As pregnancy help centers continue to battle misinformation about human life and positively impact clients’ hearts, a new app can be part of the needed arsenal.
Earlier this year, four pro-life organizations partnered to bring this new resource to pregnancy help organizations (PHOs), medical offices, educators, and other entities in a step to help society more fully understand fetal development.
Called See Baby Grow, this new, free app can help PHOs educate their clients about fetal development, which could ultimately positively impact decisions for life. Heartbeat International, Care Net, Priests for Life, and the National Institute of Family Life Advocates (NIFLA) came together to provide this resource.
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What is See Baby Grow?
The app was developed by the Education and Resource Fund and “features the most powerful imagery that exists of the unborn child,” according to a press release issued jointly by the pro-life organizations. The app is considered “the best single resource ever created to introduce people to the child in the womb,” the release stated.
With its video footage, the app allows pregnant women to see a baby’s development in the womb and can help that woman better connect with the unborn child she’s carrying.
A camera was placed against the amniotic sac of an expectant mother to record her baby’s development. One of the images shows the beating heart of the unborn child at just four weeks of development. Movements and behaviors of the baby during subsequent weeks can also be seen. The narration describes the anatomy and physiology of the baby through all three trimesters of a woman’s pregnancy.
In addition to the prenatal developmental videos, See Baby Grow has a pregnancy tracker to which PHOs can direct clients.
“Every major stage of pregnancy is depicted in actual video using endoscopic visualization technologies,” the release noted. “The user can learn remarkable developmental facts for each one of the pregnancy’s 266 days of gestation.”
Other features and uses
The app is designed as an educational tool, and not just for PHOs and medical clinics. A variety of resources for students are also available, including lesson plans for teachers. These are customized for various grade levels, from pre-kindergarten through medical school. Coloring books of images of the baby in the womb are also available for children. A selection of embryology textbooks used by various medical and nursing schools can be found on the app, as well as high-resolution animations rendered in 3D models for those in advanced studies.
A series of pregnancy-related science documentaries illustrating the biology of prenatal development can also be found on the app. These videos were created “using advanced medical imaging technologies and procedures,” the press release stated. Within the app are public service announcements with video of the baby that highlight negative impacts on the unborn from pregnant women smoking or drinking and the scientific evidence of fetal pain.
A section of the app offers sharable content for people to post on social media.
Although the app and materials within don’t talk about abortion, the creators and organizational partners believe by showing a developing baby in ways most people, including PHO clients, have never seen directly challenges the lie that the unborn are simply ‘blobs of tissue.’
Tweet This: Showing a developing baby in ways most people have never seen directly challenges the lie that the unborn are simply ‘blobs of tissue.’
A great technological tool
People can download the app through the Apple App Store (for iOS) and the Google Play Store (for Android). Some content is available in different languages, and therefore, can reach people across the globe.
Materials can also be accessed from Education and Resource Fund’s website (www.ERF.science) to stream videos into classrooms and view on larger screens. The video is available HERE.
As technology grows, so are endeavors like As Baby Grows, options and opportunities that can reach people and impact hearts and minds regarding the truth about life.
Editor's note: Heartbeat International manages Pregnancy Help News.
