How a child is born

The Sperm and the Egg

Check out this incredible gallery of images taken by Swedish photographer Lennart Nilsson over 12 years that shows the process of how a child is conceived and develops in the womb.

You will probably have never seen images like this before! Taken with conventional cameras with macro lenses, an endoscope and scanning electron microscope. Nilsson used a magnification of hundreds of thousands and "worked" right in the womb.

These two images show the two main "stars" of the gallery, a sperm in the Fallopian Tube and an egg.

Photo credits: India TV/ Lennart Nilsson

The first date

On the left, you have the sperm meeting an egg. Whether the sperm is the chosen one is the question.

The image on the right shows The fallopian tube, where the date is taking place.

Photo credits: India TV/ Lennart Nilsson

The race is on

The first image shows two different sperms reaching the egg, while the image on the left is that of the winning sperm.

This image depicts the moment a baby is formed.

Photo credits: India TV/ Lennart Nilsson

And so it begins

After the sperm enters the egg in the first image, it eventually becomes a blastocyst.

5-6 days later, the blastocyst is formed and contains many more cells, and has entered the womb as shown in the other image.

Photo credits: India TV/ Lennart Nilsson

First stages of growth

Day 8.The human embryo has found a place to settle and is attached to a wall of the uterus.

We have brain development starting to happen here. It will eventually become the complex muscle that governs our every thought and action.

Photo credits: India TV/ Lennart Nilsson

24 days

Four weeks in, the human heart starts to develop and beat.

Photo credits: India TV/ Lennart Nilsson

30 days - 40 days

Approximately 9mm at 5 weeks, the face with holes for eyes, nostrils and mouth, is distinguishable.

10 days later, embryonic cells form the placenta.This organ connects the embryo to the uterine wall allowing nutrient uptake, waste elimination and gas exchange via the woman’s blood supply.

Photo credits: India TV/ Lennart Nilsson

8 weeks - 10 weeks

A foetal sac protects the rapidly growing embryo.

Two weeks later, eyelids are present, and are semi-shut. These eyelids will close completely in a few days.

Photo credits: India TV/ Lennart Nilsson

16 weeks

At 16 weeks, the hands are formed, and the foetus uses them to explore own body and surroundings.

The skeleton at this point consists mainly of flexible cartilage. A network of blood vessels is visible through the thin skin.

Photo credits: India TV/ Lennart Nilsson

18 - 19 weeks

At 18 weeks of age, the foetus can perceive sound from outside, and has grown to around 14cm.

At 19 weeks, the hands will have grown until they look like they do in the image on the right, and you will start to feel movement.

Photo credits: India TV/ Lennart Nilsson

20 - 24 weeks

At 20 weeks. The foetus would have grown to approximately 20 cm. The head will start to grow woolly hair, known as lanugo.

At 24 weeks, the baby's brain is growing rapidly with tastebuds being fully developed, and the footprints and fingerprints continuing to form.

Photo credits: India TV/ Lennart Nilsson

26 weeks - 6 months

At 26 weeks, the baby will be inhaling and exhaling small amounts of amniotic fluid, which is essential for the development of his lungs.

At 6 months, the little human is getting ready to leave the uterus. It turns upside down because it will be easier to get out this way.

Photo credits: India TV/ Lennart Nilsson

From start to finish

Week 36. Four more weeks and the baby will be born.

Witness the contrast from when it is just a sperm and an egg to the baby at 36 weeks.

What do you think of this gallery? Tell us in a comment below!

Photo credits: India TV/ Lennart Nilsson

Get ready for the baby’s arrival by adding your due date.

Calculate your due date

Written by

Shu Yi Ho

PregnancyBirthBaby