Guide to Informed Choices
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movements; stretching, yawning; body rotation.‖ 650
—Dr. Richard Restak, The Infant Mind
Did you know that a newborn baby moves in very similar ways to an unborn baby, taking into account his new environment? 651 Moving through liquid is a lot easier than air, because gravity seems to have less influence and movements are more supported; this is the same reason that pregnant moms enjoy going swimming. The amount of fluid in there at 12 weeks is still less than an eggcup size amount (0.9 ounces) compared to week 34 when he will be surrounded by a quart (32 ounces) of amniotic fluid — think, a carton of milk. 652
Your baby can float, tumble, twist and turn in his own ‗water-themed fun park‘ until he gets too big near the end of pregnancy. The bonus is, while having fun, the rotating movements he makes will help develop his circulation, balance and coordination. 653 The movements he makes and the movements you make all stimulate the balancing system located in his inner ear. 654
It‘s this system that helps us to sense movement, direction, balance and motion and allows us to walk without falling over — something pretty important, don‘t you think? Did you know that movement actually grows the brain? Through moving, your unborn baby is actually stimulating the motor control or ‗movement‘ part of his brain. Animal studies have shown that if a healthy, normal body part is restricted, the brain will ‗re-wire‘ itself so that even when not restricted, the part will no longer work.
655 How important it is to kick those little arms and legs in the early stages of fetal development! Some of the motions practiced, such as breathing, will not actually be used until birth. But imagine if he hadn‘t practiced beforehand — he‘d have to get it right pretty quickly if he wanted to survive in the world! Muscle tone is another thing that is developed with movement. A fetus at 14 or 16 weeks is capable of reaching and grasping at objects. 656 Newborn babies do this a lot. You stick your finger out and they wrap their little hand around yours in
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that oh-so-cute manner. Which reminds me, did you ever get to see that amazing photograph taken by Michael Clancy for the USA Today ? Samuel Armas, then a 21- week-old fetus was in the womb having just had corrective surgery for spina bifida — which went well, by the way. Before the womb was sewn up, his miniature arm reached out and his fingers gripped one of the surgeon‘s gloved fingers. The reporter snapped and we now have that famous photo. 657
Taste t 8 weeks your baby‘s taste buds start developing. At 15 weeks they are fully formed and ready to start working.
658 From then on, the only change that will happen is that they will multiply and spread further out on the tongue. 659
Did you know? Babies develop their sense of taste before their first drink of milk?
From around 11 weeks the fetus starts sucking his fingers and toes, perhaps unconsciously preparing for after birth, when he will have to work to get his milk.
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Studies indicate that as early as 12 weeks old babies can swallow. 661
It is not milk they are swallowing but the liquid around them called amniotic fluid. This fluid contains a pack of nutrients including fructose, salts, fatty acids, proteins and water. In the third trimester they have been known to drink from 15-40 ml of amniotic fluid each hour. Just how many calories can a baby get just through swallowing what‘s around him? It‘s about 40 calories or the equivalent of half an apple.
662 Coincidentally, babies who drink more are often bigger and those who drink less tend to be smaller. Some researchers have suggested that babies may actually experience hunger in the womb. 663 Of
course, babies still get virtually all their nutrition from mom‘s
pre-digested nutrients which cross the placenta. Studies have shown that when bitter substances are injected into the amniotic fluid the fetuses will stop drinking, but if sweet substances are injected they will double their drinking. 664
I guess we all like our sweets! There is some research to suggest that food preferences may begin in the womb. 665
developed a liking for carrots when their mothers drank a lot of carrot juice during the pregnancy. 666
The idea here is that the baby gets miniscule particles of the food from the mother‘s bloodstream and develops a liking to the flavors. So, in theory, it is possible that you might have developed your preference — for, say, A
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Italian, Mexican or whatever foods you love — just a little earlier than you thought! Beside
the small
calorie intake,
swallowing actually performs another purpose. It develops the baby‘s digestive system for independent life, where he will have to digest complex foods all by himself. 667
Smell mell isn‘t one of the senses that we use as frequently as the others, but perhaps it wasn‘t always this way. A newborn baby, for instance, has a tremendously powerful sense of smell. At birth she is able to distinguish the scent of her own mother‘s breast milk as compared to other mothers. 668 It is thought that babies first learn to recognize the scent of their mother‘s milk from the smell of the amniotic fluid, which they smell for many months prior to birth. 669
develop at 8 weeks and is functional at 15 weeks.
