It’s a dreamy thing to a girl when she became pregnant. Many speculations continues on her mind.

 

Is it a boy or a girl? How big the baby is now? Does his or her hair grow yet? Can he or she open their eyes now? Like this, many more thinking continues in would be mother’s mind.

But without necessity, one cannot see the baby by doing ultrasound test, so the easiest way to get answers of these questions are, getting an idea about week by week fetal development.

 

First Three Weeks:

At this time sperm and egg combined together and turn into one cell which called zygote. In the meantime, if more than one egg released and fertilized then would be mother will have multiple zygotes. (Twins or more than twins).

 

4^th Week:

In this time, the fertilized egg which moves through the fallopian tubes towards the uterus starts to become a single cell and again and again it divides into many parts. By the time when the egg reaches to the womb, it has become a mass of more than 100 cells, which called embryo.

One part, which is the inner part; which will turn into a matured embryo and other part is outer part which will supply the nutrition to embryo and will protect it from any kind of harm.

 

5^th Week:

The brain and heart of the child started to form from this week. In this time the embryo has started growing into the uterus and start to develop slowly. The outer part of embryo reaches out to establish a link with the mother’s blood supply. And then firstly, the inner part of the embryo divides into two layers and then divides into three layers. Later on each of these layers will grow in different parts of the baby’s body.

 

6^th Week:

In this week, baby is growing rapidly and the neural tube along the baby’s back is closing and baby's heart is start pumping. By this time the inner part of baby’s ears started to link with the jaw and the body of the baby become the shape like the English alphabet “C”.

 

7^th and 8^th Weeks:

During this week the brain and face of the baby become more developed.The tiny nostrils of the nose become visible and lenses of the eyes started to form. At this time the hands and legs started to visible like small ramification. In the meantime the gristle of baby started to form which will turn into bone of hands and legs later.

 

9^th to 11^th Week:

The face of baby started to form in 9^th week. The eyes become bigger and more visible and some colors are also seen there. Mouth and tongue exist there with small taste buds. The formation of hands and legs and fingers are started.

 

In 10^th  week, the head of the baby becomes more round and the neck and throat started to form. At this time baby’s eyelids started to close to protect her/his eyes. The bone of jaws starts to form. The heart of baby fully formed in the meantime.

 

In 11^th week the eyes of baby divides into two and the ears start to establish slowly. The red blood cells start to form in baby’s liver. From this time the genitalia of baby starts to form slowly. The shape of ears start to visible and the fingers of his hands and legs tend to be different. Nails also exist there.

 

12^th to 14^th Weeks:

In 12th week the embryo formed fully. All organs, muscles, hands, legs and bones are established in determining place along with the slowly visible genitals. The baby's skeleton which made of tissue called cartilage, around now, this starts to develop in hard bone.

Within 13th and 14th week the urine of baby start to produce and baby started to urinate into the amniotic fluid.

 

15th to 17th Week:

At this time the bone of the baby started to form into skeleton and the types of hair determining slowly.

The eyes of baby started to see forward and start moving slowly.

Ears are very close to form fully. Baby is achieving the ability of chewing in this time. By this time the movements of baby become well-coordinated and this can be tracked by the Ultrasound test.

 

18th to 20th week:

In 18th week the ears of baby fully established besides his/her head and maybe this time the baby can hear sounds.

In 19th week, a sticky like substance named vernix caseosa started to cover the whole baby of the baby. This substance will protect the baby’s skin from to be hard, crack and all kinds of abrasion.

In 20th week the baby starts to move and the mother can feel that.

 

21th to 23th week:

During the week of 21th the baby becomes more active and this time baby achieves the ability of gulp. A tendency of sleeping and awaking starts to develop into baby. This tendency does not match with general people’s sleeping and awakening time. It can happen that, maybe mother is sleeping at night; but the baby is awakening this time and moves repeatedly. Though in this time baby’s lungs cannot work properly, but baby is practicing breathing; so that she/he can survive in the outside of the uterus. In the meantime the baby takes the oxygen from mother by placenta and baby is doing this until their birth.

In 22th week, the eyebrows started to form on top of the baby’s eyes.

In 23th week there are some wrinkles have seen in baby’s skin and the color of skin slowly turn into red from pink. The fingerprints and footprints started to form. For girls the uterus and ovary established in determining place, from where the egg will produce and for boys the testis started to descend from the abdomen.

 

24th to 26th Weeks:

Baby’s hair started to grow during the week of 24.

In 25th week baby’s startle reflex are developing. At this time baby might be able to react to any familiar sounds like, the sound of talking, movements, touch etc.

By the 26th week, the finger of baby’s hands becomes fully formed.

 

27th end 28th week:

During 27th week the lungs, brain, nervous system and digestive system of the baby fully formed but not fully matured yet. Since becoming fully mature of these organs, it will take the time to till the end of the pregnancy and all of these organs will starts working properly after the birth of the baby. Before that, these organs will continuously developed day by day till to birth.

In 28th week the eyelids of baby open partially and this time the eyelash has started to form. By now baby's heart rate become slight slow and it’s become around 140 beats per minute.

 

29th to 31st week:

In 29th week the bones of baby formed fully though they are still so soft and pliable.

In 30th week the eyes of baby open for a while and many hair appear in his/her head. At this time the red blood cells start to form in baby’s bone marrow and baby can suck the fingers of her/his hands.

In 31st week, the nervous system of baby become in such a stage when it can control the body temperature of the baby.

 

32th to 34th week:

At this stage the nail of toe started to be obvious. At that time the body of the baby started to absorb some requisite minerals like: iron, calcium, etc. In this time the baby is lying with their head pointing downwards and preparing for birth. This is known as cephalic presentation.

By this time, baby's pupils can constrict, dilate and detect the lights entering his or her eyes. At this time the bone of baby becomes harder and started to different from sculp.

 

35th to 40th weeks:

In 35th week baby’s limbs are becoming more round and his/her weight increase rapidly.

During the 36th week the lungs of baby fully prepared to breathe. By this time baby is getting ready for breastfeeding and his/her digestive system fully prepared to digest the breast milk.

At 37 weeks, the pregnancy is considered as full-term. In this time, baby's organs are ready to function on their own. At this time baby's head might start descending into mother’s pelvis. The condition when baby's head moves down like this, is called "engaged".

 

 

 

 

Source: WEBMD and Other Medical Journal

Compilation: Sharmin Akter Shetu

 

By calling to our Careline number from Sunday to Tuesday (Except Government Holidays) from 9am to till 5pm,you can consult with a Doctor directly, about any kind of problem related to mother and child.Our toll free number is 08-000-888-000.