Ducks in a row.....

We were walking Simba this morning, and we walked past an elementary school in our neighborhood. There was a flock of migratory geese in the playground of the school. Simba was on leash, and was no threat to the birds, but it was like they had a panic signal being passed on amongst them. They would make whiny noises and were walking (yes, walking) in a direction opposite to where we were passing by. And all the birds were walking in a row!!!

It got me to thinking about how all the ducks need to get in a row for a baby to happen. The miracle of conception and pregnancy and child-birth is amazing. Most people that conceive without having to know the "science" behind everything are oblivious of the minute precision perfection of the miracle that they are part of.

The ducks:

• The couple should be of reproductive age.
  
• The timing should be perfect
• The woman should have a physically functional system - the tubes should be present and open, the ovary should be present and functional, the uterus should not have any septum etc.
• The woman should hormonally be functional too - not too much not too little of any of the hormones, and timing of everything has to be perfect.
• The environment should not be "hostile"
• The man should have good count, good motility, good morphology etc.
• Now the darned sperm needs to find the little egg - considering they are each just one cell - that has to be a little hard to do!
• Egg has to be of good quality, and fertilization should occur
• The embryo should be perfect as far as chromosomes are concerned even if both parents are chromosomally fine. 
• Now the embryo needs to travel down the fallopian tube and implant - and it should NOT implant in the fallopian tube itself.
• The lining of the uterus needs to be appropriate
• The woman should have no clotting disorders or immune disorders
• The uterus should hold the growing baby for 9 months without trying to "expel" it earlier
• The placenta should be of good quality
• The woman's cervix should be of good length
• And so on and so forth......

So for all the people that conceive naturally, or for the people that conceive without even trying, or while being on drugs or alcohol - it's a God sent miracle that you're part of. To me, it is amazing that babies are born without a whole lot of medical intervention actually - given that we know how much we know now!

We are all part of that miracle - whether or not we have the babies to prove it. Once upon a time, we were ourselves that miracle that our parents created!