pregnancy risk

712 Words2 Pages

Pregnant women have to be careful while pregnant. They have to watch out for various speed bumps. There are tons of toxins that can hurt the baby in the womb. The mother is responsible for most of these, after all she is the one who is carrying the baby. Many of these factors can result in death. It is really sad that it has to end that way some of the time. The worst toxins for a baby to encounter while in the mother’s uterus are different types of drugs and alcohol. Those two things can could serious problems for the infant once it gets into their system. They enter into the baby’s bloodstream from the mother, and cause problems from there on out.
The intake of drugs and alcohol during pregnancy can cause many different birth defects. Drugs and alcohol can easily reach the baby while inside the mother. When a pregnant woman consumes a drug or some alcohol it enters into her bloodstream, then makes its way to the placenta. When it reaches the placenta it travels through the umbilical cord to the baby’s body (Schniderman pg. 27). Once it reaches the bay it can cause a lot of different problems. Drinking alcohol can cause the baby to be born with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. If too much alcohol gets into the baby’s bloodstream the baby will most likely have FAS. Fetal Alcohol Syndrome can affect an infant after it is born or even later on in life. Kids with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome can be impulsive at times, and they tend to not learn from their own mistakes and behavior unlike other children (Stewart pg. 47). Having a child with FAS could be very hard. They have difficulties trying to learn certain things. Learning from mistakes make life so much easier, and having a child who cannot do that could be very stressful. Many people put the...

... middle of paper ...

...ssants while pregnant with a child can be a risk because it can cause death to the baby because the mother could have a spontaneous abortion. Also the age of the mother can also cause different risks for the infant.

Works Cited

"Is It Safe to Take Ibuprofen during Pregnancy?" BabyCenter. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Oct. 2013.
Nakhai-Pour, Hamid Reza, MD, PhD, Perrine Broy, BSc,, and Anick Bérard, PhD. "Use of Antidepressants during Pregnancy and the Risk of Spontaneous Abortion." ProQuest.com. Canadian Medical Association. Journal, n.d. Web. 25 Oct. 2013.
Scharnberg, Kirsten. "Pregnant Addicts Face Rise in Prosecutions." SIRS.com. Chicago Tribune (Chicago, IL), 26 Nov. 2003. Web. 27 Oct. 2013.
Shniderman, Nancy, and Sue Hurwitz. Drugs and Birth Defects. New York: Rosen Pub. Group, 1993. Print.
Stewart, Gail B. Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. Detroit: Thomson/Gale, 2005. Print.

Show More
Related

  • Substance Abuse in Pregnant Women

    1862 Words  | 4 Pages

    During the late 1970’s a movement began with state prosecutors using child abuse, endangerment statues and charges of provisions of drugs to a minor to prosecute pregnant women who used illicit substances during their pregnancies. The prosecution of a pregnant heroine user in the State of California with a felony child endangerment charge was one of the first of such prosecutions in 1977 (Stone-Manista, 2009, pp.823-856). This was the catalyst for the often biased punishment of pregnant drug addicts under the scope of the law. It is this vein of prosecution that struck ...

    Read More

  • Dead Mums Don T Cry !

    542 Words  | 2 Pages

    As mention earlier that a Jennifer Deane was brave enough to speak out the truth of what she did during pregnancy. Jennifer told the class that she smoked a cigarette before going to check for her fetus (personal communication, March 28, 2016). As I mentioned about the risks of smoking earlier, in my Drugs and Behavior class, the professor also lecture us about the consequences of smoking and drinking alcohol while pregnant. In my Medical Sociology class, we watched a documentary on pregnant women in Africa, called Dead Mums Don’t Cry. This documentary was remarkable because it compared and contrasted the different point between Africa and the United Kingdom. As the reporter, Steve Bradshaw, stated in the documentary that many women died during their pregnancy because most of them were under age, but most of all it was because of the undeveloped medical materials that even the uncritical situations cannot be treated (Bradshaw & Quinn, 2005). Unlike in the film or the documentary where women can have C-section whenever the situation is critical, women in Africa cannot have that because often time they live far away and the hospital has limited

    Read More

  • The Effects of Prenatal Cocaine-Exposure On Cognitive Development

    1686 Words  | 4 Pages

    Levinthal, C.F. (2005). Effects of psychoactive drugs on pregnant women and newborns (Ed.), Drugs, behavior, and modern society (4th ed., pp.45). Boston: Allyn and Bacon.

