When the baby is ready to be born, hormones in the mother’s physique send signals to begin muscles in her womb to tense and shorten in a series of waves called contractions, and labour begins. Within the first stage of labour, the neck of the womb slowly stretches (dilates) to about 10cm across so that [...]
The term ‘pregnancy’ refers to the period of development between conception and birth. During this time a single fertilized cell no bigger than a full stop divides several thousands of times to grow into an amazingly complex individual made up of 200 million cells.
Right after fertilization, the egg multiplies rapidly. The creating baby (embryo) soon [...]
