Prenatal Development

Prenatal Development

Influences on prenatal development, the evidence



In this essay I am going to discuss effects of smoking and radiation on prenatal development.
Smoking while pregnant depends just on mothers choice to do so,and can be prevented to
avoid harm to unborn child.While effects from radiation is unavoidable to pregnant women
and the foetus   in case of nuclear explosion.
There are three stages in prenatal development: the zygote, embryo and foetus .All of these
stages are at risk, from environmental influences known as teratogens which are “Any
environmental agent that causes damage during the prenatal period” (Berk 2000 )
Smoking:
Research provides evidence that women who smoke during pregnancy have babies who are
born prematurely with greater frequency and with lower birth weights than women who do
not smoke (Floyd, Rimer, Giovino, Mullen, & Sullivan, 1993).
Smoking during pregnancy is associated with younger mothers, mothers who experience
greater psychiatric distress, greater somatic illness, and greater poverty (Cherry & Kiernan,
1976 )
The most firmly established   link between maternal smoking during pregnancy and child
outcomes is the association with low birth weight. Since the 1950s, epidemiological studies
have consistently shown that mothers who smoke during pregnancy have children born 150–
250 g lighter than nonsmoking controls (Hardy & Mellitis, 1979).Women who smoke more
than half-a-pack of cigarettes a day during pregnancy are significantly more likely to have a
son with conduct disorder than mothers who did not smoke during pregnancy, report
researchers from the University of Chicago Medical Center and the University of Pittsburgh
in the July 1997 issue of Archives of General Psychiatry. The researchers analyzed records
from 177 boys, ages 7-12, who were referred to outpatient clinics for behavior problems. The
researchers found that the risk of conduct disorder (CD) in boys was 4.4 times greater among...