Factors that Negatively Effect Fetal Development
Nicotine and drugs can affect a fetus by entering into the bloodstream of the unborn child. While you are pregnant, almost everything you eat, drink or smoke passes through your body to your baby. That is why drugs taken during pregnancy can be harmful to your baby. The word "drugs" doesn't only mean illegal drugs. It also means legal drugs and prescription and over-the-counter medicines. The use of alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs during pregnancy continues to be a leading preventable cause of mental, physical, and psychological impairments and problems in infants and children.
A developing fetus really is a part of its mother, sharing oxygen and nutrients through the umbilical cord and across the fluid-filled bubble known as the placenta. It was once thought the placenta as a natural filter, shielding the fetus from external harm. Today, we know that virtually everything in a woman's bloodstream passes through to the developing organs of the fetus. Since a fetus can't remove harmful substances on its own, all the drugs a woman uses during pregnancy stay in its body longer than they do in mom's -- and at higher, more toxic levels.
Main risks of smoking during pregnancy include:
Delayed Growth. The more a woman smokes, the less her baby grows. Twice as many babies weighing less than 5 pounds are born to smokers as to nonsmokers.
Premature Birth: Pregnant smokers are more likely to suffer bleeding, damage to...
According to the Partnership for a Drug-Free America, it stated that the nicotine in smoking cigarettes can be very dangerous, damaging to the human body. It’s known that smoking can cause chronic lung disease, coronary heart disease and stroke. In addition, smoking also causes cancer of the lungs, larynx, esophagus, mouth, and bladder. Smoking tobacco products is also known to contribute to cancer of cervix, pancreas and kidneys. People that don’t smoke tobacco products can also be harmed by second hand smoke. Women who smoke while pregnant, put their baby at risk of have health problems.
There are many who say that the preborn child is just a mass of tissue, a part of the woman's body. If this were the case, then no one would have any reason to o...
Childbirth is nothing short of a miracle. The placenta—the organ connecting a developing fetus to the uterine wall and allowing for waste elimination, nutrient uptake and gas exchange via the mother's blood supply—filters most harmful substances that threaten an embryo, though some may still pass on to the fetus. These harmful substances, called “teratogens,” range from environmental chemicals to the transmission of maternal diseases, and can negatively impact the normal developmental cycle of a fetus. The title “teratogen,” however, refers to any substance or chemical exposure with the potential to cause birth defects in prenatal development. Exposure to teratogens can result in a broad spectrum of physiological and psychological issues in later life, including malformations of the body.
Just as drugs such as marijuana, cocaine, and crystal meth affect the mother, it also affects the child. Babies that are born to drug using mothers are called “drug babies” and just like their mother they become addicted to the drugs causing behavior problems during their childhood. They can also have birth defects, premature birth, and are usually underweight. Babies that are born to cocaine using mothers are called “crack babies” and they face the risk of a stroke leading to brain damage. Teratogenic medications such as some antibiotics, cancer fighting medicines, blood thinners, and acne fighting medicines such as Accutane can all cause birth
One illicit drug that has gone through extensive research is cocaine. Prenatal cocaine exposure has shown to affect the baby physically (defects including eye, bone, genital, urinary tract, kidney, heart deformities, as well as brain hemorrhages) and cognitively (through mental delays, motor, attention, and language problems) (Berk, 2003). Cocaine affects the child subtly but significantly because of what the drug does to the body of both the mother and the growing fetus.
During a pregnancy there are many choices to be made and smoking should not be one of them. Smoking while pregnant can cause major effects before the birth of the child and also in the child’s future. Here are a few effects before the actual birth of the child: 1) Cigarettes contains a large number of chemicals that harm unborn babies. 2) Smoking raises the levels of carbon monoxide in your bloodstream. This gives less oxygen for baby. 3) Nicotine tightens the blood vessels, meaning the oxygen is passed over less effectively to the baby 4) Miscarriage or stillborn.
Many women feel guilty for consuming alcohol before they knew they are pregnant, and when the pregnancy test is positive, they are afraid they may already hurt the baby since it is known that alcohol passes the placenta. Toxins from the alcohol can disturb the cell division, placement and development of the newborns organs. When cells are damaged by nicotine, drugs, or alcohol, they will stop dividing. This will produce early miscarriage which woman will experience as a late period. If fetus survives, it was probably not affected.