    Read More

  • Environmental Influences On Prenatal Development

    534 Words  | 2 Pages

    Just as drugs such as marijuana, cocaine, and crystal meth affect the mother, it also affects the child. Babies that are born to drug using mothers are called “drug babies” and just like their mother they become addicted to the drugs causing behavior problems during their childhood. They can also have birth defects, premature birth, and are usually underweight. Babies that are born to cocaine using mothers are called “crack babies” and they face the risk of a stroke leading to brain damage. Teratogenic medications such as some antibiotics, cancer fighting medicines, blood thinners, and acne fighting medicines such as Accutane can all cause birth

    Read More

  • Abnormal Psychology

    845 Words  | 2 Pages

    Psychopharmacology Bulletin. 30 (1): 27-38. Jacobson, S.J., Jones, K., Ceolin, L., Kaur, P., Sahn, D., Donnerfeld, A.E., Rieder, M., Santelli, R., Smythe, J., Patuszuk, A., Einarson, T., and Koren, G., (1992). Prospective multicenter study of pregnancy outcomes after lithium exposure during the first trimester. Laricet.

    Read More

  • The Effects of Teratogens on an Unborn Embryo

    1035 Words  | 3 Pages

    Childbirth is nothing short of a miracle. The placenta—the organ connecting a developing fetus to the uterine wall and allowing for waste elimination, nutrient uptake and gas exchange via the mother's blood supply—filters most harmful substances that threaten an embryo, though some may still pass on to the fetus. These harmful substances, called “teratogens,” range from environmental chemicals to the transmission of maternal diseases, and can negatively impact the normal developmental cycle of a fetus. The title “teratogen,” however, refers to any substance or chemical exposure with the potential to cause birth defects in prenatal development. Exposure to teratogens can result in a broad spectrum of physiological and psychological issues in later life, including malformations of the body.

    Read More

  • Drinking Alcohol While Pregnant Should Be Illegal

    431 Words  | 1 Pages

    Pregnant women who drink often miscarry or have low-birth weight infants, and are at a much greater risk of having a child who has fetal alcohol syndrome. Fetal Alcohol Syndrome can include heart defects, poor coordination, hyperactive behavior; learning and developmental disabilities, and mental retardation. These problems are long term and also come with physical deformities like a narrow head, smaller eyes, and stunted growth. These effects are more common to women who are either heavy drinkers or binge drinkers.

    Read More

  • Essay On Diethylstilbestrol

    1061 Words  | 3 Pages

    Imagine being in a family that is expecting their first child. Articles in the newspaper are showing how the chances of miscarriages are increasing. As soon as anxiety starts to take over, a flip of a page in the newspaper changes everything. An article about a new drug called Diethylstilbestrol seems to be on the next page. Diethylstilbestrol, also known as DES, is a medicine that helps prevent women from having pregnancy complications including miscarriages. “This is amazing!” one may say, but do they really know the consequences of taking this new medication? Diethylstilbestrol was a huge turning point for most pregnant women in the early twentieth century; however, it had many underlying negative consequences that would later affect the mother and child with the word no one ever wants to hear; cancer.

    Read More

  • The Effects Of Alcohol Use During Pregnancy

    1617 Words  | 4 Pages

    “I brought you into this world, and I can take you out!” A child has most likely heard that phrase at some point in their life. Although, it is not ethical or legal for a mother to “take her kid out of this world”, it does bring up a good point that it was through her body, that the child was born. One of the most important responsibilities in this world is a mother carrying a child in the womb. There are many divine processes that take place during gestation, but there are also many contributing factors from the mother that can affect the developing human. These factors may include what a woman ingests and exposes her embryo or fetus to. Sadly, alcohol use during pregnancy is an ongoing problem that can have detrimental affects on the fetus, including Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS). Choosing to drink alcoholic beverages during pregnancy is a choice, a risky choice. Unfortunately some women don’t even know they are making a risky choice by consuming alcohol because it is in the early stages of pregnancy. It is common for a female to not find out they are pregnant until at least the fifth or sixth week after fertilization. In 2006, 49% of all pregnancies in the United States were reported unintended on a national survey.1 The highest rate of preventable birth defects and mental retardation is due to alcohol use.2 In this paper, I will further discuss FAS, the potential effects of binge drinking during the embryonic stage of gestation, and what actions need to be taken in order to reduce the incidences of alcohol related birth defects.

