Pregnancy

            "Childbirth is more admirable than conquest, more amazing than self-defense, and as courageous as either one," said Gloria Steinem (Word np). This statement is so true. Pregnancy and childbirth are very demanding processes of the human body. To carry a little human being around in one's abdomen for nine months, then push it out of a ten-centimeter hole is an amazing feat. It is a beautiful and incredible process how the baby develops in his mother's womb, preparing for birth. .
             Pregnancy all begins with an egg from a woman and a sperm from a man. First, the woman's uterine wall begins to thicken, and an egg is released from one of her ovaries. The egg falls into the fallopian tube, where it meets the sperm of a male. Three hundred million sperm can enter the vagina but only one enters the egg (Nash np). This is called fertilization. The fertilized egg is now called a blastocyte, which is "no larger than a grain of rice" (Nash np). The blastocyte continues to fall down the fallopian tube until it reaches the uterus. This takes place anywhere between seven and ten days. Once in the uterus, the cells of the blastocyte immediately begin dividing exponentially. By the fourth day in the uterus, the blastocyte has become a cluster of thirty-two cells called a morula. The morula develops two layers wrapped around a fluid-filled core called a blastocyst. The outer layer becomes the placenta and the amniotic sac, and the inner layer becomes the embryo. .
             There are many symptoms of pregnancy, which include absent menstruations, morning sickness, frequent urination, and tender and swollen breasts. A pregnant woman may also experience darkening of the areola and nipple, blue and pink lines in breasts, food cravings, and/or the growth of the tiny glands around the nipple. .
             There are four ways for a woman to detect if she is pregnant. She can take a home pregnancy test, take an in-office urine test, take a blood test, or undergo a medical exam.