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Miracle Of Birth Research Paper

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Miracle of Birth: the Process of Prenatal and Brain Development
Prenatal development is the process of rapid growth and change of a zygote to a fully formed baby that begins about 40 weeks prior to birth. It is divided into three trimesters where the first ends at the end of the embryonic stage, the second around the 20th week of pregnancy, and the third ends at birth. These trimesters do not correspond with the three stages of prenatal development known as germinal, embryonic, and fetal. The germinal stage marks the beginning of prenatal development when the zygote begins to rapidly divide for one week after conception. However, less than one-half of the zygotes will survive past the first two weeks. The zygotes become more specialized as …show more content…

The brain continues to grow and rapidly develops in three stages known as Neurogenesis, Synaptogensis, and synaptic pruning. Neurogenesis describes the process of rapid division within the nervous system to create functional regions of the brain where most of the process is complete before birth while some regions continue to form after birth such as hippocampal cells. Synaptogensis forms new connections between neurons as over time connections increase in density where some only form one synapse and others form hundreds of thousands. Synaptic pruning removes synapses due to the fact some are only needed temporarily, some are damaged or become dysfunctional, or that some are not used often enough so they are removed for specialization. The newly formed fetus from weeks 9 to 12 shows signs of simple movement with reflexes in arms and legs while sex organs begin to differentiate. Fingers, fingerprints, and toes are fully formed around week 16 and around week 24 the fetus develops response to sound. More remarkably the brain doubles in size between week 16 and 28, while developing basic behavior. The fetus gains greater coordination skills as the cerebral cortex grows larger and personality also develops. Around the 28th week the fetus can mediate sensory input as thalamic brain connections form, such as responding to bright light from within the dark womb. Growth slows down around the 30th or 32nd week but the fetus continues to gain weight and by week 37 has developed all organ systems necessary to survive outside the uterus. Prenatal development ends with the birth of the fetus around 38 to 40 weeks

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