The Prenatal Environment

Many components are hazardous in the prenatal development stage including intelligence and other congenital disabilities. Drugs whether prescription or illegal, alcohol and smoking are hazardous to prenatal development and may cause long term struggles with intelligence and cause defects.

Several environmental factors have also been suspected of attributing to the cause of autism such as: exposure to infectious disease, heavy metals, phthalates and phenols, pesticides, alcohol, illicit drugs, advanced maternal age, maternal bleeding during pregnancy, maternal medications used during pregnancy and maternal stress (Glasson et al., 2004). The research conducted by Glasson et al., (2004) shows that individuals who were later diagnosed with autism were more likely to have experienced obstetric difficulties during pregnancy, labor, delivery and neonatal period. Advanced maternal age was the strongest finding in that study.

“Independent of the genome screens, evidence suggests that the region on chromosome 15q11-13 contains a gene or genes relevant to Autism.” (Dr. David Pauls 2003). Basically, there are suggestions that the chromosome 15q11-13 is somehow mutated, deleted, or duplicated, causing this disorder to transpire. In addition to genetics, environmental factors can influence Autism; though they are not greatly supported ideas, they can’t be entirely ruled out. In the UK there have been reports of the measles vaccine having a part in causing this disorder. (Dr. David Pauls 2003). Newer studies have even shown that prenatal care before a woman even conceives reduces the risk extensively. “Woman who did not take a daily multivitamin in the three months before conception and during the first month of pregnancy were almost twice as likely to give birth to a child with ASD as a woman who had taken a daily multivitamin.” (The Harvard Mental Health Letter 2011). Multivitamins contain a lot of helpful vitamins to maintain a healthy pregnancy, but researchers suggest that the folic acid is the most significant influence that reduces the risk of a child born with ASD. (The Harvard Mental Health Letter

The prenatal period is when quick changes in the fetal organs are vulnerable to organizing change and stability but also building internal working system to trigger emotional responses (McEwen et al. 2013). It is a critical time for brain development and the PFC (McEwen et al. 2013). It exposes a selection of long -term modifications on brain development and behaviour (Entringer et al. 2009). Prenatal exposure to stress affects hormones in the body including the physiology and anatomy that relate to increasing drug levels, cortical communication and more (Entringer et al. 2009). Fetal stress is any event that interrupts a fetal process in stability in the body. (Entringer et al. 2009). During pregnancy, maternal stress impends the fetal nervous system and shortens the length of maturation due to many issues and concerns affecting the mother (Entringer et al. 2009). During pregnancy, maternal psychosocial stress threatens the fetal nervous system and contracts the length of gestation (Entringer et al. 2009). High levels of placental corticotrophin- releasing hormone

The right of every human to a standard of living that ensures health and wellbeing independently of race, religion, geographic location, social status, and political views , is often viewed as a way of guaranteeing individual dignity and development (United Nations).

Centricity Prenatal is a revolutionary electronic medical record system that helps not only deliver one of the best fetal surveillance systems available to physicians but also helps provide the best care possible to a mother and her infant. GE Healthcare an industry that provides amazing HMIS technology that not is not only revolutionizing healthcare technology but also saving lives engineered centricity Prenatal. After more than twenty-two years of industry experience with parental and electronic medical rerecords GE developed this remarkable system. Centricity Prenatal has been delivered to almost forty four million babies according to their live tracker on their website and has been successfully integrated into 1500 projects.

Directions: Provide a 25- to 50- word summary of development during each of the prenatal stages listed below.

Physical development of the human begins at conception when the egg is fertilized by the sperm. Once the ovum is fertilized, the process of mitosis begins, allowing the cells to split and form the human being. Through this process, each parent contributes 23 chromosomes, which are present in every cell of our bodies, and are made up of DNA and genes (Broderick & Blewitt, 2015). The genes that we inherit from our parents determine our physical features, such as hair and eye color, and height. Furthermore, the combination of various genes within the body at the time of conception may result in the individual carrying unexpected traits and illnesses (Broderick & Blewitt, 2015).

It has been said that exposure to prenatal maternal stress can have lifelong consequences resulting in problems with child cognitive development and motor skills as young as the age of 16 months. The researchers that conducted this study hypothesized that the severity of objective hardship and subjective stress reactions would predict different aspects of child development.

The current research of ASD has concluded this disorder is as complex as the predisposing factors. Freitag et al. stated that “the current evidence therefore points to ASD being a highly complex process involving multiple contributing loci, genetic heterogeneity, gene-gen interactions, and gene-environment interactions” (as cited in Johnson et al., 2017). In other words, there is no single cause genetically or environmentally that causes ASD to occur. Some environmental factors before birth include both premature birth and low weight at birth, as well as breech, cesarean, and the mother having multiple births; maternal stress, viral infection during pregnancy, use of reproductive medications and artificial insemination, and mothers over the age of 35 also have positive correlations with the occurrence of ASD (Johnson et al., 2017). Other environmental factors implicated in the manifestation of ASD are exposure to large amounts of environmental pollutants (Johnson et al., 2017).

Maternal stress might also cause stress to the fetus. Previous theories suggested levels of increased cortisol transferred from the mother to the fetus might cause prenatal psychosocial stress. Researchers suggest increased cortisol alone has minimal impact on the fetus. They speculate the possibilities of a combination of various factors: Hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPA axis); prenatal anxiety effecting 11β-HSD2 ; maternal immune system; maternal vaginal and intestinal bacteria; lifestyles and health behaviors; eating

During early pregnancy, maternal inflammation may be related to an increased risk of autism in children. The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences recently did a study on mothers with elevated C-reactive protein. Included in the study were results showing that mothers with CRP levels in the top 20th percentile, were 43 times more likely to have a child with autism. This is an important discovery in that now, scientists can diagnose it early on, they can prepare parents for raising an autistic child. In the study, scientists were able to figure out that elevated levels of CRP is a leading cause for mothers to have autistic kids. I chose this topic because I work for the Red

monitor fetal heartbeat. In the first stage of labor , the neck of the uterus,

Technologies that have been created by humans have assisted on the increasing of human life, and allowing humans to survive conditions that could have caused them to die also the ability to resist sicknesses. The ability for us to control both plants and animals and allowing the humans to base their carrying capacity on a fake ecosystem that they have created, except of just their natural environment they inhabited from there parents. For many years, humankind has found ways to make themselves immune to certain sicknesses. Now a days, with the new understanding concerning the genetic structure of mankind, scientist are finding ways to end the suffering of the millions who are born with diseases that they got

Infant development is greatly influenced by the environment which the infant grows in. Some important environment factors are the economic circumstances, cultural values, family structure, etc. These types of environmental factors can shift how the infant develops, and if certain milestones are achieved earlier or later. The environment has more of an impact on the infant than people may think it does.