a noisy bright world and starts to feel uncomfortable sensations such as cold and hunger for the first time he won't smile again until he's at least four weeks old [Music] each year across the world around 130 million women go through the complex cycle of pregnancy and birth our increasingly sophisticated understanding of the process has dramatically reduced the risks ironically it is the one thing that allows us

this understanding our large brains that is mainly responsible for the difficulties of human childbirth in the first place most mammals with smaller brains and heads have a much easier time delivering their offspring their infants are also more advanced than our helpless babies often able to walk feed and escape from predators immediately after birth for a human baby to be this advanced its mother would have to bear a 21-month pregnancy and then give birth to a toddler having been cocooned for nine months this little boy is now on his own his parents will feed him and

keep him warm but for the first time his body must keep itself alive [Music] his birth marks the beginning of his journey in the world but he has already travelled an incredible path during his nine-month odyssey in the womb [Music] what is the egg fertilized what is the point the cell divided what is the point at which the brain sparked what is the point at which life the heart pumped what is the point to which life begins the lungs inflated [Music] what is the point is this the point [Music] into the real world at last

but is it any more real than the one he's left he may ask but these aren't a baby's thoughts this isn't his voice but mine he has yet to find his he who went from isn't into is now prepares for will be a mystery a miracle a spring about to be uncurled a newborn baby a gift from his father and his mother to the world [Music] you