15 Amazing Things to Know About Your Unborn Baby

By Lisa Horten

The info that you get from your monthly wellness visits during the course of a pregnancy tends to be limited at best. If you want to know what's really going on with that rapidly evolving baby of yours, some independent research is going to be necessary. Lucky for you, we've done the legwork. It's no wonder that pregnancy is often referred to as a miracle, and these 15 incredible facts absolutely prove it!

  1. Your baby has a discernible heartbeat just six weeks into your pregnancy.
  2. All of your baby's major organs (the heart, lungs, kidneys, brain, and intestines) are formed and functional by 10 weeks — they're just tiny!
  3. Your baby will be born with 300 separate bones, some of which will fuse together. Adults have 206 bones in our bodies.
  4. Baby's movement plays a key role in development, helping to shape joint structure and define the limbs' range of motion.
  5. A baby can recognize his or her mother's voice at birth.
  6. By 10 weeks, your baby has completed the most critical stage of his or her development.
  7. You won't be able to feel it yet, but your baby will respond to touch if you push down on your belly at just 10 weeks.
  8. By 13 weeks, your baby has his or her own unique fingerprints.
  9. Having a girl? By 18 weeks, her uterus and fallopian tubes are formed and fully in place.
  10. By about 23 weeks, your baby will startle if he or she hears a loud or sudden noise.
  11. Consistent rhythmic tapping coming from the womb probably means that your baby has a case of the hiccups.
  12. At about 27 weeks, your baby will start to practice breathing, even though his or her lungs aren't taking in oxygen yet.
  13. By 28 weeks, your baby will be able to smell the same things you're smelling.
  14. When your baby is born, his or her eyes will already be 75 percent of their adult size.
  15. Only five percent of babies are born on their due date (so don't count on it!).