The placenta

[YouWerePrettyIWasLonely]

My niece is training to be a midwife and she was talking about the placenta last night. I never realised what a magnificent organ it is and that women's bodies make it from scratch. This amazing system of sustainability.

Women are just amazing.

Yeah it's pretty cool. That we can make a whole organ spins me out in a good way.

Since trying to conceive and ultimately succeeding, I have learnt more about my body than ever before.

I had a scan last week - the baby was measuring 11 weeks + 4. The sonographer pointed out the shrinking yolk sac and also the placenta which was growing and taking over as the main source of nourishment.

Over the past year I have become far more in tune with my own body - I've come to know my cycles and have learnt about the interplay between oestrogen and progesterone. I've discovered that a woman's basal body temperature is lower before she ovulates and higher after she ovulates. The sustained high temperature meant that I knew I was pregnant before I even took a pregnancy test. In previous months, my falling temperature warned me that my period was on its way before I had any other symptoms.

I realise this sounds a little hippie, but honestly this last year I have grown in awe of what the female body does and what it can do.

I know that many women struggle with their bodies and suffer from painful periods and endometriosis etc. I do not wish to downplay these aspects at all.

However, I do still think the workings of the female body are pretty fascinating The placenta is just one great example.

I agree, being pregnant, growing a human and an entirely new organ, and then sustaining that human, left me in awe of my own body.

I didn’t know our rib cages expanded to accommodate the baby, it’s not as impressive as growing new organs but that amazed me.

It's not an act of will, if you're lucky your body just 'does' it, so it doesn't say anything about you as a person.

but my goodness it does say something about the female body doesn't it?

feeding my babies with milk made by my body was another 'woah' moment

And the way a woman's body does not attack an embryo or foetus, even though it is half made up of foreign DNA. No immunosuppressants required.

If you are impressed by us women growing a placenta, OP, you must be gobsmacked that we also grow a human brain, along with its enclosing fetus! That is an amazing feat of complexity, compared to a placenta.
Female bodies are awe inspiring.
There is a 19th century poem celebrating motherhood, that goes something like:
“Men may be fathers unaware
So poor a title that they bear.
But she who a mother’s path has trod
Has walked upon the heights with God.”
I think this act of creating life, when we have a child, gives us a little taste of how God must have felt, creating a universe!

@Deliriumoftheendless

I didn’t know our rib cages expanded to accommodate the baby, it’s not as impressive as growing new organs but that amazed me.

Mine has never gone back to its original shape. I have tight fitting dresses from pre-pregnancy that I can no longer do up the zips on despite weighing less now than I did before pregnancy!

I’m sure my feet have changed shape too as although I’m still the same size I have some shoes that just don’t fit as well as they did.

My youngest is 4 in a few weeks so I have no hope that I will pop back into my original shape any time soon!

Also, baby girls are born with all the eggs that they will ever poses, unlike boys - who start creating sperm from puberty.

Therefore, mothers of girls are the ones who, as part of pregnancy, actually create the eggs that will later develop into their own grandchildren.

I find this mind blowing. My DM died before my DS was born so they never met - but they have this physical, not just genetic connection.

I love telling DS that one, clocks. The egg that made him was in his DGM's womb. They are very close but it's another connection.

I remember when I was still EBF being amazed that all his growth was from food produced by my body.

This is a great thread OP The female body is just amazing ❤️.

My contribution:

The human genome is littered with remnants of infections from endogenous retroviruses (viruses whose genetic material became incorporated into the host genome). In placental mammals, some of these endogenous retrovirus genes became required for the actual function and formation of the placenta - for example syncytin-1 which is required for development of the syncytiotrophoblast, the layer of cells that separates maternal and fetal bloodstreams. These are examples of an evolutionary process called exaptation. Perhaps, without these retroviral genes, we placental mammals would not have evolved at all!

What a lovely thread - the wonder of growth and birth from within a woman's body alongside fascinating scientific explanations of this 'miracle'.

I’ve trying to understand a little bit more about the placenta just by googling because I want to be able to describe pregnancy accurately to my kids.

