The Education Resource Fund (ERF) recently announced an extraordinary new series of pregnancy-related science documentaries which illustrate the biology of prenatal development using sophisticated medical imaging technologies and procedures which enable researchers to visualize embryos and fetuses, alive in the uterus, with never-before-seen clarity.

ERF is a science foundation which produces films and other curricular materials that are now available in an app for mobile devices titled See Baby Grow. The app can be downloaded without charge from both the Apple App Store (for iOS) and the Google Play Store (for Android). The materials in the app can also be accessed at www.ERF.science for streaming into classrooms and viewing on larger screens.

Both the app and website provide a comprehensive compendium of science-based content related to prenatal development. ERF’s digital outlets also provide links to instructional prenatal video and textual materials produced by sources such as PBS, the BBC, The National Geographic Society, The Discovery Channel, etc. ERF additionally posts links to a selection of embryology textbooks commonly used by medical and nursing schools. These textbooks are complemented by links to prenatal technical articles published in the periodic literature of medicine.

Embryonic and fetal educational materials can also be accessed in a broad range of image archives linked on the ERF site for the convenience of those wishing to purchase licenses of additional imagery. These sources include Getty Images, Shutterstock, iStock, Wiki Commons, etc., etc. Each link provides fee-for-use licensing which permits the posting, publication, or broadcast of video, illustrations, or still photos, etc., related to prenatal development.

Many of ERF’s own video programs have been translated into subtitles for 92 foreign languages. Children’s editions of ERF prenatal teaching videos are available in English and Spanish, along with Mandarin Chinese and Hindi versions which are currently in production. More children’s foreign language editions are coming soon. These children’s programs are narrated by young children using age-appropriate scripts in their own languages.

The app and website offer instructional materials for teachers and students in all age groups, from pre-K through medical school. These resources include teacher-designed lesson plans, lecture notes, testing materials, and also coloring pages which enable young children to fill in line drawings depicting embryonic and fetal growth.

For more advanced study, ERF’s site and app contain 36 high-resolution animations depicting major organ systems, each rendered in 3D models which can be rotated, tilted, etc. to permit viewing from a nearly infinite array of angles. These interactive models present comparative anatomical imagery featuring, for instance, an internal perspective on the human heart as it appears in an 8-week embryo, a 16-week fetus, and the adult body. Each organ’s substructures are labeled inside each organ, and each substructure can be accessed by name through an alphabetized index.

Women who are pregnant or who intend to become pregnant may be most interested in what is perhaps the most informative pregnancy tracker on the web. Every major stage of pregnancy is depicted in actual video using endoscopic visualizaiton technologies. Particularly remarkable developmental facts will also be offered for each of pregnancy’s 266 days of gestation.

The See Baby Grow app will be constantly expanded to incorporate new materials. Features will include discussion forums for mothers who wish to interact with one another concerning matters related to pregnancy problems. There will also be a news aggregator on which press reports will be regularly posted, explaining advances in the science of prenatal development. Pregnant women will also be invited to post ultrasound scans of their own babies throughout gestation, as well as photos of their infants and toddlers in early childhood.

Those who download this app can immediately begin posting its “Sharable Content” elements across all social media platforms. The imagery is amazing when viewed on a phone, but even more so on a tablet. Watching it on a computer or television screen, however, reveals the greatest degree of the app’s astonishing detail.

he Education Resource Fund (ERF) recently announced an extraordinary new series of pregnancy-related science documentaries which illustrate the biology of prenatal development using sophisticated medical imaging technologies and procedures which enable researchers to visualize embryos and fetuses, alive in the uterus, with never-before-seen clarity.

ERF is a science foundation which produces films and other curricular materials that are now available in an app for mobile devices titled See Baby Grow. The app can be downloaded without charge from both the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store (for Android). The materials in the app can also be accessed at www.ERF.science for streaming into classrooms and viewing on larger screens.

Both the app and website provide a comprehensive compendium of science-based information related to prenatal development. ERF’s digital outlets also list links to instructional prenatal video and textual materials produced by sources such as PBS, the BBC, The National Geographic Society, The Discovery Channel, etc. ERF additionally posts links to a selection of embryology textbooks commonly used by medical and nursing schools. These textbooks are complemented by links to prenatal technical articles published in the periodic literature of medicine.

Embryonic and fetal educational content can also be accessed in select image archives linked on the ERF site. These sources include Getty Images, Shutterstock, iStock, Wiki Commons, etc., etc. Each link provides fee-for-use licensing which permits the use of video, illustrations, still photos, etc., related to prenatal development.

Many of ERF’s own video materials have been translated into subtitles for 92 foreign languages. Children’s editions of ERF prenatal teaching videos are available in English and Spanish, along with Mandarin Chinese and Hindi versions which are currently in production. More children’s foreign language editions are coming soon. These children’s programs are narrated by young children using age-appropriate scripts in their own languages.

The app and website additionally offer instructional materials for teachers and students in all age groups, from pre-K through medical school. These resources include teacher-designed lesson plans, lecture notes, testing materials, and also coloring pages which enable young children to fill in line drawings depicting embryonic and fetal growth.

