Thread: our body

i've got a question and it may be silly so don't get angry at me but our body needs our vital organ heart ;lung;skin etc... and our brain needs our heart and so if the heart stops the brain stops but if the brain stops the heart doesn't necessarily stop but what i am trying to say is that as a fetus we are alive but surely something kicks us into life (to get our heart going and to make us concous) what is that thing

A very deep old part of the brain does cue heartbeats. You will die without that, unless you have a pacemaker. That wasn't really what you're getting at, I know...


A newborn is not much more conscious than an internal organ suddenly removed from the body. Its movements are about as deliberate and "clever" as, say, a contracting stomach or esophagus. But it's born with some tricks to get new parents hooked. That established, baby proceeds to train the parents and also learns to self-regulate things like body temperature, and even which direction food should travel through the esophagus. They don't intelligently reach out to the world right away. It's enough for baby just to look wise whilst meditating on the gassy sensations in its intestines.

The heart performs an incredible feat. Pre-birth, a fetus does not need to pump blood through the lungs, and it basically operates on three chambers, in reverse. Seconds after birth, the baby slams shut this hole in its heart and the beat flips over to "real life". Newborn circulation remains feeble though for some days or weeks while a second hole closes more gradually.

I'm unsure when the fetal heart starts beating. I first heard my son's when he was about the size of a lima bean. It's not quite proportionately rapid. I'd liken the sound to a small midget jogging in wet rain gear.

Not sure either when the mammalian heart starts beating, but it is very early.