Prenatal Development: What We Learn Inside the Womb NARRATOR: Everything starts the day your mum's egg meets your dad's sperm. Four weeks later your little brain begins to form. Epidemiologist David Barker says, that whilst developing inside our mother, we are receiving postcards from the outside world. These postcards tell us if this world is dangerous or safe, if food is plentiful or scarce. Knowing nothing else, we learn from those messages. Let's watch what we experience and learn inside the womb from the fetus perspective. Month 1: only 24 hours alive every bit of genetic information is already present in a single cell: from our hair color to our talent as a future pianist. Then we divide ourselves again and again. After around a week we travel from the ovaries to the uterus where we then undergo the great divide - splitting into two, half of which will become us while the other half forms the placenta which brings us food and oxygen and carries away waste. By week four we have developed into a small being that is growing at a rate of 1 million cells per second. Our spinal cord, heart and brain are now clearly visible, even if we adjust the size of a poppyseed. Month 2: at about week four to five our heart starts to beat and we are now ten thousand times bigger than we were at conception. This is a crucial point in our neurological development as our brain grows at a rate of around a hundred thousand cells each minute. If our mother consumes alcohol and drugs or experiences extreme stress or trauma our tiny brain can get damaged. This can lead to maths problems at school or even schizophrenia some forty years later. If our mum stays healthy and can relax our brain can develop to its full potential. We are now the size of a raspberry. Month 3: at the beginning of month three we start to react to stimuli. Our sense of smell is developing and exposure to toxins can make us cringe. Our brain is continuing to grow very fast our Ears start forming and we can soon hear our mum's heartbeat and voice speak. Still small enough we have plenty of space to move inside the belly. Our mother's womb becomes our sensory playground we learn to move our arms, stretch our fingers, smile or suck our thumb. 75% of us are now showing a preference to use the right hand we are now around the size of a lemon. Month 4: our head makes up about half our total size. We learn to kick, pee and how to swallow. Our taste buds are developing. If our mother eats a wide variety of things we learn to appreciate different tastes and become less fussy eaters later in life. If we receive inadequate or poor nutrients we adapt our physiology to sustain our development. This process is also called fetal programming. Some researchers have found that this can result in health problems such as obesity, heart conditions and diabetes later in life. We are now around the size of a big tomato. Month 5: while earlier our mums voice sounded muffled now it is starting to become clear. We are also experiencing a big growth spurt and we start the development of our teeth and our first real hair, fingernails, eyebrows and eyelashes. We are becoming more active each day and enjoying flexing our tiny muscles. As we wriggle, kick and turn our mother will start to feel as moving. If she responds we learned that for every action there is a reaction. We are now around the size of a dragon fruit. During this sixth month a major mark of brain development occurs. Our brains cerebral cortex splits into two hemispheres. But it's also an exciting month for our eyes which open for the first time. Even though we see only blurs we start to respond to light. Some say it's good if our mum now takes us into the sun. We are now starting to make simple facial expressions such as forming a grin. We probably learn to communicate for the time when we are born when we want to show our feelings. We are now around the size of a small cauliflower. Month 7: we begin to develop regular intervals for sleeping and being awake. The hair on our head is now clearly visible and our milk teeth have formed under our gums. When we hear our mum speak we may respond with an increased heartbeat and movement. Some researchers claim that we now begin to learn language from hearing the voices from outside because once born we seem to show a preference for our dads and mums native language. If we were to be born now we would have a 90% chance of survival and arrived the size of a pineapple. Month 8 we are now behaving like a newborn. Our brain is functional and our nervous system ready. Our lungs are almost fully formed and we are practicing breathing by inhaling and the amniotic fluid. Ee now spend almost all of our time as sleep, maybe dreaming about our near future. In preparation for birth most of us will have now turned upside down. To get through that tiny hole at the end of the tunnel our bones and skull are still extremely flexible. Only the immune system is still in its infancy. It will take many months after birth until our internal body guards can fully protect our health. We are now around the size of a melon. Month 9: in the last month we keep practicing our motor skills and kicks. When our mum laughs eat sweets or drinks an ice tea we might respond by bouncing up and down. If we could already understand research papers we would now hope that our mum can bring us to the world through natural birth which protects us through a stronger immune system for life. The puzzle of what is nurture and what is nature is now well underway and already shows a first image of our character. The most important missing piece will be added in our early childhood. At the end of the nine months we are around the size of a jackfruit. After many hours of hard labour we will be welcomed into this world. Some will then be instantly taken away for various checkup procedures and bathing. But if we are lucky we will first spend some time with our mum. If placed on her belly we will instinctively crawl to her breast and then show us sucking skills. This makes us happy, full and feel safe. The foundation for all future learning Millions of students from all around the globe have watched our Sprouts videos, for better learning thousands of teachers play them in their classrooms, to start projects volunteers on YouTube have translated them to over 25 languages - our mission is to promote learning by doing in classrooms around the world. If you are a great explainer and a passionate teacher and you want to help us develop outstanding content contact us! To support our channel with a donation visit patreon.com/sprouts