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Phone: (209) 933-9131 · Fax: (209) 475-1214
candace@phcstockton.org · www.phcstockton.org

First Trimester

Fertilization: Takes place in the fallopian tube when the sperm and egg meet. 46 chromosomes, 23 from each parent pair up to form a completely unique person. Hair, eye color, sex etc...all are determined at this moment.

Implantation: 5 to 6 days after fertilization implantation takes place. Your ovaries are induced to continue production of progesterone and hCG is secreted by the implanted new life as a way of signaling your body it has arrived.

4 weeks: Now an embryo your baby’s heart has been beating for a week. Your placenta has already started functioning and the baby has secreted hormones that stop your period. You’re starting to wonder if you might be pregnant?

6 weeks: Dr. Paul Rockwell holds the completely intact amniotic sac containing a baby removed during a surgical procedure for a ruptured tubal pregnancy in 1972. He wrote, “Within the sac was a tiny human male, swimming extremely vigorously in the amniotic fluid. The baby was extremely alive and did not look like any of the photos or drawings of embyos which I have seen.”

8 weeks: Called a fetus at this stage, the unborn child is about half an inch long. While still quite small the details of a tiny person are evident, arms, legs, fingers and toes. At this early point in development the baby’s brain waves can be measured.

12 weeks: Your baby’s heart is developed, the vocal cords are complete and your baby can and sometimes does cry within your womb. Twenty tiny teeth are forming in the gums and your baby may even suck his thumb. The brain is completely developed now and the baby can feel pain. second trimester