Project Ice Storm

Many environmental factors begin affecting development during pregnancy and after delivery. Significant factors include Jane’s alcohol use during pregnancy, the stress Jane experiences during the third trimester due to Roberto’s layoff, and Sam’s 6-week preterm birth by C-Section. Alcohol is a teratogen that can potentially affect a developing

Pregnancy can be an intimidating, confusing and complex period in a woman’s life, as babies don’t come with instruction manuals. While the environment and lifestyle that an infant is raised in is solely up to the parent’s discretion, there are basic principles and expectations that every pregnant woman is held to. A fetus’s well-being and health depends exclusively on the lifestyle of his or her mother. Whatever mom inhales or ingests, the baby receives the same substance. With this biological partnership in place, a mother must be conscience about what she ingests—as many substances that are okay for adults are toxic to babies. In regard to consumption of the teratogen alcohol, a woman must consider the implications at risk relating to the

The affects of alcohol on a baby while in the womb can be very fatal. Yet many women will still continue to drink though pregnancy. Sarah a young woman recently got married and she and her husband Tom want to start a family. Sarah heard there are many substances that should be avoided during pregnancy and she is very concerned about alcohol. She usually drinks wine on the weekends with her friends, and usually has a glass of wine with Tom at the end of each workday. Sarah wants to know how substances can affect prenatal development, specially the effects of alcohol. Sarah has many questions like should she stop drinking all together or drink in small quantities when pregnant, should she change her alcohol consumption while trying to get pregnant, can she wait till she finds out she pregnant or wait even longer into the pregnancy to change her behaviors. I am going to answer her questions by discussing the potential effects of alcohol on physical, cognitive, and behavior development, and discussing how teratogen and timing of exposure can affect the baby.

The course of pregnancy is both very rewarding and challenging. The end result is a beautiful creation and enjoinment of two people. The fragile aspect of newborn life is not the first time a mother faces protecting the child. The beginning of a successful foundation for life starts the second a women becomes pregnant. Prenatally, many different toxins can create issues surrounding the physical and mental development of a baby. Some of the toxins are very obvious, where many fly under the radar. The toxins a pregnant woman takes in may cause issues with the development of a child. Awareness about the possibility of teratogens causing development issues is needed to ensure a safe, normal, and sociable future for the children. When

Information was gathered subjectively and objectively. Subjective data was collected through clinical interviews and the mothers’ self-reports. Objective data was collected through estimating cortisol the stress hormone from saliva samples. The information was gathered on two different days, the first day was during the mothers’ 26-28th gestational week and the second was during their 32-34th weeks.

“Cigarette smoking, alcohol use and substance abuse is common, and unfortunately, may have many adverse effects on the developing child as well as the pregnancy, including an increased risk of fetal growth restriction, premature delivery and placental abruption.” (Cogswell, M. E., Weisberg, P., & Spong, C. 2003) The purpose of this paper is to examine the association between these maternal habits and the adverse effects they have on pregnancy, particularly the infant.

Furthermore, Gitau et al. (2004) found that fetal cortisol levels decreased in newborns delivered by cesarean section when compared to those delivered vaginally. In contrast Mears et al. (2004) reported elevated cortisol concentrations in assisted vaginal deliveries. Research has documented that there is some evidence supporting that birth mode determines stress response. (Taylor et al. 2000) As stated previously stress is psychosomatic, and causes or exacerbates a range of serious health issues. Knowledge of how our initial stress response at birth can modulate our reactions to stress could improve,

Women go through a major life transition during pregnancy and early motherhood that is physically and mentally demanding making women more susceptible to stress and anxiety (Henrichs, Schenk, Schmidt, Velders, Hofman, Jaddoe, Verhulst, & Tiemeier, 2009). I have had personal experiences observing anxious young mothers interact with their infants and children. I have seen these children eventually display developmental delays, poor eating and sleeping behaviors, and even their own anxieties. I am unsure about whether this maternal anxiety accounts for these problems. How do anxious mothers impact infant development?

There are two types of stress that have been looked at when studying maternal stress and its effects of a fetus, physiological and psychosocial. Physiological stress related to the internal changes in the mothers body that can result in a stress response while psychosocial are external factors that lead to a stress response. A simple defined, stress is “a state of bodily or mental tension resulting from factors that tend to alter an existent equilibrium” (Merriam-Webster Online Medical Dictionary, 2015). A stress response can be defined as a “compensatory reaction the organism makes to the disturbance caused by the stressor” (de Weerth & Buitelaar, 2005). While a certain level of stress hormones are necessary for normal fetal development, when these levels become excessive is when adverse outcomes can result for the mother and fetus.

