For the first 12 to 13 weeks the placenta is developing rapidly inside you and attaches itself to the lining of the uterus. Some scientists think that this is the reason some women feel very drained in early pregnancy. Their bodies are not only creating a tiny baby, but it’s life support system too. First and foremost the placenta helps your baby to breathe. Each time your heart beats, blood from your arteries flows into the placenta so that oxygen and nutrients flow to your baby. It also carries waste products like carbon dioxide away from your baby. The success of the placenta functioning properly depends on a good supply of maternal blood. If the maternal blood supply is reduced, the mother smokes for example or is suffering from pre-eclampsia, the blood flow to the placenta is reduced and this can have an effect on your growing baby.

As well as linking your blood supply to your baby’s, the placenta also keeps the two blood supplies completely separate, even though only a thin membrane separates the two. This is important because the maternal and foetal systems must not mix. The placenta keeps any harmful substances away from your baby as well as protecting her against infection. The placenta can’t always distinguish between what is good and what is bad, which is why pregnant women are advised not to drink, smoke or take drugs during pregnancy. Some viruses can pass to your baby from the placenta. German Measles or Rubella can be particularly dangerous if caught by the mother and can lead to defects such as blindness, deafness and encephalitis (inflammation of the brain) in your baby. It is important to ask your GP before you plan to get pregnant whether you have been immunised against Rubella or not.

The placenta also secretes hormones such as chrorionic gondotrophin, progesterone and oestrogen that all help to maintain your pregnancy and also help to prepare your breasts for breastfeeding.

During the last stages of pregnancy, antibodies will pass from you to your baby via the placenta, which will help to protect her for the first three months. After that her own body will start to build up immunity from what she is exposed to on a daily basis.

Once your baby is born, the placenta’s job is done. As the cord is cut and clamped the placenta can be delivered, as it no longer supplies your baby with all she needs. The delivery of the placenta is called the ‘third stage’ of labour. Some women choose to have a managed third stage and others choose to have a natural third stage.

A managed third stage is when the mother is given an injection (usually syntometrin or syntocinon) into her thigh to speed up the delivery of the placenta. The mother won’t have to push as the midwife will usually wait for a contraction and gently pull on the cord, or press the abdomen until the placenta comes out. With this option the placenta comes out very quickly after birth, usually in about ten minutes.

Some mothers prefer a natural third stage, which is when the mother waits for the placenta to dispel by itself. This can be immediate or can sometimes take over an hour. Breastfeeding your baby can help to dispel the placenta because nipple stimulation releases oxytocin, a hormone that helps with uterine contractions.

Once the placenta is out it will be examined to see if it is complete, that all of it has come out and what state it is in. The state of the placenta can tell the medical team a lot about the condition of your baby at birth.

In rare cases the placenta can become trapped and the mother may need an operation to remove it under epidural for pain relief.

The placenta is amazing. It protects, nourishes and provides everything for your growing baby. The placanta will do all it can to protect your baby so if you get a glimpse of the alien-like organ, remember to say thank-you for looking after your little one for all those months.

The first sign of pregnancy can be disorders concerning menstrual cycle. However, sometimes this may be due to other causes, such as inflammatory processes, stressful experiences, a change of climate, etc. In order to determine pregnancy, you can use rapid tests. The level of the hormone in the urine in morning and evening hours vary, so while buying test in a drugstore, ask for what time of the day it is suitable. Pregnancy can also be identified with such characteristics: the swelling chest, some have breast tenderness, mood changes, appetite, etc.

This invisible show
At this time rapid and dramatic events happen in the body. A day after conception, gaining strength and energy the fertilized egg (zygote) begins to share. Every day their number is doubled. Divided egg cell, transformed into a fetal egg, moves through the fallopian tubes and striving to achieve the ultimate goal of his journey get into the uterus and find here a comfortable “home”. On the seventh day the trip is over: the egg membranes as they are screwed into the uterine lining are plunging deeper and deeper. This process is called implantation.

The first critical period
It begins with the seventh day of pregnancy and lasts one to two weeks, until the egg is fixed in the membranes lining of the uterus. At this super-early period, mother’s organism may refuse to take the embryo. This may happen, for example, due to mucosal injury caused by the recent abortion because of severe stress, heavy exercise, under the influence of adverse external factors (taking certain medications), fetal genetic abnormalities, etc.

Like a grape core
If implantation is successful, the tiny embryo begins to grow rapidly. Fetal egg is covered with villus, they extract from the mother’s blood necessary food for future baby. Later villus remain only on the side of the egg membranes, which is directly adjacent to the uterine wall. Here villus grows, formed by the placenta (afterbirth), connected with the fetus umbilical cord. This is a major organ, which also belongs to a mother and an unborn child.

Fetus receives nutrients and oxygen through the placenta, get rid of their waste. In addition, this body provides immune protection, missing maternal antibodies to the child. And finally, the placenta synthesizes hormones.

At the same time the so-called germinal layers of which will be formed all the organs and tissues of the child are formed. From the outside – the nervous system, cells of sensory organs, skin, hair, nails, from the middle – the heart, internal organs, bones, blood vessels, muscle system, sex glands, from the inner – the epithelium of the gastrointestinal tract, respiratory, digestive and endocrine glands .

In the second week the embryo’s heart is stating to develop. By the end of the first month the embryo forms a neuraltube, begins to form the main internal organs, and is surrounded by amniotic fluid and three shells. There are all conditions for the future child to grow and develop normally.
Do not risk and win

During early pregnancy, rubella virus, which causes fetal heart, sight and hearing disease is particularly dangerous for the child. Therefore, if you have not been ill with rubella or been vaccinated against it, you need to pass a blood test as soon as possible. If you find that you do not have immunity against rubella, you’d better avoid communicating with children who has not been ill or they have not done vaccinations. Especially be careful in spring and autumn, when the infection is most active.

Severe malformations of the unborn child can cause infectious diseases, sexually transmitted infections (chlamydia, ureplazmoz, mycoplasmosis) and TORCH-infections: Toxoplasma, herpes virus, cytomegalovirus.

In our country, these viruses infected almost two-thirds of the population, but if the immunity is not weakened, the body suppresses them. Do a survey of these infections. Ideally, this should be before pregnancy. Do not delay it! In order to prevent relapse, strengthen immunity with the help of special therapy.