670 Like the eyes, the nostrils close up for a period, up until the 6 th month, when the baby will start to practice breathing movements. 671
could not smell anything if there was no air and the nose was stopped up. Now we understand that smelling and tasting are closely intertwined. Just think of how when you get a head cold you can‘t taste properly — yet only your nose is blocked. The part used for smelling is right next to the part used for tasting. In this way the fetus is able to notice the many smells in the amniotic fluid that he swallows and later inhales! 672
I sure hope they smell good!
Hearing abies are born with good hearing; it‘s a sense that is well developed before birth. At 4 weeks there is just a groove where the ear will one day be. Then at 8 weeks you can start to see an ear shape forming. By 24 weeks the ear is structurally complete. 673
As a 24-week fetus might John the Baptist have actually heard Mary‘s voice? ―In the sixth month… it came to pass, that, when Elisabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb; and Elisabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost. And she spake out with a loud voice, and said, Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb... For, lo, as soon as the voice of thy salutation sounded in mine ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy.‖ —Luke 1:26, 41, 42, 44 But what will he hear? The loudest and S B
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most continuous sounds come from your own body. woosh, gurgle-gurgle> Your heartbeat, the blood pulsing through your arteries, your noisy digestive system and, of course, your voice are all sounds that your unborn child knows intimately. It should be no surprise, then, the studies that show that playing a recording of a mother‘s heartbeat can calm newborns in intensive care. Some rhythmic sounds have a similar effect probably for the same
reason. 674
Consciously or unconsciously, your baby remembers. What about sounds from the outside world? Your baby can still hear them, but generally they are stifled and muffled.
Did you know? That to a fetus your body noises are as loud as 72 decibels — that‘s the same as a busy street or noisy restaurant! 675
Studies have shown that newborns will listen to a story read forwards but when read backwards will stop listening. 676
mother‘s speech patterns? It had to be in the womb! Researchers believe that the crying patterns of newborn babies also follows some of the mother‘s speech patterns, indicating that the fetus has become accustomed to his mother‘s voice. 677
Did you know? At birth your brain is so flexible that you can learn to speak any language on earth authentically without an accent. Later on, however, we lose this ability. 678
Babies also tend to pay more attention to music or stories that were played, read or sung to them in the womb. Listen to this example. A group of mothers frequently liked to watch the soap opera Neighbors
during pregnancy. After their babies were born they could be calmed by playing the theme song from Neighbors ! 679 Now how‘s that for prenatal listening! It was simply a familiar tune and familiarity is comforting. Amazingly, babies who are born to mute mothers sound different when they cry. The reason for this is that they have missed out on the normal pre-birth experience which includes hearing the human voice. 680
Studies have shown that babies also prefer their mother‘s voice to any other voice, which also makes sense because that‘s the sound they‘ve listened to day and night ever since they first started to hear. 681
Remember, your voice comes across more clearly than anyone else‘s voice because it is actually transmitted right through your bones and flesh to your child. 682
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Imagine that! A symphony conductor was being interviewed on how he became interested in music. He said he‘d always been surprised by his ability to play pieces he‘d never seen — then his mother told him that she had played those very pieces while he was in the womb.
