Question: how long does long does it take to make a baby ??

Jean Bourke answered on 12 Nov 2012:

Do you mean form fertilization to birth? Technically birth begins when the fertilized egg implant into the mother’s womb lining which will nourish it throughout the pregnancy.

It usually takes about 40 weeks to make a baby but it’s not at all uncommon for babies to be a bit early or a bit late.

A baby born in week 24 has about a 50:50 chance of survival and the closer to week 40 the better the chance of survival. Nowadays, of course, we have loads of facilities to help premature babies. One of the biggest problems for premature babies is that they often cannot breath or have trouble breathing. We can administer hormones to make the lungs develop and keep the baby supplied with lots of oxygen so this is less of a problem that it used to be. Another big problem is the risk of infection as the babies immune system is not fully formed. The risk of brain damage is a constant worry as even if a baby survives it can be brain damaged. Again luckily medicine is constantly improving at both preventing premature births and dealing with them when they happen.

Pregnancy is broken up into 2 trimesters: 1-12, 13-28, 29-birth.
Miscarriage and birth defects are more likely to occur during the first trimester and this is why often a couple will not announce a pregnancy to everyone until the second trimester.

It will start to grow a brain, heart, and spinal cord in week 5 but is still less 3.2mm long. In week 7 a brain, face, arms, and legs will develop and it begins to move in week 8. It will look like a baby by week 18 and be about 7.5 cm long and weigh about 28g, this is the end of the first trimester.

The baby spends the second and third trimester growing rapidly and moving around.

So ideally 40 weeks but as little as 24 with modern medicine.

I hope that answers your question.