BODY STORY - TAKEOVER PREGNANCY - Have you ever wondered what happens to your body in a crisis – a accident, for example, or an acute allergic reaction? Would you like to know why the cabbage – soup diet doesn’t work, or why eating a chicken can lead to an experience not unlike an alien invasion? How do we survive when we arrive in this world with our brains only half – formed? And how do we get through adolescence, when it sometimes seems as if our bodies are rioting and our brains have given up altogether? The award – winning series Body Story reveals the biological drama behind six critical moments in human lives.
Ian and Marion Swift are on a rock climbing trip, unaware that events are about to change their lives forever. Just six days ago one of Ian’s sperm fertilised an egg in Marion’s fallopian tube. If the tiny embryo survives, Marion’s body is in for the most dramatic nine months of its life.
We follow Marion through every stage of her pregnancy. In the early weeks the embryo has only a fragile grasp on life. To survive it must take control of Marion’s body and turn it into a life-support machine. We see the extraordinary transformations that go on within her body as the foetus builds itself a safe and secure home in which it is fed, protected and allowed to grow. Her heart enlarges to provide the foetus with extra blood, her bones give up some of their strengthening calcium to her new guest, and her own well-being comes second to the growing demands of the new life inside her. The foetus is control of pregnancy from day one, right through to the bitter end. It even triggers its own birth, making Marion’s womb contract, to force its way into the world.
