The Miracle Of Life

Hello everyone and welcome to EnglishPod.

My name is Marco.

My name is Catherine and today we've got a very advanced dialogue for you.

This is all about what we call the miracle of life.

That's right.

Today we're going to talk a little bit more in depth about our bodies, about what's going

on inside and how and where babies come from.

That's right.

So you're going to learn very technical terms for parts of people's bodies, men and women,

and also about the beginning of life.

So before a baby is born, what do you call some of these parts and some of these things?

So let's check out today's dialogue and when we come back, we'll be exploring in depth

these topics.

Continuing with our class, today we are going to study briefly the miracle of life.

Many of you may think you already know how babies come to be, but I'm sure that some

of the things we will be talking about today may surprise you.

Billy, can you turn on the projector please?

Thanks.

Okay.

Does anyone know what this is?

Looks like a goat head to me.

Nice try.

But this is a woman's womb, which contains her uterus and ovaries.

The ovaries are packed with eggs and each month during the middle of the menstrual cycle,

the ripest one will be sucked up by one of the fallopian tubes.

This is called ovulation and the exact time of ovulation depends on the length of a woman's

cycle.

In an average 28-day cycle, ovulation will most likely happen between the 12th and 15th

days, counting day one as the first day of your last period.

That's amazing!

So each month, the woman produces these eggs and then waits for them to be fertilized?

Actually every woman is already born with over 400,000 eggs.

Some will start dying off immediately and others are released during her fertile period.

What about the guys?

I know they produce sperm and stuff.

That's right.

The man's body has a tiny factory that produces sperm 24 hours a day.

Each ejaculation will release about 100 million sperm, so the factory is always pretty busy.

The sole purpose of a sperm's life is to fertilize the woman's egg.

So then we basically need to put one and one together so we can have babies, right?

Yes.

Some will have an orgasm during intercourse and ejaculate sperm and semen.

Now this is where the race begins and all those millions of sperm will race and swim

from the cervix through the uterus and to the fallopian tubes.

This could take anywhere from 45 minutes to 12 hours.

Not all of them make it since some of them go the wrong way and get lost or simply die.

Many will actually reach the egg but only one will penetrate it and fertilize it.

As this happens, the egg instantly changes and creates a protective shield once the sperm

is safely inside.

And then that's it?

Well the egg will be fertilized within about 24 hours of its release.

The genetic material from the sperm combines with the genetic material in the egg to create

a new cell that will rapidly start dividing.

The woman is not actually pregnant until that bundle of new cells known as the embryo travels

the rest of the way down the fallopian tube and attaches itself to the wall of her uterus.

Any other questions?

Then let's move on.

All right we're back.

So very interesting.

Actually this type of lecture or class that we just saw is very common in biology class

or anatomy class in the US for example.

That's right.

We have a class called sex ed or sexual education and this is all about sex and bodies and biology

that most students have to learn before they go into high school.

That's right.

So we actually had a previous lesson about sex ed.

We talked about contraceptives and while continuing on the topic, this is why we have this advanced

lesson now.

It is a little bit more difficult because we have medical terms and specific names of

parts inside of our body.

So why don't we start with the first one when the teacher explained about a woman's womb.

So this might look like a very hard word to pronounce.

There's a B there.

So W-O-M-B.

We don't pronounce womb.

We say womb.

This is basically where the baby will grow when a baby is produced.

So it's a part inside a woman's body that we also call the uterus.

So I guess the uterus is the specific name of that area, right?

But I guess the whole thing, kind of like the woman's belly where the baby is going

to be, is called the womb.

That's right.

Okay.

So now taking a look at other parts of a woman's body, we have the womb, we have the uterus.

Now what about the ovaries?

So ovaries are, actually there are two of them in a woman's body and ovaries are where

eggs are stored.

So women have eggs and this is what will one day become, in some cases, a baby.

And so they are stored in ovaries and when it's time to come down, they come down through

the uterus, through these tubes to either come out or to be met by a sperm.

Right.

And these tubes are actually called fallopian tubes.

So a hard word, fallopian.

Again, there are two of these, right, one from each ovary and they come down and that's

basically a passageway for eggs.

That's right.

And it's interesting because in English, some women that don't want to have any more kids,

they very colloquially say, I have my tubes tied or I had my tubes tied.

That's right.

So this means a woman has had an operation so that she will not have children in the

future and her fallopian tubes are closed off so that eggs cannot come down.

That's right.

