Final answer:
The placenta directly supplies nutrients and oxygen from the mother's blood to the baby. It acts as a conduit between the mother and fetus, enabling direct exchange of necessary elements, filtering waste, and returning clean blood to the fetus. Substances are transferred across the placenta through various processes such as simple or facilitated diffusion, or active transport.
Step-by-step explanation:
The function of the placenta, in regard to the nutrients and oxygen from the mother's blood, is to directly supply these elements to the baby. The placenta is a fully developed organ that provides nutrition, excretion, respiration, and endocrine function. It receives blood from the fetus through the umbilical arteries and transfers nutrients and oxygen from the maternal blood into the fetal bloodstream. The placenta fulfills the roles of filtering fetal wastes and returning clean, oxygenated blood to the fetus.
Many substances, including oxygen and carbon dioxide, move across the placenta through simple diffusion. Others, like water-soluble glucose, use facilitated diffusion. The fetus has a high demand for particular substances, such as amino acids and iron, which the placenta actively transports across. In summary, the placenta acts as a conduit between the mother and the developing fetus, enabling the direct exchange of nutrients, oxygen, antibodies, hormones, and other vital substances.
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