How the provision of information in the antenatal period can positively affect health and life style choices in the pregnant woman and her family.
It is a recognised certainty that nutrition is a fundamental requirement to sustain a healthy lifestyle and is also extremely valuable when recovering from an illness or an injury. Nutrients are absorbed in the body and this physiological process is essential for homeostasis and ensuring equilibrium is sustained within the body as without enough food and drink the body will not function correctly (Edwards & Thomas, 2009). This essay will provide information on folic acid and its properties, its role and the midwife’s role and responsibility in informing women in the early stages of pregnancy and the importance that it has.
An ancient Greek physician, Hippocrates, believed that any illness that was suffered by humans was due to their bad eating habits as well as their poor nutrition intake and historically, Hereditarians implied that the health of a fetus and the future of it was determined by its genes at conception, retrospectively evidence suggests that with the lack of nutrition a fetus receives, is a major contributory factor for future diseases (Edwards & Thomas, 2009).
Folic acid and folate is a B vitamin and an important part of nutritional intake. The B vitamins are a group of water-soluble vitamins that play important roles in cell metabolism and folic acid and folate are both forms of vitamin B9 (Barrowclough, 2009). They occur naturally in food and can also be taken as supplements. Vitamin B has a wide range of functions that occur biologically in the body and during pregnancy an important factor of vitamin B9 is the production and maintenance of new cells. Vitamin B9 als...
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http://www.nhs.uk/Livewell/pregnancy/Pages/Folicacid.aspx access March 20th 2010.
Beginning the case study, we are introduced with the call from the British Medical Research Council (MRC) being informed of the significant results showing the benefits of folic acid and the reductions of NTS’s. The next step for the United States was to decide amongst the CDC and the FDA on the best way to implement these results to women of childbearing age. At that point in time, there were only a few ways to ingest folic acid, which brought
Spina Bifida is the most common permanently disabling birth defect in the United States. It is a birth defect in which a developing baby's spinal cord fails to develop properly. The term Spina bifida comes from Latin and means "split" or "open" spine. This disorder occurs when the fetus is growing in the womb and its spine doesn’t form correctly. Some of the vertebrae don’t close to make their normal ring shapes around the spinal cord. This defect happens at the end of the first month of pregnancy, when a baby's spine and spinal cord are developing. Causes of Spina Bifida Causes that cause this disorder are low levels of the vitamin folic acid during pregnancy. Not having enough folic acid in the diet before and during early pregnancy can increase a woman's risk of Spina bifida and possibility of other neural tube defects. A high fever during pregnancy may increase a woman's chance of having a baby with Spina bifida. Some evidence suggests that genes may be a cause of Spina Bifida, but most babies born with Spina bifida have no family history of the condition. Also, women with epilepsy
Mayo Clinic collaborative services educational publication. (2004). Mayo Clinic Guide to a Healthy Pregnancy. New York, NY, Harper Collins Publishers Inc.
Two-thirds of infants die during the first month of life due to low birth weight (Lia-Hoagberg et al, 1990). One reason for this outcome is primarily due to difficulties in accessing prenatal care. Prenatal health care encompasses the health of women in both pre and post childbearing years and provides the support for a healthy lifestyle for the mother and fetus and/or infant. This form of care plays an important role in the prevention of poor birth outcomes, such as prematurity, low birth weight and infant mortality, where education, risk assessment, treatment of complications, and monitoring of fetus development are vital (McKenzie, Pinger,& Kotecki, 2012). Although every woman is recommended to receive prenatal health care, low-income and disadvantaged minority women do not seek care due to structural and individual barriers.
In 2011, the University Of Minnesota took women who take vitamins daily and studied them(Offit, Paul., 2013). The result was the same in that there was no supporting evidence that favors Pauling’s claims and statements. In conclusion, the general public believed the words of a man who had no specific evidence to support his own claims over researches done by trusted establishments who had evidence towards their own claims against Linus Pauling. Vitamin D is essential in many aspects especially during growth periods such as adolescents and infancy as indicated by Winston Koo and Nitin Walyat who are the respective authors of “Vitamin D and Skeletal Growth and Development”. Vitamin D is essential for the body as it helps development organ cells; without the development of organ cells, the body cannot fight against harsh diseases and it will eventually cause severe diseases which can lead to delayed growth rate(Koo, Winston ., 2013, p.188).. Children who drink breast milk are more prone to vitamin D deficiency because breast milk does not contain as many vitamins as mineral (Koo,
...roups at three months postpartum. The control group received usual postpartum care. The experimental group was asked about the usefulness of the information provided at the conclusion of the study. 91% said that the information was very helpful to them and their families, as well as useful in identifying support people (Heh & Yu, 2002).