And this is kind of now you more or less, if you've heard this phrase before, now you

understand why the fallopian tubes and that's why women say tubes tied.

Yeah, she had her tubes tied.

All right.

So now all of this is going on because, well, a woman can potentially get pregnant and during

this period of time, this is when the woman is ovulating or this is called ovulation.

That's right.

So ovulation is a cycle that means it's something that happens again and again and again.

We call it a menstrual cycle and it happens once, basically it's a process that takes

28 days and it's the process of an egg coming down and either being fertilized or not.

That's right.

So during ovulation, there is a certain period of time where it's precise for a woman to

be able to get pregnant, right?

And now what about when we move on to the men?

Now we talked about the women's side.

What about the men's?

So basically women have eggs, men have sperm.

Okay, these are little, they look like fish almost, they swim around and they are passed

to a woman through semen and men have, I don't know, like 10 million of them or something

crazy.

It's a huge amount of sperm.

Now this is an interesting thing to differentiate.

You said two things, sperm and semen, right?

So sperm are the little creatures or little fish as you said that swim and semen is kind

of actually like the liquid that contains them.

That's right.

So it's almost not bigger than, but it's the liquid that they come in to basically attack

an egg and try and fertilize an egg.

And so remember in English, sperm can fertilize an egg, semen cannot.

And now this is interesting.

We're talking about to fertilize.

Maybe we've heard this in gardening or something like this, we've heard a fertilizer.

But what do we mean by to fertilize or fertilization?

Okay, basically fertilization or to fertilize something is to, in this case, put a sperm

together with an egg.

So to make a baby.

That's right.

And so an egg that is not fertilized will come down and will never become a baby.

Because sperm, they don't find eggs and they just, you know, they die.

Now there's another interesting word that's very related or close to this when we say

when a man or a woman is fertile.

That's right.

So this only applies to women, not to men.

You can say she's fertile.

That means she has eggs, her eggs come down and she can have a baby at some time.

But a woman who is infertile, she's not fertile, can never have babies.

That's right.

So a lot of these women adopt babies.

Now what about guys?

You know that some men can't have babies as well.

Maybe their sperm is not very good or they have some, same thing, medical condition that

prevents their sperm from fertilizing.

So you don't say that he is infertile or not fertile.

No, you don't.

What do you say?

He is sterile.

Okay.

So a woman can be fertile or infertile.

Infertile means she cannot have babies.

If a man's semen cannot fertilize an egg properly, he is called sterile.

Okay, very good.

So this is all of what's going on inside the man's body as well.

And well, actually once they finally combine and get together and the sperm fertilize the

egg, we have a little thing called an embryo.

Okay, so obviously it doesn't become a baby for a little while.

This is a point of contention, a point of argument for a lot of people because no one

agrees when a baby becomes a baby.

But basically when an egg and a sperm come together, they create an embryo, which is

a combination of genetic information and tissue and all these things.

And that starts to grow and to become a fetus, which will one day when it is born, become

a baby.

That's right.

So the embryo is basically the first stage of when the baby is forming.

But it's not really, as you said, this word fetus, it's not in our dialogue, but a fetus

is actually a formed being, so to say, inside a woman's body, right?

It's growing, it's starting to get the pieces that it needs to become a human being, but

maybe has not fully developed yet.

So it's still inside the woman's womb, we can say.

Very good.

Okay, a lot of interesting things going on.

Why don't we listen to our dialogue again and we'll be back to talk a little bit more.

Continuing with our class, today we are going to study briefly the miracle of life.

Many of you may think you already know how babies come to be, but I'm sure that some

of the things we will be talking about today may surprise you.

Billy, can you turn on the projector, please?

Thanks.

Okay.

Does anyone know what this is?

It looks like a goat head to me.

Nice try.

But this is a woman's womb, which contains her uterus and ovaries.

The ovaries are packed with eggs and each month during the middle of the menstrual cycle,

the ripest one will be sucked up by one of the fallopian tubes.

This is called ovulation and the exact time of ovulation depends on the length of a woman's

cycle.

In an average 28-day cycle, ovulation will most likely happen between the 12th and 15th

days, counting day one as the first day of your last period.

That's amazing.

So each month the woman produces these eggs and then waits for them to be fertilized?

Actually every woman is already born with over 400,000 eggs.

Some will start dying off immediately and others are released during her fertile period.

What about the guys?

I know they produce sperm and stuff.

That's right.

The man's body has a tiny factory that produces sperm 24 hours a day.

