When You Were Formed in Secret
by Gary Bergel
Men and women have always wanted to know about life before birth. Countless myths, theories and superstitions surrounded the mysterious first nine months of existence, which every human being spends in the shadowy, warm, watery world of the mother’s womb.
Four centuries ago, all that man knew about developing babies could have been printed on one or two pages. Today, science and medicine have provided us with incredible insights into this formative process, and we now know more about human life before birth than ever before in history. Today, you can know in exquisite detail what you were like when you were so marvelously and majestically formed in the secret of your mother’s womb. This is an account about you and your life before birth.
Day 1: You began when the sperm cell from your father met and united with the ovum (egg) cell from your mother. During this act of conception, or fertilization, the two cells became a single living cell. You began. A unique individual, you never existed before in the history of the world, and you are not entirely like either of your parents nor are you entirely like any of your ancestors. When conceived, you were so tiny that you could not be seen with the naked eye. You were but the size of a pin prick, smaller than a grain of sand, smaller even than a period typed at the end of a sentence.
Week 1: You continued to grow at a rapid rate and began looking like a cluster of cells. You actually looked a bit like a variety of berry, so at this stage of your growth you were termed a “morula,” which is Latin for mulberry. Your mother had no idea you had “nested” into her womb, and she had not yet missed a menstrual period.
Week 2: Having now firmly situated yourself in the supplying goodness of your mother’s womb, at about 10 days you begin to send her signals that you are there. Through placental chemicals and hormones you begin to influence virtually all of your mother’s organs and tissues. She will soon miss a menstrual period, experience some “morning sickness” or tenderness in her breasts, and she might suspect that you have been conceived. Even though you exert this absolute influence, you and the balloon-like sac of waters which surrounds and protects you are still smaller than the seed of an apple.
Weeks 3 and 4: As you completed the first month of your life you were now about the size of an apple seed or one-sixth to one-fourth of an inch in length. Your heart began beating at three weeks and has set the “rhythm of life” for all your days. Your brain began to form, and soon you would send out impulses throughout your body. On your 24th day you had no arms or legs. Then suddenly, two days later, tiny buds for your arms appeared and then your legs budded in only two more days! In a mere four weeks you looked every bit like a tiny baby and even began to react and respond like one.
Month 2: During this period you were able to move with delightful grace in your buoyant world. By the end of the month you could swim. Unborn children your age have been recorded doing flips in less than two seconds! With your head “resting on your chest,” the tip of your nose showed up on your 37th day, and you could pull away if it was tickled. As your inner ear formed, you began to hear the rushing sounds of your watery world. By the end of the month your mother had missed two menstrual periods and probably had confirmed you were there. When she checked in with her doctor he probably pointed out that at this stage you were “a splendidly functioning baby.”
Month 3: In your third month of life you grew to be more than two inches in length and you now weighed one ounce. Your movements became more energetic, less mechanical and more graceful and fluid, very much like an astronaut floating and enjoying his gravity-free space capsule. Your arms grew to be as long as printed exclamation marks and your fingers and toes quickly formed, complete with fingerprints which gave you a separate legal identity that would never change, except for size.
As your eyelids closed-as thin as butterfly wings-and as translucent skin covered you-looking like a frosted glass jacket slipped on-you assumed an ethereal, transcendent beauty. Special grace seemed to envelop and permeate you as you moved into your second trimester of life.
Month 4: Your face took on facial features similar to, yet distinct from, those of your parents and grandparents. Fine hair began to grow on your head, and eyebrows and eyelashes appeared to enhance your unique beauty. As you squirmed and fluttered about, it is possible that your hand found your mouth and that you sucked your thumb for the first time. You grew and grew until you became half as tall as you would be at birth.
Months 5 and 6: Sometime before the end of this second trimester you had a very wonderful experience-you heard and recognized your mother’s voice. Perhaps this is why you had such peace upon your countenance during this period. One observer said you looked as if you might be awaiting eternity. Your eyes once again opened, and this time you could perceive the shadowy outlines and dimly lighted forms in your environment.
Months 7-9: During the last three months before your birth, your mother, with her womb stretched to its limits, probably felt like she had been pregnant forever. As you tripled in weight to more than seven pounds and grew to 20 inches during these same months, you began to find your quarters becoming very cramped. As you settled into waiting, you found your favorite positions when possible, or sometimes you just pulled your knees up to your nose…and waited.
Birth Day: As you quietly waited, “locked” in position for birth, a time came when you heard a loving whisper from afar saying, “It is time.” And with all the strength of your being you responded with a resounding “Yes!” And then the sounds around you began to change as you felt the first squeezes from the uterine muscles which you triggered into action.
Within hours, the noble labor of birth transported you from your warm, watery world out into an environment which was a chilly 20 degrees colder. Not having the buoyancy of water around you, it was harder for you to hold your head upright and five times as hard for you to breathe. You experienced pangs of hunger as you adjusted from a constant flow of nourishment to some six meals a day. Though you nursed clumsily at first, you soon caught on. After a good meal you would snuggle, drawing up your arms and legs as you had in the womb.
You soon began communicating your discomforts and needs to your mom and you again found solace in her shared warmth. If she held your head to her beating heart you heard it and fell asleep.
As your mother looked down upon you, she spotted your fingernails, which needed trimming, and as she continued to study you in your sleep, her heart would often fill with joy, realizing that you would now know grace in the light of life. Her hope had become a certain, living love.
This entry was posted on Thursday, January 26th, 2012 at 10:20 am
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So beautiful, thanks for sharing this!
You’re welcome, thanks for reading!