FAMILY MEDICAL CARE: EXCITING HAPPENINGS OF PREGNANCY. TWO ELEMENTS

Pregnancy is the most intimate and heart­warming experience in the life of a married couple. Not only are the events which lead up to it very personal, but the actual incident represents a merging of the essential features of both partners.

Characteristics of both parents, including physical, mental and psychological elements, are united in an amazing manner. These factors take place at the moment of conception, and are inevitably destined to go with the new life from that point onwards to the end of his life.

In recent years, more is becoming known of this life before birth. Chromosomes, the microscopic filaments that bear the genes, the actual heredity-bearing organs, can now be studied in detail by the use of special mechanisms. The amazing extent of "genetic predetermination" is becoming understood more and more as these intricate items are visualized under powerful microscopes.

By taking cells from the amniotic fluid, the watery substance in which the baby floats in prenatal life, and examining these, a great body of information can be adduced.

The sex of the developing baby can be determined. If the infant is likely to have certain physical abnormalities, this too can often be discovered. Indeed, in several trials carried out in the United Kingdom, the researchers even claimed they could give an indication if the developing baby would grow up to be a criminal!

In every pregnancy, there must be two elements, a male and a female. The male contributes to reproduction the single-celled units called spermatozoa. These are produced as a continual, ongoing process in the testes which are located in the scrotum.

As they are produced, they are conveyed by a narrow canal called the vas deferens into the body. Here they are deposited in a storage chamber located behind the urinary bladder, and named the seminal vesicles.

Certain glands add fluid to this storage tank, so that the sperms are able to move actively about. The fluid contains nutritive elements to enable them to keep alive and very active.

Each sperm has a head and an actively waving tail which is used to propel it along. Located in the head is the nucleus, and deeply inside this, are positioned the tiny filaments called the chromosomes. These contain small knobs along heir length, termed genes. The chromosomes and genes are the heredity-bearing elements of the cell.

Just before they are discharged by the testes, the number of chromosomes in each sperm is halved. A normal cell contains forty-six, but the sperm contains only twenty-three. Included in this number is the sex-determining chromosome. This is referred to as either an X or Y chromosome.

When the sperm finally unites with the female counterpart, the ovum (which also has divided so that it contains twenty-three chromosomes), the sex of the subsequent infant will be immediately determined. An X-bearing sperm will produce a female; a Y-bearing sperm will produce a male. The ovum contains only X chromosomes, so the male contribution is the sex determinant.

 

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GENERAL HEALTH