A thick, disc-shaped organ attached to one area of your womb, the placenta is your baby's life support system. It is your baby's respiratory, digestive and excretory system all combined into one marvellous piece. Your baby's growth is dependent on your body and all the essential nutrients, antibodies and oxygen are taken in from your blood and passed into your baby's blood via the placenta. In a similar way, your baby's carbon dioxide and waste products are removed. All this exchange happens without the mixing of your and your baby's blood.
Although the placental tissue starts to develop and mature from very intial stages of your baby's growth, the actual placenta is not formed till about the time when your baby is twelve weeks old. It is then that it takes over the complete role of a life-support system. The placenta undergoes rapid development and enlargement in the initial stages because of the nature of work it needs to undertake but as the baby grows, the growth of the placenta slows down. By the time the baby is born, the placenta is about one sixth the weight of the baby. The placenta is at the peak of its activity by 34 weeks, after which it starts to age.
