I was asked this question during a TV interview whilst I was in Nigeria for my mother’s funeral last month. I must admit that I could not recall the correct answer, but said it was around the 10th week. I later checked and found out that it is the 13th week from the date of conception and the 15th week from the date of your last period.
‘A Mother’s Prayers’ provides two dates for ease of reference; the date from conception, which you may never know and is also that date that I use for the stages of the growing child’s development and prayers; and the date from your last period, also referred to as the gestational date. I’ve written it this way so that the prayers could follow closer to the actual developmental stage of the growing child. You can work out the date of conception, as it will always be two weeks less than the date of your last period, assuming that you’re on a 28 day cycle.
But I began to think a lot deeper about when babies actually hear you in the womb. Human beings have a spirit, a soul which, consists of the mind and emotions, and they also live in a body.
The Bible says:
“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
before you were born I set you apart;
I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”
Jeremiah 1:5 (NIV)
This implies that God knew our spirit before we came to earth, but the body took shape during conception and pregnancy.
Another scripture that talks about our spirit can be found in the book of Ecclesiastes.
and the dust returns to the ground it came from, and the spirit returns to God who gave it. Ecclesiastes 12:6-7 (NIV)
The dust is in reference to the body and the implication is that our spirit came from God. Genesis 2:7 indicates that God formed man from dust and breathed into man and he became a living soul.
During fertilisation, the gender and genetic makeup of the growing embryo is already determined. I would suggest that it is at this stage that the spirit of the child is also present. Whether the spirit of the child can hear in the womb at this stage, is something we may never know on this side of heaven. However, it is interesting that at the end of life, hearing is the last organ to go.
Food for thought!
Joanne Sojinu
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