DC 2007-05-11, In The Womb 子宫日记 18 (END)

All her vital life systems are now working independently and the umbilical cord can be cut. The placenta is now redundant and in the third stage of labor, it detaches from the uterine 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 her mother. The sweet smile seen inside the womb is gone now, as the baby is thrust into a noisy, bright world and starts to feel uncomfortable sensations like cold and hunger. Her smile won't be seen again until she is at least 4 weeks old. Each year around the world, about 130 million women go through the complex cycle of pregnancy and birth. Our increasingly sophisticated understanding of the process has drastically reduced the risks for both mother and baby.

And now for this little girl, after 9 months in the womb and a healthy delivery, she's on her own. Her parents will feed her and keep her warm, but for the first time, her body must keep itself alive. She's gone from egg to embryo, to fetus, to trillions of cells of newborn baby. Her birth marks the beginning of her journey in the world, but she's already traveled an incredible path during her nine-month odyssey in the womb. Protected by her mother and following her own unique genetic blueprint, she's grown a face, arms, eyes and legs. She has a brain and nervous system to control her body, stomach and intestines to digest food and a heart to pump blood. She has learned to breathe, to hear, to feed, to remember and to tell her parents when she's hungry, tired, happy or in pain or before being born, and now she's ready to face the world.