Pregnancy Pathway, Conception

Today: Con­cep­tion!

For com­plete graphic, see Feb. 5 or 23 post.

The health of the mother and her prior expo­sure to sperm have a dra­matic effect on con­cep­tion. To find out why and how, we have to start with this question: 

What is conception?

Is it fer­til­iza­tion, a process by which an egg absorbs a sperm, engulf­ing the male’s half of the genetic code? Per­haps it is the point at which this egg/sperm con­coc­tion (the cor­pus) reaches the uterus and the tro­phoblast cells begin to invade the endometrium (uter­ine lining)?

Tro­phoblast Invas­tion? No…Chihuly glass exhibit at the Desert Botan­i­cal Gar­dens, Phoenix AZ

Tro­phoblast inva­sion causes spi­ral arter­ies in the mother’s cir­cu­la­tion to open and form a pool that will nour­ish the fetus. Depend­ing on the “dis­cus­sion” between the mother’s immune sys­tem and tro­phoblast, this inva­sion may go well or poorly. How well it goes will affect the course of the pregnancy.

Or, what about the point around 8 weeks post onset of last men­strual cycle at which the respon­si­bil­ity for nour­ish­ment of these cells is trans­ferred from the cor­pus to the pla­centa? By this point about 30% of poten­tial preg­nan­cies have spon­ta­neously aborted because of genetic or inflam­ma­tion problems.

Another can­di­date is the Quick­en­ing, the point the Bible refers to as the start of life. This is  the occa­sion — around 4 months post onset of last men­strual cycle — when the mother first senses move­ment in her womb. Is this con­cep­tion? It cer­tainly rises to the test of con­scious­ness of a phe­nom­e­non (oth­er­wise known as a concept).

What if the engulf­ing of the sperm hap­pens in a dish in the lab­o­ra­tory? What if large doses of egg induc­ing med­ica­tions are required to prompt eggs to mature and con­sider engulf­ing sperm? What if hor­mones are required to allow the first few cells to grav­i­tate toward and inbed them­selves into a uter­ine sur­face not really that friendly to their continuation?

You can see that it is not a sim­ple mat­ter to estab­lish a start­ing point. There are sev­eral processes that must go right to form a viable human. All along the way, the mother’s health plays a key role. Inter­est­ingly, the extent of expo­sure to the father’s sperm also plays a role, as do immune fac­tors in the com­bined mother’s and father’s genes.

Most impor­tant for our         pur­poses here is that women who are reg­u­lar aer­o­bic exer­cis­ers prior to preg­nancy or who begin in early preg­nancy show reduced risk for devel­op­ments of the pla­centa that pro­duce a dys­func­tional pregnancy.

Upcom­ing posts will dis­cuss mater­nal health and sperm expo­sure in more detail.