Teratogen Essay

The most critical times in development are when the fetus is in the womb of the mother. The fetus is at risk of harm from the things the mom consumes and is exposed to. Teratogens can especially do harm. They are defined as “an external agent that can cause damage or death during prenatal development.” (Siegler, DeLoache, Eisenberg, Saffran, & Leaper, 2014, p. 57) The consequences of a teratogen depends on when the unborn baby is exposed to it, how often they are in contact with the teratogen, and how susceptible one is to it. There are many known teratogens now, but determining one is difficult since you cannot expose them to fetuses because it would be unethical. For example, when thalidomide was given to women to help with morning sickness, people thought it was going to be safe because it was tested on lab animals and no effects were shown. It wasn't tested on any human fetuses, but since lab animals seemed to be fine it was assumed to be safe, however, babies were born with missing limbs. (Siegler, et al., 2014). Other known teratogens are certain prescribed drugs, pollutants, or a disease the mother has. They can all result in a birth defect and can affect the child’s future well being. Alcohol especially can have significant consequences when introduced during the

For one of the tests the children were were shown images of animals on a computer for a certain amount of seconds and had to press a green key for “yes”, meaning the animal was previously shown, or a red button for “no”, it was not shown. Although there was no difference in information processing time between children of mothers who drank and those who did not, the number of correct answers shown from the choice reaction time shows there is a possible correlation with the mother’s alcohol consumption during pregnancy, but only with binge