Infants develop eyesight in the womb of the mother and this is a major part of foetal development process. The baby’s eye starts developing at an early stage of pregnancy wherein it perceives light, few colors as well as some shapes. The foetus can focus on objects that are at a distance of 8 to 15 inches. This is an amazing fact as this is the perfect distance that a mother can look at her baby. The development takes place as two small evolutions from the brain that is developed. This process starts to take place from the 6th week.
Herewith, the cups of the eye start to form from either side of the skull. In the 7th week the retina, cornea, iris, lens and pupil start to develop. The next week, that is the 8th week sees the formation of tear ducts and in the 10th week the cones and rods including the eyelids begin forming. The eyeballs do not have any colour while this formation period as there is no amount of melanin present. This gives a light grey tone to the eyes of infants. In the 27th week, the foetus begins to blink in response to light.
As time of the pregnancy passes by, in the 30th week the pupils of the foetus start to expand and constrict. As a result, the baby starts to see shapes that are dim and by the 32nd week the baby can see close up objects. By the 34th week the baby can identify red color and also track movements that happen around them. The color red is specific because that is the colour inside the womb, uterus and the cone cells that begin developing happens for the color red. This is indeed amazing to know that babies develop eyesight before their birth.