All drugs, legal or illegal, are considered to be harmful to the fetus and should be taken with caution and under the doctor’s direct orders only. Drugs can be anything as simple as a cigarette to a major substance like heroin and cocaine. Most mothers who do drugs during their pregnancy don’t think about the detrimental effects they could be causing to their baby. Any amount of these forbidden substances can leave an everlasting effect on the precious defenseless baby. Most women know that when you are pregnant your hormones vary greatly, but when a woman is pregnant it also ...
The prenatal period is considered the period between the conception of a baby until its birth. During this time embryo's and fetus go through major changes to prepare for their life after birth. In the years after they are born, what we call infancy and toddlerhood, while as adults we don't seem to change much in a year or two, children go through many changes that are crucial in developing the patterns of their futures.
(Gilman, Breslau, Subramanian, Hitsman, & Koenen, 2008). Despite the warnings about the dangers of smoking while pregnant, some women still choose to smoke, which places themselves and their baby at risk for many health issues. Damage caused by smoking while pregnant During pregnancy, smoking can cause problems for a woman’s own health, including, ectopic pregnancy, vaginal bleeding, placental abruption, in which the placenta peels away, partially or almost completely, from the uterine wall before delivery; Placenta Previa, a low-lying placenta that covers part or all of the opening of the uterus (March of Dimes, 2011). Women that smoke expose their unborn baby to dangerous chemicals, like carbon monoxide, tar and nicotine.... ...
· contributes to the development of cancer of the bladder, pancreas, and kidney. · causes low birth weight in babies of women who use tobacco during pregnancy. · contains more than 4,000 chemical compounds, at least 43 of which cause cancer in humans and animals. · contains nicotine, which causes a chemical addiction to cigarette smoking through its effect on the nervous system.
Cigarettes not only contain harmful substances, but they also can cause erectile damage. dysfunction in men and illnesses such as cancer and lung disease (http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=3009767). Cigarettes are full of substances that are harmful not only to the smoker, but also to those around him or her. Smoking not only harms the smoker, but also those around them. For years it had been thought that smoking only affected smokers and non-smokers were not at risk at all, but after years of research it.
Every woman when pregnant has a 3-5% chance of having a baby born with a birth defect, and these chances increase when the developing fetus/ embryos are exposed to teratogens, whether it’s intentional or unintentional (Bethesda (MD), 2006). Teratogens can cause severe birth defects, malformations, or terminate the pregnancy altogether (Jancárková, & Gregor, 2000). The placenta is known as an effective barrier from any detrimental pathogen that can potentially hurt the fetus. The timing of exposure of any teratogen is critical to the impact of prenatal development (Bethesda (MD), 2006). The most vulnerable time of the fetus for severe damage is during early pregnancy when all the major organ and central nervous system (CNS) are developing. Miscarriages have an important role in keeping a pregnancy from evolving when there is something serious going on with the developing fetus/embryo. Miscarriages are more common than we think and are the most familiar type of pregnancy loss (Bethesda (MD), 2006).
In this report I will be discussing the development issues about prenatal development, and the newborn. Developmental psychology is basically a psychology study that focuses on the cognitive, physical, and social change throughout our life span. In prenatal development we learn about nature and nurture, continuity and stages, and stability and change. Prenatal Development is the process in which babies develop from one single cell after making a baby into an Embryo and later on a fetus . An Embryo is the process of a human organism for about approximately 2 weeks after the fertilization though the second month.
This process is called conception, the female is now officially two weeks pregnant and the fertilized egg is called a zygote. Let’s move on to pregnancy. Pregnancy is a state in which a woman carries a fertilized egg inside her body, it usually lasts up to 40 weeks, and it is divided into three trimesters, each lasting three months. The first month. The embryo is about a third of an inch long. The head, trunk, and the beginnings of the arms and legs have started to develop. By this month, the embryo starts to receive nutrients and releases waste through the umbilical cord and placenta. The heart also starts to beat. The second month. The heart is now pumping and the nervous system, including the brain and the spinal cord begins to develop. The fetus is 1 in 2.5cm now and has developed cartilage skeleton. The arms, legs, facial features and other major organs begin to appear. The third month. The fetus has grown up to 4 in 10cm and weighs a little more than an ounce. The major blood vessels are almost completed and the face starts to show up more. The kidneys and the 4 chambers of the heart are now complete. The fourth month. The fetus is now 4 oz of 112g and can kick and swallow. The