(PART II)

DEVELOPMENT OF
LEARNERS AT
VARIOUS STAGES
 PRE – NATAL
DEVELOPMENT
 LIFE BEFORE BIRTH
The development of human life in the womb was once a mystery, but science and
medicine have changed that. Abortion advocates still try to dehumanize the
developing baby in the womb by speaking of child as “a blob of tissue” or a “uterine
contents”. But ultrasound images, prenatal surgery and other advances in
obstetrics are shattering the blob-of-tissue myth.
Dr. Paul Rockwell, a New York physician, made this profound observations after
his amazing encounter at a tiny unborn baby boy:

“Eleven years a ago while I was giving an anesthetic for a ruptured ectopic
pregnancy (at two months gestation), I was handed what I believe was the smallest
living human ever seen. The embryo sac was intact and transparent. Within the sac
was a tiny human male swimming extremely vigorously in the amniotic fluid, while
attached to the wall the umbilical cord.”
This tiny human was perfectly developed , with long, tapering fingers, feet and
toes. It was transparent as regards the skin, and delicate arteries and veins
were prominent to the ends of the fingers. “ The baby was extremely alive and
swam about the sac approximately one time per second, with a natural
swimmer’s stroke. This tiny human did not look at all like the photos and
drawings and models of ‘ embryos’ which I have seen, nor did it look like few
embryos I had been able to observe since then, obviously because this one was
alive!”.
“When the sac was opened, the tiny human immediately lost its life and took on
the appearance of what is accepted as the appearance of an embryo at this
stage.
“ It is my opinion that if the lawmakers and people realize that this very
vigorous life is present, it is possible that abortion would be found objectionable
that euthanasia
The point at which Dr. Rockwell witnessed this unborn baby – eight weeks after
conception – is during the period that a majority of abortionist describe as most
desirable for performing an abortion.
THE STAGES OF PRE - NATAL DEVELOPMENT

PRE – NATAL DEVELOPMENT IS DIVIDED INTO THREE (3)

PERIODS
1. GERMINAL PERIOD
2. EMBRYONIC PERIOD
3. FETAL PERIOD
(first 2 weeks after conception)
This includes the:
a. Creation of
zygote
b. Continued cell
division
c. Attachment of
the zygote to
the uterine
wall.
 a. 24-30 hours after fertilization – the male
(sperm) and female (egg) chromosomes
unit,
b. 36 hours – the fertilized ovum, zygote,
divides into two (2); two cells
c. 48 hours (2 days) – 2 cells become 4 cells
d. 72 hours (3days) – 4 cells become a small
compact ball of 16-32 cells
e. 96 hours (4days) hollow ball of 64-128 cells
f. 4-5 days – inner cells mass (blastocyst) still
free in the uterus
g. 6-7 days – blastocyst attaches to the wall of
uterus
h. 11-15 days blastocyst invades into uterine
wall and becomes implanted in it
(implantation)
• In the Germinal period, the differentiation of cells already begins as inner and
outer layers of the organism are formed. The blastocyst, the inner layer of the
cell that develops during the germinal period, develops later into the embryo.
 Fetal

EMBRYONIC PERIOD (2-8 weeks after conception)

In this stage, the name of the mass cells, zygote, become embryo.
a. Cell differentiation intensifies
b. Life – support system for the embryo develop
c. Organs appear
 ENDODERM – the inner layer
of cells, develops into the
digestive and respiratory
system.
the outer layer of cells is divided into two parts:

MESODERM – is the middle layer which

becomes the:
- Circulatory ECTODERM – is the outermost
layer which becomes the:
- Skeletal
-Nervous system
- Muscular
-Sensory receptors (eyes, ears,
- Excretory nose)
- Reproductive system
-Skin parts (nails, hair)

This process of organ formation during the first two months of pre-natal
development is called organogenesis.
PLACENTA - is the life – support
system that consist of a disk – shaped
group of tissues in which small blood
vessels from the mother and the
offspring intertwine but do not join.

UMBILLICAL CORD – contains two

arteries and one vein that connects
the baby to the placenta.

