Breathing In the Womb. How does it work?

 

While baby is in the womb he or she is not breathing air like we do once we are born. Therefore, no inhale or exhale is happening in the womb.

 

Now we know what you are thinking. How is this possible!?

 

Oxygen of the mom will travel through many of her organs to the placenta. From the placenta, oxygen from mom will then go into the umbilical cord to baby.

 

A miracle right? Here is in depth detail of how the oxygen travels through blood to baby:

 

Once oxygenated blood comes through the placenta from mom the umbilical vein will carry less oxygenated blood towards the fetal liver. It will then have two possible ways to go, either through the ductus venous or straight to the IVC (inferior vena cava.) The D.V will deliver blood to the IVC too. Now we have our fetal oxygen blood in the IVC going up to the fetal right atrium of the heart (this is where the blood is going to become richer in oxygen.Some blood will flow into the pulmonary artery while most will go through the foramen oval (crossing from the right atrium into the left atrium of the heart. Once this happens blood will flow down to the left ventricle of the fetal heart and flow up into the fetal aorta through the ductus arteriosus. Once this happens babies blood is full of very rich oxygen. The blood will now flow down the fetal body to the legs through to the umbilical artery. The cycle will continuously repeat. 

 

The development of your baby is truly a miracleous gift! We hope you enjoyed getting to know how your baby is able to breath inside the womb. 

 

For a more detailed visual understanding visit. https://youtu.be/-IRkisEtzsk