* * Incredible Photos: A Child is Born Swedesh photographer Lennart Nilsson spent 12 years of his life taking pictures of the foetus developing in the womb. These incredible photographs were taken with conventional cameras with macro lenses, an endoscope and scanning electron microscope. Nilsson used a magnification of hundreds of thousands and “worked” right in the womb. His first photo of the human foetus was taken in 1965.
1[image: Incredible Photos: A Child is Born] Sperm in the fallopian tube [image: Incredible Photos: A Child is Born] The egg cell [image: Incredible Photos: A Child is Born]Will they have a date? [image: Incredible Photos: A Child is Born] The fallopian tube [image: Incredible Photos: A Child is Born]Two sperms are contacting with the egg cell [image: Incredible Photos: A Child is Born] The winning sperm [image: Incredible Photos: A Child is Born]Sperm [image: Incredible Photos: A Child is Born]5-6 days. The clump has developed into a blastocyst, containing many more cells, and has entered the womb 9[image: Incredible Photos: A Child is Born]8 days. The human embryo is attached to a wall of the uterus [image: Incredible Photos: A Child is Born]The brain starts to develop in the human embryo [image: Incredible Photos: A Child is Born]24 days. The one-month-old embryo has no skeleton yet. There is only a heart that starts beating on the 18th day [image: Incredible Photos: A Child is Born]4 weeks [image: Incredible Photos: A Child is Born]4.5 weeks [image: Incredible Photos: A Child is Born]5 weeks: Approximately 9 mm. You can now distinguish the face with holes for eyes, nostrils and mouth [image: Incredible Photos: A Child is Born]40 days. Embryonic cells form the placenta. This organ connects the embryo to the uterine wall allowing nutrient uptake, waste elimination and gas exchange via the woman’s blood supply [image: Incredible Photos: A Child is Born]Eight weeks. The rapidly-growing embryo is well protected in the foetal sac [image: Incredible Photos: A Child is Born]10 weeks. The eyelids are semi-shut. They will close completely in a few days [image: Incredible Photos: A Child is Born]16 weeks. The foetus uses its hands to explore its own body and its surroundings [image: Incredible Photos: A Child is Born]The skeleton consists mainly of flexible cartridge. A network of blood vessels is visible through the thin skin [image: Incredible Photos: A Child is Born]18 weeks: Approximately 14 cm. The foetus can now perceive sounds from the outside world [image: Incredible Photos: A Child is Born]19 weeks [image: Incredible Photos: A Child is Born]20 weeks: Approximately 20 cm. Woolly hair, known as lanugo, covers the entire head [image: Incredible Photos: A Child is Born]24 weeks [image: Incredible Photos: A Child is Born]26 weeks [image: Incredible Photos: A Child is Born]6 months. There are still 8-10 weeks ahead, so the little human is getting ready to leave the uterus. It turns upside down because it will be easier to get out this way [image: Incredible Photos: A Child is Born]36 weeks. The child will see the world in 4 weeks
