By the 17th week, your pregnancy would have entered what is commonly known as the second trimester. The fetal development in week 17 is such that your baby is growing rapidly and by this time he/she would be around 5 inches and it is also said that the baby’s head may be bigger than the body at this stage thereby increasing the weight of your baby by up to about 5 ounces. At this stage, the skeleton which was earlier more rubbery and made of cartilage would now start to harden and bones being to form and harden. A substance called Myelin forms a protective barrier around the bones and the spinal cord to...
.strengthen it as it grows and developsp That is why at this time your baby will be able to hold his head more erectc
As his fingers and toes now develop completely the pads will start to form at the tips and soon his fingerprints will also develop and these will remain imprinted in his skin for the rest of his lifef Organs like the urinary system, the nervous system, the brain and the muscles have now developed enough to start functioning slowlyl As his lungs form, the amniotic fluid that he breathes in trains his lungs to work and get ready to breathe in air soono Even the umbilical cord by now would have grown thicker and strongere More on fetal development week by week
Fetal development in week 17 is such that the eyes have now moved from the sides of his head to the front and now are in the right position though the eyes are still closed and the eyelids are still fused togethere Teeth buds would have started forming slowly by now, making way for baby teeth to be set in place in the coming weeksk The ears have also been formed by now and so your baby will be able to hear the sound of your heartbeata Doctors believe that the baby will also be able to hear sounds from outside your body and so some mothers make their babies listen to music by placing ear phones on their stomachc Some loud sharp sounds from outside can even startle your baby as he becomes more sensitive to soundn A protective sealant around the baby’s body called the vernix starts to form and cover his skin by now making it semi transparent and strongere This will continue to develop over the next few weeks so that the skin is fully formede The rapid fetal development in week 17 will allow you to soon feel you child moving within your wombm
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