It is important to understand what women commonly experience during pregnancy. With a better understanding of what happens during prenatal development and childbirth, physicians can competently develop the best plan for the mother and baby. I interviewed two women who have been previously pregnant in order to evaluate how the ideas in the book translate into real-life experiences.
Multiple studies have found that FAS is the single most common cause of mental retardation that is completely preventable. When alcohol is consumed during pregnancy it acts as a teratogen, which means it is a substance that interferes with growth and development, and is capable of causing birth defects such as hearing loss, vision loss, reduced cognitive ability, and motor skill deficiencies. Flattened mid-face, short nose and a thinner upper lip are also common physical abnormalities (Tangient LLC, 2014). When consumed, alcohol from the mother’s bloodstream crosses easily into the fetal bloodstream. Because of their size, the unborn baby has a lower capability to metabolize the alcohol, thus it remains in its system for a longer period of time and can result in...
Is there any food on earth that can provide the PERFECT nutrition to a human? Yes, and it is breast milk. Breast milk is the perfect nutrition. This superior food contains hormones, live antibacterial and antiviral cells and essential fatty acids (What Makes Human Milk Special?, Mar-Apr 2006). All of which are helpful in protecting against any harm. Sicknesses in infants are lowered by the help that breast milk gives. Breastfed children are sick less often than children who aren’t breastfed (What Makes Human Milk Special?, Mar-Apr 2006). Breast milk contains all the nutrients that an infant needs as it continues to grow. When the child is brought into the world it has no way to fight off any d...
March Dimes Foundation: Pregnancy and Newborn Health Education Center. Retrieved from http://www.marchofdimes.com/materials/teenage-pregnancy.pdf
When it comes to eating right, it is important that the diet of a pregnant woman has food energy, protein, with many vitamins and minerals, as this is essential for the pregnancy to support the metabolic demands of pregnancy and the baby's growth. It is then, that knowing the fact that the diet of a pregnant woman should be well controlled it is ide...
The poor food choices that men and women make is the cause of many illnesses, disease and chronic health conditions. Men and women generally have different thoughts and choices on the topic of healthy food. People’s bad health may be genetically occurred or their exposure to their past nutritional education was not helpful, but their bad health is primarily based upon the poor choices that the individuals choose in daily life.
This journal was useful for me because it gave me the background details on why women are opting for delayed motherhood by the age of 30 or 40. Accordingly, I was able to build up my points on how it will affect the health conditions of both baby and mother and also the risk of taking that challenge.
There are many women who do not get the quality care, whether it is because of not being educated or not have women health facilities. There are too many women who do not understand the importance of screenings and tests. I plan on working in a rural area to be able to reach out to the women who have limited access to this vital health information. As a nurse, I aspire to reach out to all people of the community, but educating women of the health of them and their babies is my passion. In doing so, I would like to raise awareness of the risk of vitamin and nutrient deficiencies while breastfeeding. This could be harmful for both mother and child. For example, vitamin D, which is essential in absorbing calcium is amongst one of the most common deficiencies in breastfeeding infants.(cite) Milk from the mother contains very little vitamin D, so the baby must have supplementation in order to get daily requirement. (cite) If the baby is not able to absorb calcium, they will develop hypocalcemia. Not many women are aware of this, because care providers are neglecting to tell them until it is too late. Though physicians are aware, they tend to brush it off as if it is unimportant. This happens especially in southern states that get more sunshine. It is very strange that that though we encourage mothers to breastfeed, but are not educating them of these possible deficiencies and how to prevent them as we should. I want to inspire
Overall all the different forms of anaemia are caused due to lack of healthy red blood cells or haemoglobin in the blood. Both of these are important for the transportation of oxygen through the blood around the body. The period during pregnancy is one of the very important time frames for the causes of anaemia as the mother can lack iron in her blood cause an impact on the unborn baby so many babies are born with this deficiency and therefore causes the disorder to been hereditary. The causes are if the rate of iron loss or use is more than the rate of absorption. This is a a matter that occurs very often and is very common in pregnant women this obviously indicates that intake of iron before pregnancy is poor [4]. However iron deficiency is the most neglected nutrient deficiency in the world, particularly among pregnant women and children in developing countries [7]. In a pregnant women when the theres a increase in the red cell mass the haemoglobin is effected. The haemoglobin levels are effected during the beginning of a pregannacy and duing the end of it. During the beginning there is a decrease and towards the end there is a increase. The rason to why there is a increase during the early period is the because of...