By Felipe Rafael Castillo
Each human life is a unique, unrepeatable miracle. But a person may ask, “When does it all start?” Human life begins at the moment of conception/creation when the father’s sperm unites with the mother’s egg, and God breathes His life into the baby, giving him a soul that will live forever.
The baby has forty-six chromosomes, twenty-three from the mother and twenty-three from the father. These chromosomes are the instructions that decide the baby’s gender, eye and hair color, facial features, skin tone, and other characteristics.
All throughout the nine months of pregnancy a baby is a human being but is given different names to show his stage of development. During the first week of life, the preborn baby is called a zygote, which means “joined” in Greek because the sperm and egg have united to form a new person. After implantation in the mother’s womb in the second week, the baby is called an embryo, which is a Greek word that means “to swell.” This period of growth lasts until the ninth week when the baby is then called a fetus, which means “young one” in Latin. The preborn baby is referred to as a fetus until birth, when the baby becomes a newborn.
The first trimester of the preborn baby’s life is an exciting time of rapid growth. Even though the baby is smaller than an apple seed, his heart begins to form and starts beating around day twenty-one. His brain, spine, and nervous system begin to form along with his eyes, ears, and lungs during the third and fourth weeks. The legs, arms, and face take shape around the fifth week, and the toes and fingers form during the sixth week. By the seventh week, baby teeth buds appear, and the baby begins to move his muscles. By eight weeks, all the baby’s organs are present and just need time to develop throughout the rest of the pregnancy.
During the third month, the preborn baby’s skeleton changes from cartilage to bone and his fingernails and toenails form. He even has a unique set of fingerprints. The baby can now squint, move his tongue, and swallow. He can even suck his thumb now! By the end of the first trimester, the preborn baby weighs about one ounce and is three inches long.
There are many ways I can help others see the humanity of the baby in the first trimester.
First, I can share about pro-life movies and books with family and friends. One good pro-life animated movie that I would suggest is Skiff and AJ’s Fantastic Voyage, which shows the value of every human life, born and preborn, and the unrepeatable miracle every human person is. A pro-life children’s comic book that I enjoy reading and would recommend is Umbert the Unborn: A Womb with a View by Gary Cangemi, which explains the preborn’s development in the womb in a fun way that is easy to understand.
Second, I can wear pro-life shirts and sweaters. These speak volumes and remind people that all human life is valuable.
The most important way I can help others see the humanity of the baby in the womb is through prayer. I often pray “The Tiny Jesus Chaplet” on CatholicKids101.com, a prayer that journeys through each month of Baby Jesus’ growth in His mother Mary’s womb. I also participate in Holy Heroes’ Spiritual Adoption Prayer Adventure, which takes me through the nine months of a baby’s growth in the womb and inspires me to pray for him at each stage of development.
Lastly, my family and I frequently participate in 40 Days for Life and pray the rosary and Divine Mercy Chaplet in front of abortion clinics. I usually hold a sign that says “Honk for Life!” and many pro-life drivers respond by giving a thumbs up, waving, or honking their horns.
It is wonderful to stand up for the voiceless, innocent preborn babies!
Felipe Rafael Castillo won second place in the middle school category of the Culture of Life Studies Program’s 2024 Pro-Life Essay Contest.