Prenatal and Infant Development

1124 Words3 Pages

We are exposed to many harmful substances in our daily lives. Some of these substances are especially harmful for a developing zygote, embryo, or fetus. When a woman makes the decision to become pregnant, or if she finds herself pregnant, she can also make some decisions of what kind of precautions she will make during her pregnancy. While some substances such as pollution are mostly unavoidable for pregnant women in today’s society, other harmful substances can be easily avoided to ensure the proper healthy development of her unborn child. The harmful substances that a woman is exposed to during pregnancy are called teratogens and can “increase the risk of prenatal abnormalities” (Berger, 2010). Within the last month, although not pregnant, I have been exposed to the following teratogens: caffeine, alcohol, PCB’s in my canned foods, cleaning compounds, mercury in my fish, and possibly toxoplasmosis in my cat’s feces. If I were to avoid the substances, alcohol, toxoplasmosis, and mercury for the remainder of the semester, these three would be easy to avoid. It would be a personal choice to not consume alcohol or fish seeing as though these are not an important or required part of my diet so are therefore easily avoidable. Also easily avoidable is toxoplasmosis as I have a husband who cleans the cat’s litter box. Cleaning supplies would be mildly challenging as I am exposed to these chemicals on a daily basis. With two toddlers in the house I seem to be cleaning something constantly. I could, however, switch to a more natural cleaning product to avoid the harsh chemical compounds. The last two, caffeine and PCB’s in my cans of food would be a bit more difficult to avoid. While I don’t eat from canned food sources on ... ... middle of paper ... ...rs, or in the field of youth work we can education these women to make the best possible choice for themselves and the health of their unborn child. Works Cited Berger, K. S. (2010). Invitation to the Life Span. New York: Worth Publishers. Weng, X., Odouli, R., & Li, D.-K. (2008, March). Maternal caffeine consumption during pregnancy and the risk of miscarriage: a prospective cohort study. American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology, 279e1 - 279.e8. Retrieved January 25, 2012, from http://www.ajog.org/article/S0002-9378(07)02025-X/fulltext You, W. B., Grobman, W., Davis, T., Curtis, L. M., Cooper Bailey, S., & Wolf, M. (2011, April). Improving Pregnancy drug warnings to promote patient comprehension. American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology, 204(4), 318.e1-318.e5. Retrieved January 25, 2012, from http://www.ajog.org/article/S0002-9378(10)02525-1/fulltext

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