The last weeks in the womb – How the unborn child sharpens his senses, gains weight and prepares for birth

Pregnancy is a process of astonishing precision and perfection that takes place in secret for many months and in which every single developmental step of the unborn child is precisely coordinated with the other. Especially in the last weeks before birth, a tremendous amount happens: the child’s senses mature, he gains weight, hisPersonality begins to form, and it prepares physically for the great moment of birth. For expectant parents, these weeks are often characterized by a mixture of anticipation, wonder and occasional uncertainty, because the mother’s body is noticeably changing, and the question of how the child lies in the belly and whether everything will go its natural way is always changing.more in the foreground. The following text traces the most important developmental steps of this last phase of pregnancy and shows with what remarkable care nature has orchestrated every single aspect of maturing, so that the child can see the light of day in the end.

Nature’s perfect scheduling

No matter how chaotic and exhausting these last weeks of pregnancy may be for the expectant parents, they can always rely on one thing: Nature has planned a perfect schedule, in which every developmental step takes place at exactly the right time. Everything is set up in such a way that the child unfolds optimally in the womb and no step too early ortoo late. This reliable order gives parents the certainty that they do not have to worry about every single process, because the mother’s body largely takes over the control by itself. The child grows up, develops its abilities and prepares for life outside the womb without the parents having to actively intervene. This silent, persistentMiracles of development deserve to be viewed with wonder and gratitude, especially when the days become arduous and the nights restless.

The development of the senses in the womb

In the unborn child, the sense of touch is the first thing to develop, which has the great advantage that it can feel its small world in the uterus at an early age. It feels the walls of the uterus, the umbilical cord and also the gentle touches when the mother or father strokes the abdomen. The next well-developed sense is the sense of smell, with which theChild can recognize his mother right after birth and find her breast to take the first nourishment. The child has been able to hear for some time, and the dark red world of the uterus also perceives it in some ways. However, the sense of sight only really gets going after birth and is still severely limited in the first weeks of life.

In the first days in the worldthe newborn can only see clearly at a very short distance, which conveniently corresponds exactly to the distance that the mother’s face has from the child’s face when breastfeeding. So when sucking, the face of the mother looks reasonably clear and can build a first bond over the gaze. If you observe how adults deal with newborns, you will find that theyinstinctively know all these things. They caress the belly of pregnant women, talk to the unborn child and often naturally stop using strong fragrances after birth, otherwise they would confuse or misdirect the infant’s sensitive sense of smell. The child seeks the natural body odor of his parents and would be affected by artificial fragrances inhis orientation is disturbed.

And all adults bend down to an infant when they make contact with it, or they hold it very close to their face, closer than they would to an infant. This behavior happens, as it were, instinctively, as if the adults knew that the newborn cannot see them well otherwise. These natural reactions of theEnvironment show how deeply the knowledge of the needs of a newborn is ingrained in us, even if we are not aware of it. Nature has set it up in such a way that parents and children find each other intuitively in the first days and weeks, without the need for special guidance.

The weight gain in recent weeks

The child in the abdomen no longer primarily grows in length in these and the next few weeks, but mainly uses fatty tissue, which will serve as an energy reserve after birth. This increase can be up to a good quarter of a kilogram per week, which is a considerable amount and shows how intensively the child’s body is building up reserves during this phase.for the expectant mother, this growing weight means an increasing physical strain, which is noticeable when climbing stairs, bending over and sleeping. The expectant father can be an important support in this phase by helping the mother in everyday life and ensuring that she can rest sufficiently so that the child still has the necessary time in theBelly. It is a phase in which the parents grow together as a team and prepare together for the arrival of the child.

However, parents should not forget that the weight gain of the child is not an invitation to feast excessively themselves, because the extra pounds that mother and father put on during this time are clearly after birthmore difficult to get rid of. Nature has provided for the child to build up his reserves, while the mother’s body provides the necessary energy without the need for excessive food intake. A balanced diet is usually sufficient to meet both the needs of the child and the mother. It is a common misconception that aPregnant women have to eat for two, and this error often leads to unnecessary weight gain, which affects the well-being of the mother.

Baby bacon as an evolutionary advantage

Incidentally, humans are the only primate to afford this evolutionarily expensive baby bacon, and this peculiarity deserves a closer look. While the juveniles of apes and great apes are born very thin and shriveled, human newborns are born with round cheeks and thick legs, which, as it were, signal that they are inare able to wait a few days for the mother’s milk to fully enter. This bacon is no coincidence, but the result of a long evolutionary development that has given human offspring a decisive survival advantage. Some researchers suspect that the baby bacon is intended to support strong brain growth in the first year of life, because the humanThe brain consumes enormous amounts of energy and needs a reliable reserve. The great anthropologist Sarah Blaffer Hrdy has put forward another thesis that places baby bacon in a social context.