AMNION – is the bag or an envelope

that contains a clear fluid in which the
developing embryo floats.
FETAL PERIOD
(2 months to 7 months after
conception)

Growth and development

continue dramatically during
this period.
a.) 3 months after conception
Fetus is bout 3 inches long and weigh about 1
ounce.

b.) 4 months after conception

Fetus is about 6 inches long and weigh4-7 ounces.

c.) 5 months after conception – fetus is about 12

inches long; weigh close to a pound

d.) 6 months after conception – fetus is about 14

inches long and weighs one and half pound

e.) 7 months after conception – fetus is about 16

inches long and weighs 3 pounds

f.) 8 and 9 months after conception – fetus grows

longer and gains substantial weight, about 4
pounds.
TERATOLOGY AND HAZARDS
TO PRENATAL DEVELOPMENT
TERATOLOGY is the field that investigate the causes of congenital (birth) defects. A
teratogen is what which causes birth defects. It comes from Greek word “tera”
which means “monster”.
1. Prescription and Non - Prescription drugs
Ex. Antibiotics
• Deformed babies
• Reduce birthweight
• Length of head and circumference
• Impaired motor development
• Information processing
• Poor attention skills

2. Psychoactive Drugs
Ex. Nicotine, caffeine and illegal drugs
such as marijuana, cocaine and heroin.
• Preterm deliveries
• Newborns lower birthweight
3. Environmental Hazards
ex. Radiation in jobsites, Xray,
Environmental pollutants, Toxic waste, and
prolonged exposure to heat in saunas and bath
tubs.
• Chromosomal abnormalities are higher
among the offspring of father exposure to
higher radiation in their occupation
• Radiations from Xray’s (unaware pregnant)
• Children’s Mental health development
• Fever that caused by saunas endangering
fetus
• Birth defects
 4. Other Maternal factors
Ex. Rubella (German measles), syphilis,
genital herpes, AIDS, nutrition, high anxiety,
stress, age (too early or too late, beyond 30).
❖ GERMAN MEASELS (malformation)
• Mental retardation
• Blindness
• Deafness
• Heart problems
❖ SYPHILIS (damages organs)
• Eye lesions (blindness)
• Skin lesions
• Central nervous system
• Gastrointestinal tract.
About one-third of babies delivered through
a herpes-infected birth canal die; another
one-fourth become brain-damaged.

A mother can infect her child in three ways:

1. During gestation across placenta.
2. During delivery through contact with
maternal blood fluids
3. Postpartum (after birth) through
breastfeeding.
• Studies shows that increased stress during pregnancy
leads to premature birth and reduce birth weight. Other
studies have shown that increased stress during
pregnancy is related to ADHD even schizophrenia later in
life.
• Maternal malnutrition during pregnancy may result to
inadequate growth in the fetus..
• Folic acid is necessary for pregnant mothers. It can reduce
the risk of having a baby with a serious birth defect of the
brain and spinal cord, called “neural tube”. A baby with
spina bifida, the most common neural tube defect is born
with spine that is not closed. The exposed nerves are
damaged, leaving the child with varying degrees of
paralysis and sometimes mental retardation.
• The baby with down syndrome rarely is born to mother
under age 30 but the risk increases after the mother
reaches 30.By age 40, the probability is slightly over 1 in
100, and by age 50 it is almost 1 in 10. the risk is also
higher before age 18.
5. PATERNAL FACTORS – Father’s exposure to lead, radiation, certain
pesticides and petrochemicals may cause abnormalities in sperm that lead
to miscarriage or disease such as childhood cancer.

As in the case of older ,mothers, older father also may place their offspring
at risk for certain defects.
HUMAN LIFE BEGINS AT CONCEPTION
• That which is in the mother’s womb is indeed a developing human
being. An unborn baby eight (8) weeks is not essentially different
from one of eighteen (18) weeks or twenty-eight (28) weeks. From
conception the zygote, the embryo and the fetus are undeniably
human life.
• Human life begins from the moment of conception. All that we have
and all that we are have been there at the moment of conception!
The fact that you have brown eyes and black, straight or curly hair
and the fact that you will turn bald at age 50 have been there already
at the moment of conception. What were added in the process of
development is nutrition.
• I remember the film on abortion that once I saw, “The Silent Scream” The
mother submitted herself to a medical doctor for abortion in her third
month of pregnancy. When the abortionist inserted his scalpel into the
woman’s womb to crush the head of the fetus, very clearly in that film, the
fetus has his/her mouth open like he was screaming for help as he evaded
the deadly scalpel of the abortionist. That’s why the film was given the title
“The Silent Scream”. This only means that the developing being in the
womb is a human being not just a conglomeration of cell or tissues.
• Base on these facts, it is wrong to do abortion. The womb is supposed to be
the safest of all places for human development. Unfortunately, however,
with the scourge of abortion, it has become a tomb!
• The development that takes place in 3 stages proves that the developing
embryo in a mother’s womb is truly a human being.
 BY: MS. MAE

THAT’S ALL!