For more advanced study, ERF’s site and app contain 36 high-resolution animations depicting major organ systems, each rendered in 3D models which can be rotated, tilted, etc. to permit viewing from a nearly infinite array of angles. These models present comparative anatomy information featuring, for instance, an internal perspective on the human heart as it appears in an 8-week embryo, a 16-week fetus, and the adult body. Each organ’s substructures are labeled inside each organ, and each substructure can be accessed by name through an alphabetized index.

Women who are pregnant or who intend to become pregnant, may examine what is almost certainly the most interesting and informative pregnancy tracker on the web. Every major stage of pregnancy is displayed in actual video using rare endoscopic viewing technologies. Particularly remarkable developmental facts will also be offered for each of pregnancy’s 266 days of gestation.

This app will be constantly expanded to incorporate new tools. Features will include discussion forums for mothers who wish to interact with one another concerning matters related to their pregnancies. There will also be a news aggregator on which press reports will be regularly posted, explaining new developments in the science of prenatal development. Pregnant women will also be encouraged to post ultrasound scans of their own babies throughout gestation as well as photos of their infants and toddlers in early childhood.

Those who download this app can immediately begin posting its “Sharable Content” elements across all social media platforms. The imagery is amazing when viewed on a phone, but even more so on a tablet. Watching it on a computer or television screen, however, reveals the greatest degree of this astonishing detail.

To obtain the See Baby Grow App for Apple (iOS), download from the Apple App Store at the foregoing QR Code, or this link: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/see-baby-grow/id1633494975.

 

 

To obtain the See Baby Grow App for Google Play (Android), download from Google Play App Store at the foregoing QR Code, or this link: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.seebabygrow.erf.

1. Male initiated: Up to 600 million sperm are deposited in the birth canal, of which only 200 reach the fertilization site in the uterine tube.  The Developing Human: Clinically Oriented Embryology, 10th ed., K. Moore et al., Elsevier (2016), pp. 25-26.

2. Male initiated: An enzyme produced by the prostate helps liquify the semen to facilitate its flow into the female reproductive tract.  Moore, p. 25.

3. Male initiated: Fructose produced by the seminal glands is a source of energy which powers the sperm’s movement through the female reproductive tract.  Moore, p. 25.

4. Male initiated: Sperm are nonmotile during storage in the epididymis of the testis, but they become motile when combined with seminal fluid.  They move slowly in the acidic environment of the vagina but move rapidly in the alkaline environment of the uterus.  Moore, p. 26.

5. Female initiated: When ovulation occurs, the cervical mucus content increases in volume and becomes less viscid (less thick and sticky), making it a more favorable medium for sperm transport.  Moore, p. 25.

6. Female initiated: Some sperm are stored in the folds of the cervical crypts and are gradually released into the fallopian tubes.  This maternal metering mechanism increases the chances of fertilization.  Moore, p. 27.

7. Female initiated: Cervical mucus helps capture and nourish sperm on their way to meet the egg in the uterine tube.  ClevelandClinic.org.

8. Female initiated: Sperm are usually capacitated (activated) while they are in the uterus or fallopian tubes by substances secreted by parts of the female genital tract.  Moore, p. 26.

9. Female initiated: Female reproductive fluid (FRF) interacts with sperm, increasing their motility and longevity and ultimately achieving fertilization success.  “Sperm Accumulation Induced by the Female Reproductive Fluid ….” PubMed, Sept. 18, 2021.

10. Female initiated: Chemical signals (attractants) secreted by the female’s oocyte (egg) guide sperm to the oocyte.  Moore, p. 27.

11. Male initiated: Carbohydrate binding molecules and gamete-specific proteins on the surface of the sperm are involved in egg-sperm recognition and union.  Moore, p. 28.

12. Female initiated: Sperm cannot fertilize the egg until a glycoprotein coat and seminal proteins are removed from the acrosome, or head of the sperm, by substances secreted by the female genital tract.  Moore, p. 26.

13. Female initiated: When capacitated sperm come into contact with the corona radiata (membrane) surrounding a secondary oocyte, they undergo complex molecular changes which facilitate fertilization.  Moore, p. 26.

14. Male initiated: Although apertures in the membrane surrounding the oocyte appear to be created mainly from the action of an enzyme released from the acrosome (head) of the sperm, maternal mucosal enzymes also appear to assist in creating these openings.  Moore, p. 29.

15. Male initiated: Fertilization is a complex sequence of coordinated molecular events that begins with contact between a sperm and an oocyte and ends with the intermingling of maternal and paternal chromosomes.  Moore, p. 28.

16. Male initiated: The human oocyte contains some 8,000 zinc compartments, each storing approximately 1 million zinc atoms.  When an egg makes contact with a sperm cell, these zinc atoms burst out of the egg.  The zinc which now surrounds the egg strengthens its membrane against penetration by additional sperm.  “Scientists Just Captured the Flash of Light that Sparks when a Sperm Meets an Egg,” April 27, 2016, ScienceAlert.com.

17. Male initiated: The pronuclei of the sperm and oocyte merge, each combining its 23 chromosomes with the 23 chromosomes of the other, forming the 46-chromosome embryo, which at this single-cell stage is called a zygote.  Moore, p. 29.