Page 118 - The Miracle of Human Creation

THE MIRACLE OF HUMAN CREATION

according to a fixed order, but keeps the changing needs of the baby in vi-
ew. For example, the food the foetus needs in its first and second months is
different from the food it needs in its eighth and ninth months; but the pla-
centa makes adjustments for this and effects a perfect balance, selecting the
food that the baby can most easily digest in each period of its development.
One of the most important functions of the placenta is to secrete the
hormones (eg. oestrogen and progesterone) required by the foetus. Of the-
se hormones, progesterone has a special effect on decreasing the contrac-
tility of the uterus in the mother's body and gives physical support to the
baby. In order for the baby's development to continue, it makes possible
the formation of the most comfortable environment. Moreover, it allows
the development of the milk glands in the mother's breasts and, at the
right time, helps in the production of milk. Besides this, it gives support
by boosting the mother's metabolism, thus contributing to her health and
comfort. These hormones ensure that the uterus will become a comfortab-
le and secure place for the embryo, and their secretions in the proper way
and in the appropriate amount are very important for the baby to have a
healthy birth. In addition, these hormones prepare the mother's system
for the birth.
Together with all these functions, the placenta ensures that the baby
is immune to any infections that may occur in the last three months of the
pregnancy.
What we have described up to this point are only a few of the func-
tions undertaken by the placenta during the development of the baby.
And, in everything that we have described here, there is an unimaginab-
le amount of detail. Every system depends on the functioning of many
complex chemical operations.
Moreover, every new research conducted about the development of
the foetus reveals a new function that the placenta performs on behalf of
the baby. But in all this there is a common point. Every activity of the pla-
centa binds the mother and the embryo to each other in a perfectly har-
monious union. This union is of the greatest importance because, if even
one of the balances ensured in the mother's body were to be upset, the

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