Sensing the Great Big World: 7 Month Fetus
When your mother began her third trimester of pregnancy, you looked a lot like this
picture. During your seventh month in utero, you began to use all five of your senses!
Sight:
Ultrasound reveals that babies at this age like to open their eyes and look around. What were the first things that you saw? In the dark safety of the womb, the first thing that your eyes were able to distinguish was light. “… God said: Let there be light, and there was light. God saw that the light was good. God then separated the light from the darkness.” [1] You could see sunlight and artificial light as it penetrated through the uterine wall, and your pupils dilated and constricted in order to better see in your watery world.
Sound:
With your cochlea, the hearing organ of your inner ear, fully developed, you’d been able to hear a variety of sounds for quite a while. At this particular age, you could even distinguish between different voices! “…at the moment the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the infant in my womb leaped for joy.” (Luke 1:44)
Smell:
At this age, important parts of your nose were fully operational, so that you had a fully functional sense of smell. Scientific studies show that infants born prematurely, at just 26 weeks in the womb, can detect different odors.
Taste:
“Taste and see that the Lord is good…” (Psalms 34:9) Swallowing amniotic fluid, you tasted what your mother ate while she was in her third trimester of pregnancy, developing that affinity for the foods of home. Do you like licorice and those black jellybeans? Chances are that your mother ate something anise flavored while pregnant! Food tastes travel fast from mom to baby – reaching your little taste buds in just 45 minutes! Sweet tastes would make you swallow faster and bitter tastes would cause a less pleased reaction that even showed in the expression on your face!
Touch:
“With skin and flesh you clothed me, with bones and sinews knit me together.” (Job 10:11) You had been sensitive and reactive to touch from a very early age, by just five weeks in utero. As you grew, more and more of your body detected touch and pressure and you even felt pain. By seven months in utero, your entire body was capable of feeling touch and the grasp of your hand was even stronger than it was right after you were born!
And you were on the move! Through a series of walking like motions, you liked to do somersaults! You received antibodies from your mother at this age, that would protect you from a wide variety of diseases. Small as you were, had you been born at this time, it’s highly likely that you would have survived – a chance that increases with ever improving medical technology. Your brain waves, at this stage of fetal development, were similar to those of a full-term newborn – and you could even cry. Yet, shockingly, babies in utero are not, by governmental law, considered human beings at this point in life. Abortion is still legal in the third trimester of pregnancy.
© 2016 Christina Chase
from original post on my parish’s website: CatholicSuncook.org
Sources:
The Endowment for Human Development: https://www.ehd.org/dev_article_unit16.php
Web M.D. http://www.webmd.com/baby/guide/your-pregnancy-week-by-week-weeks-26-30
Just Facts: http://www.justfacts.com/abortion.asp#Science
Photo Image: http://www.archbalt.org/family-life/respect-life/spiritual-adoption/upload/Bulletin-announ-w-baby-images.pdf
[1] Genesis 1:3
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Christina Chase View All
Although crippled by disease, I'm fully alive in love. I write about the terrible beauty and sacred wonder of life, while living with physical disability and severe dependency. A revert to the Catholic faith through atheism, I'm not afraid to ask life's big questions. I explore what it means to be fully human through my weekly blog and have written a book: It's Good to Be Here, published by Sophia Institute Press.
Christina Chase 
Hello Christina and thank you so much for these posts are doing on the fetus. I like the post I had a hard time liking a post not because of personal reasons I like your post. But liking that the government doesn’t understand and Kills a baby. That is why I feel abortion at any level is intrinsically evil. This is such a genius writing that you’re doing it needs to be spread thank you so much take care blessings to you and yours. Your friend always Donna Marie
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Elective abortion is intrinsically evil – so sad that everyone can’t see that. We, the people, too often look for the easy way out of a difficult situation and don’t want to think about the consequences – with terrible results. As hard as it is for a woman facing an unwanted pregnancy, we do not help her by lying to her, telling her that she is carrying a mere clump of tissue. The truth and human life are far too valuable to be dismissed or denied!
Thank you, Donna Marie, for your continued encouragement and support – yes, let’s spread the word that every life is worth living! May God continue to bless you always, my friend,
Pax Christi
Christina
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