High blood glucose, also called blood sugar, can harm your baby during the first weeks of pregnancy, even before you know you are pregnant. If you have diabetes and are already pregnant, see your doctor as soon as possible to make a plan to manage your diabetes.
These are the only veins in the body that carry fresh, oxygenated blood. Blood leaves the heart from the left ventricle through the artery called the aorta. The aorta has several branches into other arteries that are carrying blood away from the heart and to the body tissues.
Trace the flow of blood leaving the fetal heart (1), traveling to the placenta, and returning to the heart (6): A Blood leaves heart via aortic semilunar valve or ductus arteriosus. B Blood leaves the developing liver, passes through the inferior vena cava to the right atrium. C Blood passes through the ductus venosus.