CHAPTER 2:

THE PRENATAL PERIOD

Knowing what happens before birth
is essential to a complete
understanding of the normal
pattern of development and to a
realization of what can happen to
distort this pattern.
CHARACTERISTICS
OF THE PRENATAL
PERIOD
Newborn or Infancy
- first developmental
period in the life
span.
- Shortest period;
most important
period of all.
 270-280 days
9 calendar months
 SIX IMPORTANT
CHARACTERISTICS
The Hereditary
Endowment which
serves as the
foundation for later
development, is
fixed, once and for
all, at this time.
Favorable conditions
in the mothers body
can foster the
development of
hereditary
potentials.
The sex of the newly
created individual is
fixed at the time of
conception and
conditions w/in the
mothers body will not
affect it; as is true of
the hereditary
endowment.
Proportionally
greater growth and
development take
place during the
prenatal period than
at any other time
throughout the
individuals entire life.
The prenatal period
is a time of many
hazards, both
physical and
psychological.
The prenatal period
is the time when
significant people
from attitudes
toward newly
created individuals.
HOW LIFE
BEGINS?
Spermatozoa Ova
These sex cells are
developed in the
reproductive organs,
the gonads.
 They are similar in
that they contain
chromosomes
23 chromosomes
Each chromosome
contains genes.
GENE
- is a minute particle
which is found in
combination with
other genes in a
stringlike formation
w/in the
chromosome.
 They differ in two
important ways.
Ovum= 23 matched
chromosomes.
Spermatozoon=
22 matched and
1 unmatched.
 The second way is
in the no. of
preparatory stages
of development
they pass through
before they are
ready to produce a
new human being.
MATURATION
-it is the process of
chromosome
reduction through cell
division.
Haploid cell
- a mature cell which
contains 23
chromosomes.
Spermatozoon
There are four new
cells, the spermatids,
each of which is
capable of fertilizing
an ovum.
Ovum
One chromosome
from each pair is
pushed outside the
cell wall. This new
cell is know as the
polar body.
OVULATION
-preliminary stage of
development
limited to the
female sex cell.
-the process of escape of one
mature ovum during the
menstrual cycle.
FERTILIZATION
- Which occurs at the
time of conception, is
rd
the 3 stage of
development
preliminary to the
beginning of a new
life.
IMPORTANCE
OF
CONCEPTION
 HEREDITARY
ENDOWMENT
st
The important
1
happening at the time of
conception is the
determination of the
newly created individuals
hereditary endowment.
 SEX
2nd important
happening at the time
of conception. Sex
depends on the kind of
spermatozoon that
unites with the ovum.