    Read More

  • The Effects Of Drugs And Alcohol On A Pregnancy

    736 Words  | 2 Pages

    All drugs, legal or illegal, are considered to be harmful to the fetus and should be taken with caution and under the doctor’s direct orders only. Drugs can be anything as simple as a cigarette to a major substance like heroin and cocaine. Most mothers who do drugs during their pregnancy don’t think about the detrimental effects they could be causing to their baby. Any amount of these forbidden substances can leave an everlasting effect on the precious defenseless baby. Most women know that when you are pregnant your hormones vary greatly, but when a woman is pregnant it also ...

    Read More

  • Banning Abortion

    608 Words  | 2 Pages

    the mothers' life is at risk and the baby will die anyway. A lot of

    Read More

  • Argumentative Essay On Late Term Abortion

    908 Words  | 2 Pages

    In addition, one analysis, in relation to abortion problems, states, “from 1988 to 1997 found the risk of death increased by 38% for each additional week of gestation, during the pregnancy.” (Jones). “Such studies rely on information from many countries and include legally mandated registers hospital administrative data,” so current research affirms that an induced abortion increase the risk of different physical consequences, such as breast cancer, placenta previa, and maternal suicide. (Bachiochi). Late term abortion not only affects the mother’s condition physically, but also psychologically. Although not all women respond in the same way, some of them develop diverse mental disorders leading to suicide after they received an abortion. Studies in Canadian newspapers show “a suicide rate of 34.9 per 1000” from women who experimented an abortion, in contrast to “a suicide rate of 5.9 per 1000” from women who gave birth to their babies. The same newspapers report “a rate of 5.2 per thousand hospitalizations for psychiatric

    Read More

  • Children And Alcohol Abuse Essay

    1752 Words  | 4 Pages

    Fetal Alcohol Syndrome is a pattern of birth defects caused by maternal consumption of alcohol during pregnancy. Children born with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome tend to have physical abnormalities such as deformed facial characteristics. They are generally born with a variety of emotional and/or intellectual limitations. It is very common for these children to be born with mild to severe forms of mental retardation (Harvard Mental Health, 2004, p. 1). Children that were exposed to alcohol while in the womb of the mother can suffer from an assortment of physical and intellectual impairments in their future.

    Read More

  • Teratogens and Their Effects on Fetus Development

    1998 Words  | 4 Pages

    Every woman when pregnant has a 3-5% chance of having a baby born with a birth defect, and these chances increase when the developing fetus/ embryos are exposed to teratogens, whether it’s intentional or unintentional (Bethesda (MD), 2006). Teratogens can cause severe birth defects, malformations, or terminate the pregnancy altogether (Jancárková, & Gregor, 2000). The placenta is known as an effective barrier from any detrimental pathogen that can potentially hurt the fetus. The timing of exposure of any teratogen is critical to the impact of prenatal development (Bethesda (MD), 2006). The most vulnerable time of the fetus for severe damage is during early pregnancy when all the major organ and central nervous system (CNS) are developing. Miscarriages have an important role in keeping a pregnancy from evolving when there is something serious going on with the developing fetus/embryo. Miscarriages are more common than we think and are the most familiar type of pregnancy loss (Bethesda (MD), 2006).

    Read More

  • The Effects of Abortion That You Don't Know About

    1111 Words  | 3 Pages

    There are many long-term physical side effects of having an abortion that many people do not realize. The worst complication is death. The mother may die of complications related to the abortion such as hemorrhaging, intense bleeding. Another adverse effect is the risk of infection of the uterus caused by the exposure to the outside environment. Women may get an embolism (blood cot). Abortionists may give the mother anesthesia, giving her the wrong dosage. The woman may get entopic tubal Pregnancies, which are pregnancies outside of the uterus. The most common place for these pregnancies is in the fallopian tubes. These related health problems are the fifth leading cause of matern...

    Read More

More about pregnancy risk

Open Document