Unit 4 Assignment 1 - tracking an individual through the life stages.

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Unit 4

Task 1 P1

These are the life stages of James Lynch. James is eighteen years old and is reaching the life stage of being an adult. James still lives at home with his family, his mother Mary, father Nick and little sister Judy. James is currently studying at college.

After James’s parents got married they decided they wanted to have a baby. The sequence begun with James’s father ejaculating during copulation, which followed the release of an ovum from James’s mother’s ovary, this is called ovulation. Next, James’s father’s sperm fertilized with James’s mother’s ovum, this is called fertilization. In some cases women are born without ovaries which mean they may not be able to have children unless they have a donor egg and IVF which may cost money, in other cases men can have a sperm deficiency which may lead to not being able to have children but in this case Nick and Mary were both able to conceive.

Once fertilization has taken place a nuclei is formed, this is the first cell of a new living thing. The cell moves slowly through the fallopian tube to the uterus and attaches to the lining of the uterus, this is called implantation. This cell will slowly grow and become James. The cell continues to grow in the uterus and becomes an embryo. At this stage Mary was pregnant and her first trimester begun.

The first trimester is the first 12 weeks of pregnancy. Mary started to read up on pregnancy and started getting used to the idea that she is going to have a baby. She started to eat healthily and began adopting good eating habits. She didn’t have morning sickness but most women do tend to have morning sickness during the first trimester of pregnancy, however Mary did experience dizzy spells and random cravings for various foods preferably tangy foods. At this stage James was still an embryo growing into a ball of cells.

On the 14th week of being pregnant starts Mary’s second trimester of pregnancy. Mary’s early pregnancy symptoms had calmed down so she was less queasy and had more energy. Meanwhile in the lining of Mary’s uterus the ball of cells which is James continues growing, it starts sprouting hair, his ears and eyes are moving into their correct positions, and he's starting to suck and swallow. As time goes on and Mary starts coming towards week 25 of pregnancy, she reaches the end of her second trimester. The embryo starts to become a fetus and James’s eyes begin to open around now, his response to sound grows more consistent and he starts to hear things on the outside world. Sounds on the outside have an impact on the baby in the uterus, if a mother stresses a lot it can have a bad impact on the baby. Some studies show that high levels of stress in pregnancy may cause certain problems during childhood, like having trouble paying attention or being afraid. It’s possible that stress may also affect a baby’s brain development or immune system. However Mary wasn’t much stressed during her pregnancy she had minor mood swings but they didn’t last long.

As Mary reaches week 32 of her pregnancy James starts to grow bigger. His toenails and fingernails are completely formed and his testicles will be descending from the groin down into his scrotum. During this time James sleeps most of the day. Mary’s uterus is getting to be a small space for James to move about, he is still trying to move frequently but he does not have enough room so he starts to turn his head from side to side and move his hands, his kicks start being less forceful. At week 40 Mary gave birth to James on June 12th 1994 he weighed 6lbs 5oz.

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James had just arrived into the world and he was an infant. At this stage he started getting used to the outside world and his surroundings. He would mainly sleep, cry and get breast fed by his mother. This may not sound like much but infants do take a lot in and learn new things, Mary would make faces at James and James would mimic her, this shows how infants start to learn and develop facial expressions and get used to their parent’s faces and features. Infants do not have much of ...

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