3.11 The Placenta

1. On one side of the uterus wall, is called the placenta

2. When the child is in the uterus - ( water filled environment) - the child cant digest or breathe or excrete.

3. To do these three things, it has an umbilical chord coming from the placenta to the embryo

4. From the embryo, the blood vessel go down through the placenta into the maternal blood vessel

5. The placenta grows out of the developing embryo

6. From the placenta, grows the arteries and veins

7. The placenta grows into the uterus

8. When the mother eats, important minerals and nutrients travel through the blood stream and into the wall of the uterus --> Glucose - amino acids - fats

9. When crossed into the child's blood, they get taken into the child - crossing at the placenta

10. To make this efficient, the placenta has a large surface area and the barrier between the mothers blood and childs blood is very thin

11. Nutrients come from the mother.

12. The child produces molecules that go back through the mothers blood - CO2 and Urea