D and I watched a fascinating show on the National Geographic Channel the other night about the sperm's journey to the egg. This is how it was described by National Geographic:Each of us was the grand prize in an ultimate reality competition, the amazing race a sperm makes on the road to fertilization. Millions of sperm compete while overcoming armies of antibodies, treacherous terrain and impossible odds to reach their single-minded goal. To illustrate the full weight of the challenge, Sizing Up Sperm uses real people to represent 250 million sperm on their marathon quest to be first to reach a single egg.
We were just agog at the TV as we watched the show, and realized how crazy hard it is and how many obstacles there are for those little guys! It's so funny how it seems like it's so easy to get pregnant by accident, but when you actually think about trying, you realize what a real miracle it actually is that one of them made it. Even after fertilization, though, there are so many things that could go wrong. Failure to implant, early miscarriage....and so much more.
Here more about the show; and another interesting link I found to a series on PBS about the miracle of conception.