It’s really making me question the sexism of the social narrative around pregnancy which presents the uterus as just a safe or handy place to keep a developing baby. Uterus as an ‘oven’ for example.
Clearly human embryos don’t spontaneously and independently ‘develop’ in there to term like a fertilised bird’s or fish’s egg would do. The human fetus obviously relies on interaction and nutrients and oxygen gained by being linked to the to mother via cord and placenta to her body and adjacent blood flow as happens in human pregnancy..
Always interesting to consider why politically there would be a trivialising and misrepresenting theme around human pregnancy..

A woman's body adapts in so many ways to accommodate a baby growing.

I can add the increase in blood volume to the list above.

Progesterone makes connective tissue stretchier...to accommodate birth and various other expanding parts. ( I think this is why feet grow) this is a bit of a problem if one already has fucked connective tissue..

@Babdoc I have grown and birthed four babies and am currently listening to the eldest one giving out about her work van

I just never really appreciated the placenta for what it is. I'm also always blown away by our daughters eggs growing inside us.

Clockschange
I think I only made the connection relatively recently that my DD grew from an egg made in my Mother's body. That's an incredibly powerful connection across the generations.
Weirdly I was complimented on the quality of my placenta by the midwife who delivered my (huge) baby

When I worked as a sonographer doing obstetric scans I confess I habitually shamed smokers. Easy to spot as the placenta will be hyper-echoic - sparkly speckles like wet granite in bright sunshine, I was never wrong. I would ask "do you smoke?" Then give a lecture explaining that the bright speckles were calcification, reducing the blood supply to the fetus hence the likelihood of babies of smokers being small for gestational age and a list of other complications right up to higher cot death rate.

Yeah. Mean. I'm not aware of anyone who gave up smoking on my account.

I do remember a mother who was a publican. Yes she smoked, but in the days when smoking in pubs was legal her pub was thick with smoke, she couldn't escape it. The baby was born six weeks early and died of cot death just before its due date. Of course I felt desperately sad for her, she was in a very difficult situation and couldn't really help herself. She had been spared the lecture I promise. For her.

Currently 39 weeks pregnant and in awe of what my body has done.

I created a whole actual person!

When I worked as a sonographer doing obstetric scans I confess I habitually shamed smokers. Easy to spot as the placenta will be hyper-echoic - sparkly speckles like wet granite in bright sunshine, I was never wrong. I would ask "do you smoke?" Then give a lecture explaining that the bright speckles were calcification, reducing the blood supply to the fetus hence the likelihood of babies of smokers being small for gestational age and a list of other complications right up to higher cot death rate.

Oh, wow. I had no idea you could see that on a scan! Glad I'm not a smoker!

Does it make a difference to the placenta if the woman lives in a city next to a busy road versus somewhere more rural?

This thread is lovely. Placemarking for a leisurely read later.

Placentas are amazing. I have not worked in delivery for a few years now and while I love my specialist role I do miss a good play with a placenta. After the birth you have to check the placenta to make sure it is complete and it was my favourite part, smoothing it out, marveling at it and checking the membranes etc.

This is a great thread. Our bodies can be a right pain in the arse sometimes, but they can also be fucking magical.

We're capable of growing human beings inside us. We frickin grow humans! I don't think it'll ever not blow my mind.

Therefore, mothers of girls are the ones who, as part of pregnancy, actually create the eggs that will later develop into their own grandchildren.

This is one of my favourite facts! Just crazy, in the best way.

And congratulations EdgeOfACoin and Sexnotgender!

I really wanted to see my placenta after delivery, but it was seen a bit strange. Yet this organ was the 'portal' between me and my baby and sustained her.

The midwife asked my sister if she smoked because she had calcium deposits in her placenta, she has never smoked but has just discovered she and her daughter have a rare genetic problem relating to calcium.

I imagine so much could be learnt from researching the placenta, I would have given permission for mine to be used in research.

Also a woman can reject her second foetus onwards if she is rhesus negative blood type and her first born is positive (like me and my children). I don't understand the evolutionary purpose of this, as it effectively limits you to one child. I had injections after birth to ensure I didn't reject future pregnancies.

It always amazes me that we can grow babies complete with bones, skin, brains, loads of organs, from scratch. How clever are we!

When I had my 2nd baby 3 years ago the midwives were amazed at my placenta, it was like a butterfly (or like when you butterfly a chicken breast) They were so amazed they took pictures, drew a picture on my notes & asked if they could use it for training!