I was talking to a colleague yesterday. In my job, there are only three kinds of editors in the academic line: the Science geeks, the sastera or literature geeks and the Maths geeks. Okay, geek is a strong word... but it summarizes how we are in each field/subject.
My colleague is in the Maths category and so she is good with numbers but a dunce in everything general, worldly or scientific. As she only worked with the company for a year, she is relatively a newbie in the working world, hasn't gotten her own car or house yet, has not got married and has not started thinking about having kids.
My discussions with her are usually one-way: me dispensing geeky information and she, absorbing it. Which is a good combo as I like dispensing and she likes absorbing.
Our topic for yesterday: how easy is it to get pregnant?
Despite the many times you've heard a couple getting pregnant 'accidentally' (unplanned), a pregnancy is not as easy to come by as one might think. There are so many obstacles to this process of making a new individual out of two cells an ovum and a sperm. I promise you this explanation is child-safe and good to know if you want to or do not want to get pregnant in the short run.
There are several obstacles preventing a fertile healthy woman from getting pregnant.
Obstacle 1: Timing
You know that 'golden' time of the month that women have... yeah, the time when she is most fertile. It is in a small window of three days only around Day 14 to Day 17 of her menstrual cycle. Ok, before I lose you there, here are some basic information you may need.
A menstrual cycle is calculated based on the fact that the first day you menstruate is Day 1. If your menstrual lasts for 7 days, then your fertile period would be another 7 days after the last day of your menstruation period. Now that we are clear on that... If a couple is to engage in sexual activity within those three days, it is highly likely that the sperm cell can meet the ovum. For some women it is a 5-day window. Results may vary.
Obstacle 2: Which way?
The good news is a normal woman has 2 ovaries and 2 fallopian tubes. The bad news is only one ovary will release one egg every month. There is no telling which ovaries will do the releasing every month and it is not like they take turns and alternate without fail. If the sperm cells were to take the wrong turn then they made the journey for nothing. Sorry, mates.
Then again there are millions of mates to ensure that they can always divide and conquer both ovaries. And as all textbooks tell you, only one will be rewarded for the journey. This is what they claim 'the strongest and fittest cell amongst the millions of others to survive the journey and be rewarded with fertilisation.'
Obstacle 3: Divide and conquer
Once the sperm cell meets the ovum and fertilization occurs, a zygote is form. This is a single cell which will eventually divide into two cells, then four then eight and continue exponentially until a blastomere is formed. As long as there is division, there is hope. If division stops, then no new individual will form. This is also the stage which determines whether there will be only one baby, two babies or more.
Obstacle 4: Making connections
The blastomere will make its way along the fallopian tube and by the time it exits the fallopian tube, it will turn into a blastocyst. It must then embed itself on the uterine wall where the placenta and the umbilical cord will form. Implantations that occur outside of the uterus, for instance, in the fallopian tube, are known as ectopic pregnancies. These pregnancies may pose an element of danger to the mother and the developing foetus.
Obstacle 5: 10 months when anything can go wrong
A baby develops from a single cell over a period of 40 weeks which is actually 10 months instead of nine. In the medical field, those 40 weeks are divided into three trimesters. The embryo is most fragile in the first trimester, partly because most women do not know that they are pregnant until the embryo is entering its second month. The second trimester is when most of the basic structures develop and the third trimester is when the babies put on weight. This would explain why babies on average only weight 1.5 kg in the womb in the 7th month of pregnancy. Their weights can balloon up til 3 or 4 kgs by the time they leave the womb.
The mother is constantly tired as her baby acts like a parasite, sucking up nutrients (like calcium from bones) and causing discomfort to the mother by way of a tummy that gets so big, it gets in the way of everything. She must be careful not to fall, have her tummy hit or injured in anyway that could harm the baby inside. She is also prone to many diseases like diabetes or high blood pressure during her pregnancy. This is hazardous to the mother and the baby though the condition can still be controlled through diet or with medication.
During this period it is also very important for the mother to keepsafe herself and her baby physically and in the form of her food, or more precisely, her nutrient intake. Having an overweight baby could cause the baby's heart to stop, although why this happen, scientists have yet to discover. In other cases, the embryo may not develop correctly and halfway through the pregnancy, be discovered as a lump of flesh only. Babies may also have a hard time gaining weight during the third trimester for reasons unknown and while the mother keeps putting on the pounds, they hover at the slightly below 3 kg range until they get delivered.
Heavier babies are also harder to deliver although smaller babies may also cause complications during labour due to being in a breech position (standing upright instead of the preferred bottoms up!). A baby may also have the umbilical cord tight around their necks which prompts a C-section instead of a normal delivery.
And those are just some of the things that can go wrong.
Obstacle 6: Going through the whole 10 months willingly
Knowing Obstacle 5, you can be sure many women are reluctant to go through a pregnancy, as so many things can go wrong. Apart from those listed, there are other symptoms that affect the pregnant mother. Some mothers develop gestational diabetes during the pregnancy which goes away by itself after labour; me included. This is due to the changes in the mother's hormone levels during the pregnancy. Other symptoms may include bleeding gums, pigmentation on the face, underarms and other parts of the body, nausea and constant wretching known as 'morning sickness' though it happens throughout the day (and at night), constant lethargy and itchiness as well as rashes on the thighs, stomach or the back. The constant throwing up is enough to make one give up.
So how is it that there are 6 billion people in the world today? That means that there were 6 billion pregnancies that had overcome all the obstacles above; statements of human perseverance overcoming the insurmountable. Plus, women get angry easily but they forget just as easily too. That is why we are the sex that was given the task of bringing life into the world.
Be proud to be women.
Be proud to be mothers.
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