A newly released online video uses computer graphics to accurately depict the earliest moments of life. It has drawn upon the very reliable information provided by ultrasound technology to give viewers a clearer view of fetal development and activity within the womb.
During previous eras, people could not visualize images of growing cells clearly within the mother’s body. Although X-rays under limited circumstances could offer a view of babies during the weeks immediately before birth (after the development of bone tissue), they furnished only a snapshot from a single point in time and did not allow the full visualization of soft tissues. Additionally, taking radiographs subjected mothers and their offspring to potentially dangerous levels of radiation, so physicians usually performed the visualization procedure only when absolutely necessary for medical reasons.
Today, safe, accurate ultrasound technology has given everyone a better opportunity to view babies at much earlier stages of their development. With the assistance of computer graphics, the public can now watch a fascinating new video depicting in accelerated time how a human being appears and develops. The short film traces the creation of a human being from the infusion of sperm into the mother’s vagina through the implantation of the egg and the formation of a single-celled organism. The audience can watch a child mature from just a few cells into a blastocyst and then into a fetus, finally to emerge as a fully formed, animated baby capable of living outside the womb. The brilliant video even demonstrated how the baby travels through the mother’s birth canal during delivery, making it a very useful instructional film for anyone interested in the birth process.
The life-like computer animations in the film depict imagery that evidently relies heavily upon ultrasound tapes to demonstrate realistically the animated movements of a growing and developing fetus. During previous centuries, physicians and parents knew that late-term babies sometimes “kicked” and moved within the womb, but they lacked the ability to actually see these events occurring during real time. The new four-minute movie, a testimony to the skill of the video makers, beautifully displays the increasing pattern of movement as the human organism develops specialized, differentiated tissues and sexual organs before moving through the maternal birth canal in a seemingly impossible yet wonderful feat of natural design. The beautiful video will likely interest both biology students and child development students in that respect, offering a useful study aid for anyone interested in quickly reviewing the birth process.