Samuel Alexander Armas (born December 2, 1999) is the child shown in a famous photograph above by Michael Clancy, dubbed the “Hand of Hope,” of his hand extending from an opening in his mother’s uterus and touching his surgeon’s finger during open fetal surgery for spina bifida. (source)
The photograph was taken during a procedure to repair the spina bifida lesion of a 21-week-old baby in the womb performed by a surgical team at Vanderbilt University. Dr. Joseph Bruner and Dr. Noel Tulipan developed a technique for correcting certain fetal problems in mid-pregnancy.
Their procedure involves temporarily opening the uterus, draining the amniotic fluid, partially extracting and performing surgery on the tiny fetus, and then restoring the fetus to the uterus back inside the mother. (source)
Vanderbilt-pioneered fetal surgery procedure yields positive results
This just underscores the amazing beauty and wonder of life before birth! Let’s look deeper.
Marvelous, Hidden Play In the Womb
Doppler may pick up that lovely lub-dub of your baby’s heartbeat at 8-12 weeks, but the flutterings of life once called the “quickening” won’t be felt by most Mamas until somewhere into the fourth month.
Any earlier, buried deep within the protective cushioning of your womb, your tiny one could do acrobatics and you’d never know.
Via ultrasound, we can witness babies thumb-sucking, smiling, yawning, sneezing, hiccuping, opening their eyes, and exploring, not to mention stretching and kicking. Scientist who study life in the uterus have demonstrated that babies also dream.
Babies even clap (as if to music) very early in their development.
It might seem odd at first that developing babes would play in the womb, but if you think about it, it isn’t so odd at all.
Naturally in the uterus, play is rather limited, but movement through play is essential for healthy mental and physical development of the child. We all have an inborn need to play and explore our world. We now know play in the womb starts very, very early. Play strengthens muscles and reflexes are tested out; just as adults need to move to remain strong, so the developing baby needs to move to progress and not atrophy.
In this fabulous 30 second sonogram video at 13 weeks, these fortunate parents witnessed their little baby play in the womb – jumping and rebounding off the uterine wall earlier and more vigorously than anyone ever thought happened.
Babies playing in the womb is good for the mother, too. It helps the mother to bond and enhances anticipation of her newborn child. Feeling a baby move in you makes a woman want to protect and care for her baby even before she sees or holds it. The movement also stimulates hormonal changes in a woman’s body to prepare for birth and nursing.
25+ Astounding & Fascinating Facts
You can get an amazing FREE pregnancy app HERE.
With today’s modern technology and medical information, we have a real-time window into the womb. What happens to babies before birth – all the ways they move, grow, and change – is nothing short of amazing.
- On the first day following fertilization, the human embryo is identifiable as a specific individual human being on a molecular level.
- A mom-to-be grows a new organ. Just 3 weeks after conception, a grouping of cells cluster together on the uterine wall and grow into the placenta.
- As a high tech fertility patient, via a simple 1991-vintage ultrasound, I saw our twin babies’ hearts beating on day 16!
- At 2 to 3 weeks, a baby’s brain is the “first organ to appear.”
- A baby’s brain waves can be measured at 6 weeks old. See the brainwaves for yourself here.
- The development of the digestive system is underway just 4 weeks after fertilization.
- Upper and lower limb buds also appear by four weeks.
- Fingerprints begin developing early and end up being a completely unique pattern by birth.
- In female babies the uterus is identifiable by 9 weeks and, within her ovaries, immature germ cells called oogonia, are replicating via mitosis. Outside the body, the genitalia begin to differentiate as either male or female.
- By week 32, every part of a fetus has gained a sense of touch that’s sensitive enough to feel a single hair brushing across the body.
- In the womb, your baby experiences what you experience, from the food you eat to your emotions. When it comes to food, you can help develop your baby’s palette by what you eat. Strong smells and tastes pass through the amniotic fluid.
- When it comes to emotions, the research published in The Effects of Maternal Stress and Anxiety During Pregnancy shows that high levels of constant stress or anxiety during pregnancy can create immediate to long-term issues for the developing baby.
- Here is Princeton.edu’s compilation of medical statements supporting that life begins at fertilization.
The Making of an Earth Suit by the Endowment of Human Development is the BEST interactive site I have ever seen! You can see actual videos from month 1 to month 9!
Try to imagine yourself back in your mother’s womb.
