Pregnancy and Birth - Key terms
EMBRYO:
The stage of animal development in the uterus before the point at which the animal is considered a fetus. In humans this is equivalent to the first three months.
FALLOPIAN TUBES:
A set of trumpet-like tubes that carries a fertilized egg from the ovary to the uterus.
FERTILIZATION:
The process of cellular fusion that takes place in sexual reproduction. The nucleus of a male reproductive cell, or gamete, fuses with the nucleus of a female gamete to produce a zygote.
FETUS:
An unborn or unhatched vertebrate that has taken on the shape typical of its kind. An unborn human usually is called a fetus during the period from three months after fertilization to the time of birth.
GESTATION:
The time between fertilization and birth, during which the unborn offspring develops in the uterus.
HORMONE:
Molecules produced by living cells, which send signals to spots remote from their point of origin and induce specific effects on the activities of other cells.
OVARY:
Female reproductive organ that contains the eggs.
OVIPAROUS:
A term for an animal that gives birth to eggs that must develop before hatching. Compare with viviparous.
OVOVIVIPAROUS:
A term for an animal that produces eggs but retains them inside the body until hatching occurs, so that "live" offspring are born. Compare with oviparous and viviparous.
OVUM:
An egg cell.
UTERUS:
A reproductive organ, found in most female mammals, in which an embryo and, later, a fetus grows and develops.
VAGINA:
A passage from the uterus to the outside of the body.
VIVIPAROUS:
A term for an animal that gives birth to live offspring. Compare with oviparous.