Pregnancy & Beyond: 40 Weeks & 40 Days

Painting: The Immaculate Conception with Saints, Piero di Cosimo, between 1485 to 1505.

Did you know that when you were conceived, a whole new organ developed within your mother’s womb to keep you alive? The placenta – so called because it looks like a pancake – is attached to the wall of the uterus, and connected to the baby by the umbilical cord.

Because the mother and child are two separate human beings with different DNA, the mother’s immune system would naturally reject the baby if not for the placenta, which functions as a go-between. The placenta is created by both the mother’s and the child’s bodies, and contains both of their DNA.

Thus, Jesus shared an organ with His mother Mary! She alone of all humans, the New Eve, could say of her Son, the New Adam:

“This now is bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh.” (Genesis 2:23)

The baby receives oxygen and nutrients from his mother through the placenta; at the same time, the placenta removes the baby’s waste, regulates his temperature, and produces hormones that sustain the pregnancy.

I saw a thought-provoking Instagram post by PostpartumCare_USA:

“Mama, God didn’t design pregnancy to be 40 weeks randomly.  Numbers in the Bible are symbolic. Biblically, when the number ‘40’ is used, it represents preparation and testing. It also represents transformation and new life.

The Great Flood: 40 days, 40 nights. (Genesis 7:4) Israelites wandered for 40 years before reaching the Promised Land. (Joshua 5:6) Moses was on the Mount for 40 days. (Exodus 24:18) Jesus fasted for 40 days, 40 nights. (Matthew 4:2)

Your 40 weeks of pregnancy are a symbolic preparation period: spiritually, emotionally and physically. Your baby is being transformed and developed week by week in your womb – even up to and through that very last week.

... How is the Lord using this time to prepare your heart, mind, and body for this birth?”

Afterbirth

Following the baby’s birth, the placenta is expelled by the uterus, leaving an internal wound the size of a dinner plate. It takes at least six weeks for this wound to heal. No wonder women customarily rest for forty days after their forty weeks of pregnancy!

In Chinese, Indian and Malay cultures, there is a confinement period of thirty to forty days after birth, where the new mother recuperates from the exertions of pregnancy and childbirth, while bonding with her baby.

Similarly, Mother Mary spent forty days at home (or rather, in the stable at Bethlehem) after Jesus’ birth, before returning to public life and worship with the presentation of Our Lord in the Temple (Luke 2:22), commemorated by Christians as Candlemas, traditionally the end of Christmastide.

Christians also used to celebrate the “churching of women”, blessing women after childbirth with these words:

Almighty, everlasting God, through the delivery of the blessed Virgin Mary, Thou hast turned into joy the pains of the faithful in childbirth; look mercifully upon this Thy handmaid, coming in gladness to Thy temple to offer up her thanks: and grant that after this life, by the merits and intercession of the same blessed Mary, she may merit to arrive, together with her offspring, at the joys of everlasting happiness. Through Christ our Lord.

Churching of Women, Benedictio mulieris post partum (the blessing of a woman after giving birth).

Do you know anyone who is pregnant or who has recently given birth? Offering her practical support like dropping off nourishing meals, hiring a cleaner or babysitting any older children can be a lifeline in this time of transition and upheaval as a new life emerges into the world.

At the same time, respecting the newborn bubble is key! The baby’s immune system is at a vulnerable stage, and the parents need time and space to bond with their child, plus learn how to care for the baby and establish evolving routines.

Altarpiece of the Seven Joys of Mary, Unknown German, circa 1480

One thing is for sure: pregnancy and birth gives you a whole new appreciation and understanding of what your parents went through when you were conceived and born!