Pregnant

Actual Elapsed Time: 6 months (15,500,000 seconds)

A pregnant woman changes shape as a fetus develops inside her. Normally we can't see these changes actually happen. We only detect large differences from time to time. By speeding up the action more than a million times we can get the full story of how pregnancy alters a woman's body. Over nine months, this woman will gain about one fifth of her original body weight. To supply oxygen and nutrition to the fetus, she will need to make one half again as much blood as she started with. Her uterus will grow from the size of a tangerine to larger than a basketball. The mother not only prepares for carrying the baby, she also gets ready to continue to supply all its nutritional needs after it is born.

How This Clip Was Made:

This time-lapse animation was created from a series of still photos. The woman stood in a set position before each picture was taken. The pictures were digitized, transferred to PhotoCD, and aligned with a computer graphics program. The images transform gradually through the use of a process called morphing. Production: Heidi Frieze, Bob Hone, Paul Shain. Post-Production: Todd Reamon. Special Thanks: Jenny Trieber.

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