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Appendix 3
Movement and Learning Patterns of the Unborn Child and
The Development of the Senses
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Pain
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Timing
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Source |
The fetal heart rate increases in
response to scalp blood sampling and after tactile
stimulation during amniocentesis, indicating that
the fetus responds to stimuli that may be painful.
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Before birth |
Nijhuis/Hepper, p 135 |
| The sudden burst of body movements
that occurred during amniocentesis may have been
caused by painful stimulation. In each patient,
the needle either struck the fetus or the fetus
moved against the needle. |
3rd trimester |
Hill, p 690 |
| Pain pathways run from sensory receptors
in the skin to those in the brain. Nerve endings
that sense pain are at least as dense in the skin
of a newborn as in an adult. Such receptors appear
around the mouth in the 5th week after conception,
and are present in the face, the palms, and the
soles of the feet by the 9th week, spreading to
the trunk, arms, and legs by the 13th week, and
to all areas of the skin by the 18th week. The development
of the neocortex, the largest part of the brain,
begins at 6 weeks after conception, and by 18 weeks
a full complement of nerve cells is present. The
evidence thus suggests that by late in gestation
the fetus has developed sufficiently to sense pain. |
from 5th week after conception |
Anand and Hickey, p 1322 & p 1326 |
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