THE CREATION
OF A HUMAN BEING

Nine months. That’s how long it takes to go from a microscopic cell to a being ready to be born.

A dive into this journey to the heart of the maternal womb.

A spermatozoon will enter the oocyte.

It’s not necessarily the strongest or the fastest, as is often heard.

In reality, the egg chooses the spermatozoon among 500 million candidates.

Fertilisation occurs.

The genetic material of man and woman has merged.

The fertilised egg divides into two cells.

The embryo reaches the uterus and is composed of 60 to 120 cells.

Its size will double every 24 hours.

The heart starts beating.

The spine forms a tail, which resorbs in the following weeks to form the coccyx.

Openings form for the mouth, nostrils, and eyes.

Two small "buds" appear for the hands.

The ridges visible at the neck become the gills in fish, but disappear in humans.

The eyes migrate towards the front.

The fingers begin to form under the skin.

The jaw forms.

The eyes become pigmented.

The eyelids are developing.

The main organs and 99% of the muscles have now appeared.

The embryo grows.

The embryo takes on a human form.

The heart is functional, and the blood vessels have assumed their final positions.

The different parts of the face merge between the nostrils and the upper lip, leaving a dip below the nose: the philtrum.

The hands are webbed.

The embryo becomes a foetus once all organs are formed.

The eyelids close.

The webbing on the hands disappears.

Nails appear, and the bones of the body harden.

The fœtus moves more and more as the nerves connect to the muscles.

The heart beats at 160 beats per minute, twice as fast as the maternal heartbeat.

Sex can be identified by ultrasound in 80% of cases.

The fœtus begins to react.

It smiles and sucks its thumb.

Its auditory system is developing.

The mother begins to feel the fetal movements.

A fine down, the lanugo, covers the body for up to two weeks before birth.

The eyes open, the fœtus reacts to sounds, its brain will still double in weight until the 9th month and will finish its development well after birth.

In most pregnancies, the baby has turned upside down…

…ready to make its way into the outside world.