In the article titled, “Preterm Birth in the United States: Impact of Stressful Life Events Prior to Conception and Maternal Age”, by Whitney P. Witt, PhD, MPH, Erika R. Cheng, PhD, MPA, Lauren E. Wisk, PhD, Kristin Litzelman, PhD, Debanjana Chatterjee, MA, Kara Mandell, MA, and Fathima Wakeel, PhD, MPH, researchers were trying to answer questions related to whether and to what extent a woman’s exposure to stressful life events prior to conception (PSLEs) was associated with preterm birth and whether maternal age modified this relationship? To answer these questions, the researchers studied on five major concerns. In the first half of the studies: preterm birth, stressful life events prior to conception, and prenatal health and stress. In

The use of alcohol during pregnancy has a great amount of damage to the baby. Many research has been done to prove the danger of alcohol during pre-natal period. The pre-natal period is a very crucial time for the women, in which one wrong step can lead to life time of challenges. Alcohol consuming can lead to behavioral problems, and low birth weight in a baby. Many women in the U.S. and over the world are not educated about the harmful elements in alcohol and are exposed to such behavior which causes life challenging defects for their babies.

Participants were not needed physically only permission to go into their records, computer-assisted personal interviews and parental self-administered questionnaires was all used to gather the information needed. Groupings of categories from looking at minority groups, twin’s births, low birth weight, even deaths at and after birth and others were formed to help shape a better picture of the events occurring with women conceiving. After outweighing what categories were not needed and irrelevant to the final findings, a total of 9350 participants were used for conducting the final results of the study. Once these categories were established researchers began collecting and measuring data connecting them to the occurrences of preterm births caused by stressful life events prior to conception and maternal age. Researchers furthered collecting data that were connected by looking at the following as well; prenatal health, and maternal sociodemographic factors: race/ethnicity, marital status, health insurance coverage and even their residence. During the study the independent variables that were looked at was the impact of a stressful exposure prior during and after pregnancy against the dependent variables were the age and race of the mothers these independent variables impacted. In the end the study showed that overall mothers who delivered between the age 15-19 were at a high risk of preterm birth induced from stressors prior and during pregnancy, with increased age this issue would lessen. Now mothers of the age 35 and older their odds were even higher for both preterm births and other complications regardless of when they experienced their stressors, compared to those of the ages of 25-29. Interestingly timing of stressful exposure prior to

Since ancient times, scientists have written about beliefs that the emotional state of the pregnant mother may affect her unborn child. Today, both animal and human studies support the notion that maternal stress and anxiety during pregnancy can have both immediate and long-term effects on her offspring ("The Effects of Maternal Stress," n.d.). Prenatal maternal stress originates due to unforeseen circumstances that cannot be controlled or resolved within a rapid timeframe, therefore, causing the individual to become subjected to strenous trial and tribulations. Throughout this paper one will discuss in detail the affect maternal stress have on infants within the United States

notably altering behaviour and cognition, as well as disease susceptibility in adulthood (6). Stress hormones like glucocorticoids and CRH could interact with their receptors in the foetal brain, which have an influence on neuronal differentiation and function at different stages of development (9). During pregnancy, maternal psychosocial stress threatens the CNS and shortens the length of gestation (8). Low birth weight can also alter brain development and is associated with behavioural and cognitive disorders in adulthood (1, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9). The offspring of stressed mothers are more likely to have reduced head circumferences (7), show emotional problems (7, 9), impaired memory (4, 5, 7) as well as supress cognitive performances including schizophrenia (5, 6, 9), attention deficit (5, 6, 9), antisocial behaviour (2, 6, 7), increased vulnerability to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), learning difficulties (6, 9), anxiety disorders and depression (4, 6, 8, 9), impaired intelligence and thus lower school grades (7,

This research was designed to show the effects of maternal stress on the developing fetus during the first, second, and third trimester. The stressors could be anxiety, depression, or other environmental stressors that could exert psychological pressure on the mother, and the respond to these stressors is increase in cortisol levels which exert a variety of adverse effects on the developing fetus. The results of this study are slightly different from that of the previous research. The previous research has failed to show that children development, especially weight and bone development, are affected by maternal stress even after they are born. The researchers’ intention is to show that maternal stress is a factor that contributes to low birth weight and preterm birth. Therefore, it’s important that people understand the effect of stress on fetal development. The hypothesis is “maternal prenatal stress will have a negative effect on the offspring’s development, in part as a result of exposure of the fetus to high level of cortisol” (Amugongo & Hlusko, 2012, p.2).