Yes, here at Big Blue Wave, I give all the information about fetuses that you'd ever want to know (or not). I knew fetuses passed some kind of waste, but I was not up on the details, or the development of their waste system. Cecil Adams of The Straight Dope fills in the blank on this crucial subject. And keep reading until the end for the biggest shock.
Cecil writes:
Urine production begins late in the first trimester, about the same time the two-inch embryo becomes a fetus. In the second half of pregnancy, fetal urine is an important constituent of amniotic fluid. By the time the kid is about ready to pop out, he or she is passing roughly a liter a day. Where does it go? Seems kids learn the benefits of recycling early on--they swallow it. They'd better, too, lest polyhydramnios (a potentially dangerous buildup of fluid volume) result. When fetal urination is impaired, the opposite complication, oligohydramnios, usually occurs.
So fetuses go for pee. An interesting little tidbit to mention, next time you're arguing the unborn isn't a blob of tissue.
Fetal defecation isn't normal, but fetuses do accumulate a mass of greenish feces, called meconium, in their intestines. Unlike the adult version, meconium is sterile and odorless, though still pretty icky, and the sight of it in the newborn nursery starkly reminds a new parent--not infrequently dad, since mom at this point is often out of it--that his life has entered a dramatic new phase. (Nurses invariably offer to clean things up. Let 'em.) I know what you're thinking: there's nothing much to nosh on in there, so where's this stuff coming from? Various endogenous and swallowed sources: mucus, bile, intestinal epithelial cells, lanugo (fine body hairs that are normally shed before birth), and vernix caseosa (a lubricating sebaceous secretion of the skin).
Fetuses usually don't pass meconium until after birth, but doing so in the womb isn't rare. Around 12 percent of fetuses have meconium-stained amniotic fluid (MSAF), colored yellow or green by bile pigments in the meconium--an indication that junior couldn't wait. The more prolonged the pregnancy, the greater the risk. In postterm births (those occurring after 42 weeks), the rate of meconium staining is about a quarter to a half. Why is this a concern? Fetuses take amniotic fluid into their lungs, and in a minority of MSAF cases, passed meconium enters the airway before birth and afterward leads to respiratory symptoms collectively called meconium aspiration syndrome (MAS). MAS can be fatal, although the rate of deaths is falling in developed countries--in part due to better treatments, but mostly because labor is now more likely to be induced if pregnancy drags on.
Yeah, the nurses said if I didn't push my baby out, she could end up ingesting this stuff and getting an infection. I was so tired. I told them I was going to push when I was good and ready. They got all flustered at me. It was 4:00 pm Christmas Day and they wanted to go home.
Okay, now here's the somewhat shocking part:
What else are they doing in there for nine months without cable? Let's put it this way: fetuses manage to entertain themselves. For instance, in 1996 two doctors reported on their ultrasonic observation of a female fetus masturbating over a period of 20 minutes. Twenty minutes? Change the channel already, you pervs.
You got that fokls? Fetuses can have sex lives!!! There you go! That's the number one argument (for a liberal) that fetuses are people. I wonder how old that fetus was. That'd be an interesting point of discussion.
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