Tuesday, June 23, 2009

About Fetal Blood Circulation

I am currently sitting through a birth education series taught by Kristen Downer and Paige Trabulsi of Womb Service. During the second class, one of the dads asked a question about where the blood goes after it has passed through the umbilical cord from the mother to the baby. Does it circulate back into the mother? Or absorb into the baby's system?

Kristen found this page online that does a good job of explaining how the unborn baby's circulation system works. And it is amazing to think that it all changes instantaneously, when the baby starts using his lungs! What a perfect design!

Here's the article, from the health library of the University of Alabama at Birmingham website:
http://www.health.uab.edu/14535/



Courtesy of the University of Alabama at Birmingham
http://www.health.uab.edu/14535/

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