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Your Growing Baby - Fetal Development

By Robin Elise Weiss, LCCE, About.com

8 of 10

24 Week Fetus

Your baby is almost completely formed, and is beginning to deposit brown fat on his or her body. The purpose of the brown fat is to retain body heat. Newborns are notoriously bad at regulating body temperature at first. This is particularly a problem for a baby born early.

Babies born at this point have some chances of survival with very special care. They will be in the Intensive Care Unit, probably for many weeks. Usually we say that you can expect them to stay in the NICU until their due date.

A major problem with premature babies is lung development. If preterm labor is detected early enough a steroid shot, called Betamethasone, can sometimes be given to enhance lung development.

S/he weighs in at 1 lb 5 ounces (595 grams) and 30 cms or 11.8 inches total length!

More on Week 24 of Pregnancy

Photo (c) A.D.A.M. in Fetal Devleopment

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