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Some unborn babies cover their ears in response to an ultrasound 684 or loud music. 685
Pretty cute, hey? Well, it‘s likely they were doing this for a reason! As you probably know, ultrasound is used by doctors to check on fetal development — and sadly, to locate the baby for an abortion. The ultrasound works by sending out quick pulses of high-pitched sound that bounce back when they hit something, then form an image on the screen. One explanation for babies covering their ears is that the ultrasound may cause ‖secondary waves‖ in the amniotic fluid, causing the fetus to hear a high-pitched tapping sound, possibly as loud as a train. 686 No wonder some fetuses cover their ears! Another explanation is that the fetus may be able to hear the sounds as they resonate within his own bones and tissues. 687
Have you ever felt a gunshot or firework finale or maybe a really loud concert? Dr. Frederick Wirth suggests that babies in the womb may hear with their whole body and not just their ears only. 688
So in fact, even before your unborn child has fully developed ears, he might still be picking up the vibrations of sound. There is some evidence for this. One piece of research involved observing fetus‘ reactions to sound via ultrasound. The babies studied responded to sound at 16 weeks, even though technically their ears aren‘t completed until 24 weeks. 689
Too cool! Since the fetus becomes accustomed to your language while she is in the womb, she prefers it after birth. If you are French speaking, your newborn baby will look at French speakers over other nationalities. The same applies to any language. 690
Sight ight is something that most of us take for granted and it‘s probably the sense that we use the most moment by moment. In the womb things are a bit different. It‘s a dim place down there, and there isn‘t too much to see, except your hand
or the
end of
your foot!
Consequently, sight is the sense that babies develop the least. Newborn babies aren‘t S
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born with the same perfect vision that you and I have. It takes them a little bit of time to adjust to different distances. However, they are not helpless. The best distance for a baby‘s clear vision at birth just happens to be the distance to mom‘s face when held in her arms. How perfectly designed! 691
It is said that within hours of birth your baby will recognize your face as his mother. 692
Now that is good memory!
Did you know? Some unborn babies will actually cover their eyes if a bright light is shone at them.
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In the womb shades of light and darkness are visible. When you shut your eyelids in bright sun it‘s not totally dark. In the same way, the womb is not totally dark. You are probably thinking, how can a baby see
anything through his mother‘s belly? Well, as the pregnancy progresses your flesh
thins and
stretches out
to accommodate your baby. This makes it easier for light to get through. Babies will respond to light. For example, if a flashlight is held to the mother‘s belly, as early as 16 weeks, the baby‘s heart rate will go up. Perhaps it startles him or maybe he just doesn‘t like having a bright light shone in his face! I don‘t blame him! In any case, he does notice it. Your baby‘s eyes are still shut at that stage (remember you can still see the sun through shut eyelids). In the growing embryo, the eye is first visible as bulging dots at 4 weeks. At 8 weeks the eyelids start to close over while the eye develops. 694
start opening again, although some ultrasounds have shown fetuses as early as 18 weeks with their eyes open. Until birth the fetus will blink and open and shut his eyes, practicing for life in the outside world where he will need to blink auto- matically. 695
Eye trivia The color of your baby‘s eyes will change to its real color after birth. Generally a Caucasian baby will be born with blue eyes and an Asian or African baby will have a lighter brown or grey.
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Too cute ―As soon as their eyes open in the womb, twins seem to have no trouble locating each other and touching faces or holding hands.‖ 697
Reason #55 ―Your growing baby has senses just like you and me‖
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Reason #56 Abortion is playing God
Life and death are not choices we make on behalf of others I am convinced that Americans do not want to play God with the value of human life. 698
—Ronald Reagan, U.S. President
f you think about it, none of us were able to create our own life in the beginning. In fact, even our parents were just players in that great drama. God (or whatever word or description you want to use for the higher power) is the one in control, the one who grew you and started your heart beating one fine day. Our life is a gift. Through that gift we can pass on to others that same gift. Although we are very important in creating with God the bodies of our children, we do not create their souls. Our creative powers do not extend to uncreating, aka, killing that life. In the ultimate sense we don‘t give life so we can‘t take it. It‘s as simple as that. Or to quote Monica from Touched by an Angel , ―You can‘t play God because you aren‘t God.‖ 699
Or to put it differently, ―God began those lives, and men have no right to stop them.‖ 700
I think this is the sticking point for some people. For example, the self-professed, pro-choice pagan Ginette Paris believes that women give life and therefore, ―It is morally acceptable that a woman who gives life may also destroy life under certain circumstances.‖ 701 Yet there is a major flaw in that argument. We do not give life. God gives life. What we do is to share in that miracle as our bodies become the place for creation — when we open ourselves to it. Are we such poor reflections of our heavenly Creator that we destroy that life that He gave to live inside of us?
Life is a miracle to be enjoyed not a specimen to examine an the word ―life‖ convey to you the Yüklə 4,63 Mb. Dostları ilə paylaş:
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