"Life's Greatest Miracle" Essay
Page 1 Child Growth and Development: "Life's Greatest Miracle" Paragraph In the video Life's Greatest Miracle, I was informed about how children are conceived, how they develop in the mothers body, and how amazing child birth can be. In the beginning it takes you through the steps of how sperm travels as for looking for an egg to fertilize. Although, in just one teaspoon of sperm there can be over 300 million sperm cells, only around 40% of them are usable. The other 60% can be deformed such as having two tales. The sperm can reach the Fallopian tube within 30 minutes, but it can be a 2 day swim just for sperm to reach an accepting egg. After the sperm that was strong enough to make it through the rough travel have met up with an egg, they still have to fight there way through the zona which is a layering over the egg that can be picky when it comes to letting sperm inside. If the zona has made a choice on which sperm to let in, the sperm will then make a hole and squeeze through to the egg. Surprisingly, the sperm does not meet the egg after traveling through the zona. It is now fused to the membrane of the egg and is therefore drawn of all its contents. Now that the sperm has been connected with the egg it begins its journey. 50% of these embryos fail to develop. The zona is ordered to lock out all other sperm from entering the egg. The exchange of chromosomes, 23 from the mother and 23 from the father, begins and the mitosis process is set in full speed. All this time the egg is floating down the Fallopian tube. Five days after fertilization, the embryo reaches the uterus while still being trapped in the hard shell of the zona. The beginning of the 6th day, the egg is able to escape and releases enzymes that eats through the zona. The egg lands on the blood lining of the mother's uterus. At this point, the egg could be attacked by the mother's immune system due her body thinking that this object can be harmful, but the egg produces chemicals to push away the