Each ejaculation will release about 100 million sperm, so the factory is always pretty busy.

The sole purpose of a sperm's life is to fertilize the woman's egg.

So then we basically need to put one and one together so we can have babies, right?

Yes.

The man will have an orgasm during intercourse and ejaculate sperm and semen.

Now this is where the race begins and all those millions of sperm will race and swim

from the cervix through the uterus and to the fallopian tubes.

This could take anywhere from 45 minutes to 12 hours.

Not all of them make it since some of them go the wrong way and get lost or simply die.

Many will actually reach the egg but only one will penetrate it and fertilize it.

Once this happens, the egg instantly changes and creates a protective shield once the sperm

is safely inside.

And then that's it?

Well the egg will be fertilized within about 24 hours of its release.

The genetic material from the sperm combines with the genetic material in the egg to create

a new cell that will rapidly start dividing.

The woman is not actually pregnant until that bundle of new cells known as the embryo travels

the rest of the way down the fallopian tube and attaches itself to the wall of her uterus.

Any other questions?

Then let's move on.

Alright so this whole aspect, we understand how the miracle of life works, right?

This is what it's called, having babies, the miracle of life.

It's even the name of a video we were forced to watch when I was 12 years old and I still

have nightmares about.

Well it is interesting, it is almost a miracle because you are basically creating something

out of nothing almost, right?

That's right and what's amazing about it is that two people who have different genetic

material and who have different experiences and who have different parts to their bodies

come together and create something that's a combination of all those things.

So it's almost kind of like a game of surprise.

You don't know what's going to happen.

Are they going to have red hair or green eyes or are they going to be tall or short or fat

or thin?

It's interesting.

Now talking about this aspect that you mentioned before, it's controversial when there is life

or when if the embryo is a baby or it's not.

This is because of many countries or cities or states that are discussing the legalization

or not of abortions.

That's right.

So the reason this is a problem for a lot of people is because no one agrees on when

a fetus becomes a baby and so that will determine for a lot of people when it is okay to abort

the fetus or to kill it and when it is not.

Because I've heard that some people say, well, in your first month, if you've already been

pregnant for a month, the baby already has certain parts formed or even I think the heart

is beginning to form.

So they say you're already pregnant.

I mean, you already have a life inside you.

Well, they say, well, no, it's actually after two months because then the baby has a heartbeat.

I'm not really sure about the timetables that I'm giving you.

I'm giving you more or less a rough outline, but this is the controversy.

That's right.

It affects laws in many countries.

It affects what medical practitioners like doctors and nurses can do.

And it's always, I think, been an issue as long as I've been alive.

Yeah, yeah.

Actually, the whole abortion topic is a big political debate between people who are against

it, who are in favor of it.

So it's very interesting.

And actually, it's still very much illegal in many places in the world.

Absolutely.

And it changes, I think, according to where you are in America as well.

So some states have different laws about it, and some states are more lenient, for example.

And actually, this spawned a whole new controversy with the emergency pill, right?

That basically, if you maybe are in risk of being pregnant, then you take this pill and

it kind of prevents fertilization.

Or if fertilization occurred already, then it kind of prevents further growth of the

embryo.

Right.

Basically, it's called the emergency contraceptive, and it's taken after you think you might be

pregnant.

But if you didn't use other contraceptives, like a condom, and you think maybe one of

your eggs as a woman was fertilized by sperm, it makes you have your period.

It makes you menstruate.

That means the lining of your uterus and any egg, even if it was fertilized, comes out.

And in some cases, people think of it as a kind of abortion.

That's right.

So yeah, it's very interesting how the more that we understand about medicine and about

how life works, well, there have been advancements as well, like contraceptives that not only

prevent unwanted pregnancies, but also prevent transmission of diseases, sexually transmitted

diseases.

That's right.

But at the same time, other things like this, like the emergency contraceptive and abortions

start popping up.

So ethics.

Ethics, exactly.

So a very interesting topic, as we said, controversial, but at the same time, very much beautiful,

because we are talking about how our bodies work and how everyone came to existence.

And how babies are born.

Everyone loves babies.

That's right.

So we're really interested to get your insights, your opinion about anything that we've talked

about today.

And if you have any other questions or comments, you can always reach us at EnglishPod.com.

Yeah, we hope to see you there.

And we hope this will start a nice conversation on our website.

But remember, keep it clean.

That's right.

All right.

So we'll see everyone there.

Bye.

See you there.