In her opinion, a mother of man is the only one among the primate mothers who consciously decides after birth whether she can raise this child or not, and theInfants therefore try to look as strong, healthy and, above all, as sustainable as possible. In doing so, they signal to the mother that they can easily bridge the first few days until the milk flows completely, and that it is worth investing in their rearing. Every human child carries, as it were, the silent certainty that it can only survive if someone is willingis to take care of it around the clock in the coming years. This dependence is the price that nature demands for the extraordinary developmental capacity of the human brain, and it is at the same time the putty that makes the bond between parent and child so strong and indissoluble. The baby bacon is thus not just a physiological reserve, but a silent promiseof the child to his parents, that the effort of rearing will be worthwhile.

Physical maturation in the late phase of pregnancy

Important physical developments that are important for the later life of the child also take place in this phase of pregnancy. When parents are expecting a girl, the clitoris continues to develop and take on its final shape during these weeks. In a boy, around the end of the eighth month of pregnancy, the testicles migrate downwards from the abdomen into theScrotum, a process that is usually completed before birth. These physical changes occur quietly and unnoticed inside the uterus, showing how precisely nature has planned even the smallest details of development. Parents can only guess at these processes, but knowing about them can help them better understand the complexity of growth in the womb.

The space becomes narrower and the amniotic fluid renews itself

Otherwise, it will slowly become tight in the uterus, but the child will still have some time to rotate into the correct birth position and find its location. Only the extensive gymnastics exercises of the past few weeks are no longer to be thought of, because the space for large movements is becoming increasingly smaller. The child is now swimming in about a small liter of amniotic fluid, which the body of theRemarkably, the mother is completely renewed approximately every three hours. This constant renewal is a masterpiece of the maternal organism and shows how attentively the mother’s body cares for the child’s well-being. Regular renewal of the amniotic fluid is also necessary because the child is already swallowing, drinking and alsoexits.

Yes, the child actually excretes in the womb, and it is thanks to the maternal body that the uterus is always supplied with fresh, clean amniotic fluid and the child always swims in a hygienic environment. This cycle of uptake and excretion is an important part of preparing for life outside the womb, because ittrains the kidneys and the digestive tract of the child. The mother usually does not notice any of these processes, and yet her body and that of the child perform an amazing performance day after day. It is a silent interaction between two organisms that never ceases to amaze in its precision and elegance.

The development of the child’s personality

In this phase, the child develops more and more his own personality, both physically and mentally, and thus becomes more and more an individual being. Due to the fat deposits on the face, its individual facial features develop more strongly, and it acquires that distinctive appearance that will accompany it for a lifetime.Brain the centers responsible for personality, and the child already develops its own small habits, which will show up in its sleep and waking rhythms after birth. Some children are already calmer in the belly, others more active, and these differences are not a figment of the parents’ imagination, but an expression of a forming individuality. Parents mayare happy to get to know a being after birth who already has their own little story and their own preferences.

The mother’s body also prepares for the task ahead during this time, because the breasts adjust to breastfeeding and begin to prepare for milk production. The first drops of a pre-milk can already be seen, which shows thatthe mother’s body prepares for feeding the child after birth. This process happens all by itself and does not require any mother’s intervention, because the hormones of pregnancy control the preparation of the mammary glands with great reliability. The expectant mother can face these changes with serenity and trust that her body knows what it is doing.

The question of the child’s position before birth

Towards the end of these weeks, the exciting question arises of how the child lies in the stomach, and this question often occupies the expectant parents very much. The child can still turn, and sometimes you touch the head under the rib arch of the mother, sometimes the buttocks, sometimes it lies with its back to one side, sometimes to the other side. But over the course of these weeks, it becomes more and more common with the head downbecause gravity and the shape of the uterus favor this position. From the ninth month, three quarters of all children remain in this so-called cranial position and prepare for their way through the birth canal. Two weeks before birth, only four to five of every hundred newborns with their buttocks in front sit in the mother’s pelvis, which is the end position of the pelvisis referred to.

Regardless of whether the child is in the cranial position or in the pelvic end position, a natural birth is basically possible, and parents should not be prematurely unsettled if the child has not yet taken the desired position. The midwives and doctors know various ways to get the child to turn in the last few weeks, and alsoduring the birth itself, the situation may still change. It is important that parents stay in close contact with their midwife or doctor and have regular examinations to keep an eye on the child’s situation. Over thousands of years, nature has developed mechanisms that ensure a safe birth in the vast majority of cases, and this trust in thenatural process can give the parents a lot of serenity in recent weeks.