Your developing baby – week 22

by Kaiser Permanente |
Fetus at week 22, illustration

By week 22, your baby weighs around 1 pound, and is around 11.5 inches long. Your baby looks like a tiny, thin newborn, as they don't yet have much body fat, and is about the size of a grapefruit.

Your baby can now feel touch. They may use this new sense by touching their own face or body, or by sucking on a thumb. This is why we encourage skin to skin soon after birth and often throughout infancy.

Previously, the baby’s liver and spleen produced blood cells. Your baby has now developed bone marrow to create blood cells and eventually take over this job.

If your baby is a boy, his testes have begun to lower from the abdomen into the groin area.

If your baby is a girl, her vagina is fully developed. Her uterus and ovaries have moved into their, final location.

This article has been created by a national group of Kaiser Permanente ob-gyns, certified nurse-midwives, pediatricians, lactation consultants and other specialists who came together to provide you with the best pregnancy, birth, postpartum, and newborn information.

Some of the content is used and adapted with permission of The Permanente Medical Group.

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