Ultrasound and The Abortion Debate
Studies have found babies in the womb feel pain as early as 17 weeks after conception, and unborn infants may feel pain more keenly than those already born! (source)
As technology devises ever more sophisticated ways for us to study the child in the womb, it’s getting more difficult for the abortion movement to argue in favor of snuffing out a child’s life. And who would want to argue in favor of deliberately causing the child pain on top of that?
What we’re speaking of here is no less than the humanity of the fetus, and these discoveries are making the subject harder and harder to avoid.
Scientific studies are in effect defending what our faith had already told us: that the life in the womb is indeed a human life, with the same qualities that make us consider our own lives sacred—a beating heart, brain function, childish play, and sensitivity to pain being just a few of them. And so we believe that a child’s life is a gift from God and worthy of protection and care.
“Open your mouth for the speechless, In the cause of all who are appointed to die.” ~Proverbs 31.8
Historians often debate the greatest technological advancements of the past century, but I’ve got to wonder if ultrasounds shouldn’t be near the top.
Simply put, I now understand why pro-abortion leaders opposed the technology at every turn, for we can see for ourselves the wondrous beauty of LIFE….where each one of us has been as we were knit together.
These little ones can’t yet cry out, but they are speaking loudly … and winning.
Let your school-age children see these miracles for themselves! Wonders of God’s Creations: Human Life by Moody Bible Institute will give them a reverence and awe for life and babies, a part of God’s highest creation – unforgettable evidence of the Creator’s handiwork.
We’ve used this video and others like it as part of our homeschool.
Have you had any startling, funny, or interesting experiences with ultrasound that you are willing to share?
©2024 Deep Roots at Home • All Rights Reserved
Charlotte Moore
These videos were amazing! GOD is perfect in HIS creation.
Lorinda
I wish I had this recorded, but the office won’t allow recordings of the ultrasound. I was 20 weeks pregnant with our daughter..when I found out that I was pregnant…we went to a local crisis pregnancy center since I could get in there quickly. They were looking for ‘pregnant models’ to help their nurses get more experience with ultrasounds. We had longed for more children and pregnancy didn’t come easy. Our son had prayed for a sibling. He was 7 at the time. So, it was an exciting time! We all were watching the screen and she lifted her hand and waved at her brother. It is a sweet memory I treasure! I gave birth to her at 35 weeks, she was stillborn.
Jacqueline
Oh, Lorinda, how bitter sweet. My heart breaks for you all. I am so thankful you have that wave (hello and goodbye) to remember forever. You can rest assured that, in Christ, you will see her one day, dear one. The Lord hears the cry of the broken-hearted. xoxo
Bulls Eye
Seeing this five years later. If you don’t mind me asking, why was she stillborn?
My heart aches for you. But yes, as the post above me says, she is with Christ.
Eva
This is so precious. I still can not believe I grew three babies inside of me 🙂
Jacqueline
It really is mind-boggling, Eva! Our children still wonder how they fit inside me! 🙂
babykitted
This is stunning. It’s perfect, by the way, the picture and videos are amazing, you are really talented. Babies are a blessing to our lives, it’s precious and watch them taking their first steps, raise them… amazing.
Sharon
I loved everything about this. I am a grandma now and did not know a lot of this when pregnant with my 3 children. I think children should see this with their parents so they know how they were born. I learned things I never knew before. Thank you for posting this.
Jacqueline
Sharon, there are still things we are discovering! Amazing God and his marvelous creation! Thank you! ~j
Sam
Hi Jacqueline,
Hope your well.
Random question but I am wanting to use the baby image you used on this page for an Ep album cover photo: photo of the baby in the womb
https://deeprootsathome.com/stunning-how-babies-fit-play-in-the-womb/
Just wondering if you had details on the copyright owner of the image or any details that could assist
Any help would be greatly appreciated 🙂
Thankyou Sam
Jacqueline
Hi, Sam!
I do not know any more than what is on the source link below the image. It was on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/mnshospital/status/747302468799717377?lang=en
This is their page: https://twitter.com/MNSHospital
And it looks like an inactive feed as that image is only 3 or 4 posts down.
I wish I could help you more!
Blessings,
~Jacqueline
JMB
Can you provide your sources? You give a lot of information here, and I’d be interested to know where the information can be found. Thank you!
Jacqueline
JMB, if you go back into the post, you will see lots of links that lead the reader to the sources!