The babies are becoming more and more aware of their surroundings this week. By this week, a baby is responsive to both light and touch. Additionally, her lungs go through an important developmental process this week.
Light: The baby is responsive to light now, which seems to indicate that the optic nerve is working. If you shine a bright light on your belly, the baby will move away from it. This may become an effective way of getting the baby repositioned when she's sitting in an uncomfortable place. So, it appears that the baby is responding well to stimuli.
Touch: The baby responds to outside touch now. It is recommended that this time is used as a way of bonding, by trying to tickle the baby's foot or roll back and forth to see how the baby responds.
Lungs: This week, the lungs begin to secrete surfactant, a fatty substance that covers the inner lining of the air sacs and allows the lungs to expand normally so breathing can occur. Although it will be approximately 10 more weeks before the lungs are fully operational, the production of surfactant is an essential step in making the fetus viable outside the womb."
If you were to go into labor now, your baby would have a strong chance of surviving. Some of the greatest advances in medicine over the past years has been the care of premature babies.
Your baby at this stage weights only 2 pounds and is still extremely small, and although the chances of him/her surviving should he be born now, he/she would probabaly spend serveral months in hospital.
2 comments:
Kerry actually did this light on the belly thing and it worked! She said she has fun "harassing" the baby, after all the kicking Sara of her! hehe.
Really?? I'll have to try that! I play tag with them now...well, mostly with Maggie. Audrey is off sleeping or something most of the time. I did get to play tag with her last night and she was so much more gentle than Maggie usually is. She'll be my quiet girl, I'm sure!
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