Conceiving a baby
The miracle of birth begins when one of your partner's sperm fuses with one of your eggs to form a single cell. This cell contains its own unique genetic blueprint, which is a mix of genetic material from both parents.
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The cell then divides and divides again until eventually a new human being is made. The vast majority of couples with normal fertility manage to conceive within the first two years of trying for a baby.
A woman's entire stock of eggs is made in her two ovaries before her birth. By the fifth month of development, a baby girl's ovaries contain about seven million eggs. Many of these eggs will die before she's born, leaving her with about two million eggs at birth. Eggs continue to die until at puberty most women have between 200,000 and 500,000 eggs. Of these, only 400-500 mature and they're released by the ovaries during a woman's fertile years at the rate of roughly one a month.
The ovaries are located in the pelvis, close to the trumpet-like endings (fimbriae) of the Fallopian tubes. The germ cells that eventually develop into a woman's eggs form in the yolk sac that sustains the embryo in the first weeks of development. If the embryo is male, these cells are reabsorbed as the placenta develops. If the embryo is female, about 100 germ cells move from the yolk sac, along the umbilical cord, and into the tiny female embryo. Once inside the embryo, the cells migrate to the tissues that will later develop into the ovaries, and begin to multiply.
Fertility facts
- the fertility of both men and women reaches its peak at about the age of 24
- among couples who have regular intercourse without contraception, 25 per cent of women conceive in the first month, 60 per cent within six months, 75 per cent within nine months, 80 per cent within a year, and 90 per cent within 18 months
- after ovulation, an egg can only be fertilized during the next 12-24 hours or so.
Posted 30.06.2010
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