PHOTOS OF THE PRE-BORN & A TRAGIC DIARY
ALL AGES ARE WEEKS FROM FERTILIZATION
�____________________________________________________________________________________________
� � � �
FOUR WEEKS: By this time, the embryo is the size of a pinhead and growing rapidly. The first nerve cells are formed. Around this time, a blood vessel forms which will later develop into the heart and circulatory system. It begins to pump blood. The brain and spinal tissue begins to form. Arm and leg buds are present. This is period is when most women realize they are pregnant.
____________________________________________________________________________________________
SIX WEEKS: The embryo is about 3/4 in. long. Cells multiply and start to form the brain. The tail bud is present, which will form the spine. Fingers and toes begin to appear. Cells are also multiplying to form the eyes, ears, jaw, lungs, stomach, intestines, and liver. This is period is when most women realize they are pregnant. In two more weeks, the embryo will be called a fetus, as the muscles and skeleton develop.
____________________________________________________________________________________________
TEN WEEKS: All major external body features have appeared. The fetus is about 2.5in. long and weighs about 1/2oz. The muscles continue to develop. Fingers and toes are distinct and have nails.
____________________________________________________________________________________________
TWELVE WEEKS: The fetus is about 3.5in long and weighs about 1.5oz now. The head is still the dominant part of the fetus. The eyes are beginning to grow toward the front of the head, and 20 buds for baby teeth are present. There are eyelids and the nose is developing a bridge. External genitals have been developing so that the sex can be identified.
____________________________________________________________________________________________
TWENTY-TWO WEEKS: The baby is about 8.25in and its weight has increased to 1.25lbs. Head and body hair are evident. The baby has thin skin, and eyebrows and eyelashes. Fat is beginning to form on the fetus, and the fetal skeleton can be detected. �The lungs are developing rapidly.
____________________________________________________________________________________________
THIRTY-SIX WEEKS: The fetus is 13.5in and weighs 6.5 lbs. At this time, in most cases, the fetus is fully developed. More than 99% of babies born at this stage survive.
____________________________________________________________________________________________
Tragic Diary
October 5: Today my life began. My parents do not know it yet, I am as small as the pollen of a flower, but it is I already. I will be a girl. I will have blonde hair and blue eyes. Nearly everything is settled already, even that I shall love flowers.
October 19: I have grown a little, but I am still too small to do anything by myself. My mother does almost everything for me, though she still does not know that she is carrying me under her heart. She does not know that she is already helping me, and that she is even feeding me with her own blood. She is so good...But is it true that I am not yet a real person? That only my mother exists? I am a real person, just as a small crumb of bread is still real bread. My mother is, and I am.
October 23: My moth is just now beginning to open. Just think-in a year or so I'll be laughing and later I'll start to talk. My first word will be: "Mama."
October 23: Today my heart began to beat. It will beat softly for the rest of my life, never stopping! After many years it will tire, it will stop, and then I shall die.
November 2: I am growing continually. My arms and legs are taking shape, but I must wait a long time before those tiny legs will raise me to my mother's arms; before those little arms will be able to conquer the earth and befriend people.
November 12: Tiny fingers are beginning to form on my hand! How small they are! One day I'll stroke my mother's hair with them. I shall take her hair to my mouth and she'll say: "Oh! Nasty!"
November 20: Only today the doctor told my mother that I am living under her heart. How happy she must be! Are you happy, mother?
November 25: My mother and father are probably thinking about a name for me! And they don't even know that I am a little girl, so they are probably calling me "Andy." But I want to be called Barbara. I am growing so big.
December 10: My hair is growing. It is as bright and shiny as the sun. I wonder what kind of hair my mother has?
December 13: I am almost able to see, though it is night around me. When mother brings me into the world, it will be full of sunshine and overflowing with flower. I have never seen a flower, you know. But more than anything, I want to see my mother. How do you look, mom?
December 24: I wonder if my mother hears the delicate beat of my heart? Some children are born with sickly hearts, and then the gentle finger of the doctor performs miracles to make them healthy. But my heart is healthy. It beats so evenly: Tup-tup, tup-tup...You shall have a healthy little daughter, mom!
December 28: Today my mother killed me.
____________________________________________________________________________________________
A Baby's Prayer, by Kathy Trocoli
I can hear her talking with a friend
I think it's about me
Oh how she can't have a baby now
My mommy doesn't see That I feel her breath.
I know her voice
Her blood, it flows through my heart
God you know my greatest wish is that
We never be apart
But if I should die before I wake
I pray her soul You'll keep
Forgive her Lord, she doesn't know
that you gave life to me.
Do I really have to say good-bye
Don't want this time to be through
Oh please tell her that I love her Lord
And that you love her too
Cause if I should die before I wake
I pray her soul you'll keep
Forgive her Lord she doesn't know
That you gave life to me
On the days when she may think of me
Please comfort her with the truth
That the angels hold me safe and sound
Cause I'm in heaven with you.
____________________________________________________________________________________________
<--BACK TO ABORTION INFORMATION
The Institute Slubow Naroda, a prominent Polish Lay Apostolate group, printed "Tragic Diary" at the request of His Eminence, Stephen Cardinal Wyszyniski, Primate of Poland. The article, written by H. Schwab, appearted in the December, 1961 issue of SODALIS, publication of SS. Cyril & Methodius Seminary, Orchard Lake, Michigan. It was translated for OUR SUNDAY VISITOR by Fr. Edward J. Krason, assistant pastor of SS. Peter & Paul parish, Huntington, Indiana, and printed in the June 24, 1962 edition.