Skip to main content

The Placenta


Functions and Roles Of The Placenta

PlacentaFor nine months the placenta feeds and nourishes the fetus while also disposing of toxic waste. Without it the baby could not survive. After your baby is born, the placenta no longer serves a function.
Among organs, it is unique. It is the only organ in the human body that serves a vital function and then becomes obsolete.

What does the Placenta do?

The placenta’s primary role is to ensure that oxygen is moved into your baby’s blood stream and carbon dioxide is carried away from your baby – however the waste is not limited to oxygen and also includes cleaning out other waste which is produced by your baby. In the same way that it ensures oxygen reaches your baby, it also plays a role in ensuring that some nutrients are received.
The placenta is an extremely complex piece of biological equipment. It is a little bit like an artificial kidney, it allows your blood and the baby's to come into very close contact - but without ever mixing. This enables your blood to pass across nutrients and oxygen to the baby, and waste products like carbon dioxide to go back from baby to mother. It acts as the lung, kidney and digestive system for the baby.
The placenta also plays an important role in hormone production. Human chronic gonadotropin, or hCG is produced by the placenta. This hormone can be found in your baby’s blood stream as early as 10 days into your pregnancy. This is of course not the only hormone which the placenta produces as it is also responsible for the production of estrogen and progesterone .
The placenta also performs the important function of protecting your baby for possible infection – however, it is not always able to distinguish between what is a good substance and what isn’t – and this is why pregnant women are asked to avoid substances which may cause harm, such as caffeine, alcohol, herbal substances and drugs. Read our article on what to avoid when pregnant for more.

How big does the Placenta get?

During the course of your pregnancy we follow the growth and development of your baby closely, but we never look at how the placenta is growing.
By week 10 of your pregnancy the placenta would already weigh in at ¾ ounce (20g) and by week 20 it will already be weighing in at 6 ounces (170g). At 30 weeks it's weighing 15 ounces (430g) and by the time your pregnancy is full term the placenta would weigh 1.5 pounds (650g)!

The Placenta & Possible Complications

Unfortunately as important as the placenta is, it is also possible of causing complications, and the two most common complications are placenta previaand placenta abruption.
#iamstillawoman #placenta #birth #miracle 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Kate Jackson Breast Cancer a flash back

THE MOST MOMENTOUS CHANGE IN Kate Jackson's life began early one morning in January 1987, during her fourth season on the hit TV series Scarecrow and Mrs. King. After a phone call informed her that the show's taping was canceled because costar Bruce Boxleitner had the flu, Jackson went back to sleep. When she woke several hours later, "It was out of the blue, but perfectly clear," she recalls. "I sat up in bed and literally said, 'You have to have a mammogram.' " She did, and two days later a biopsy confirmed her vague fears: A minute growth found in her left breast was determined to be malignant. "I was forced to face, squared up, my own mortality," says Jackson. "I had to decide whether I wanted to live or to die. And if you choose life, as I did, it's never the same." For three TV seasons 16 years ago, she was famous as Sabrina Duncan, a girl-next-door gone glamorous and the character critics dubbed the brainiest o

"Hard nipples" - areola or nipple skin

Someone once wrote"... when i get really cold, or get goosebumbs all over my body, the whole things really scrunch up, like, my entire areola scrunches itself up into a wrinkled little mound. it looks really weird and ugly, and i haven't ever seen other people's breasts do it. what is wrong with my areola/nipples??" The answer: Well nothing is wrong. This is what my areola does too. It's a normal reaction to the coldness or to irritation / stimulation. The little muscles in the areola do a similar goosebump thing as your other skin can do. People often call this phenomenon "hard nipples". Also note that skin on areola has less feeling or sensation to it than other areas of your body. If the areola was very sensitive, then breastfeeding would probably be quite uncomfortable because the baby pulls and tugs it! The nipples are sensitive but the sensitivity changes with hormonal changes, such as occur at mestrual cycle or pregnancy. Also this v

The four stages of breast development

In Stage 1 shows the flat breasts of childhood. By Stage 2, breast buds are formed as milk ducts and fat tissue develop. In Stage 3, the breast become round and full, and the areola darkens. Stage 4 shows fully mature breasts. (Illustration by GGS Information Services.) period begins. Usually these signs are accompanied by the appearance of pubic hair and hair under the arms. Once ovulation and  menstruation  begin, the maturing of the breasts begins with the formation of secretory glands at the end of the milk ducts. The breasts and duct system continue to grow and mature with the development of many glands and lobules. The rate at which breasts grow varies significantly and is different for each young woman. Breast development occurs in five stages: Stage One: In preadolescence, the breasts are flat and only the tip of the nipple is raised. Stage Two: Buds appear, breast and nipple are raised, fat tissue begins to form and the areola (dark area of skin that surrounds