Exploring Prenatal Development

Introduction

Prenatal development is the process this occurs during 40 weeks prior to the birth of a child and it is heavily influenced by genetics (Burke, Sanson and Van Hoorn, 2018). The aim of the study is to analyse the impacts of prenatal environment which can be catastrophic for a child development. In this study the discussion about the prenatal birth of the child, its effects and the prevention strategy of prenatal birth will be explained through which it is possible to demonstrate and understand the prenatal environment which has crucial impacts on child development.

Prenatal development

Every person is made of cells which contain chromosomes and it is genetic material that determines the person, including eye colour, biological sex and personality trait. There are three stages of prenatal; development which are germinal, embryonic and fetal. Prenatal trimesters are referred as first trimester ends in the stage of embryonic stage and the second trimester’s ends at the week 20 and the third trimester ends at the birth. Prenatal development is the process where it is occurred during the 40 weeks prior to birth of a child and it is heavily influenced by genetics (Buckingham et al., 2020).

Teratogens and teratogenic effects

The teratogens are drugs, chemicals and also infections for which there is abnormal fetal development. There are many teratogens for which the teratogenic effects are serious and it hampers child development. There are many teratogenic effects for which the child development is hampered. Absence of long bones of the limbs, anorectic stenosis and absence of external ears are the major effects of using teratogens and in addition to this; there are fetal alcohol syndrome where there are CVS abnormalities such as attention deficits, mental retardation and intellectual disabilities (Pacheco, 2020). Hereby, there is serious adverse effect of using teratogens and there are serious effects on child development where use of teratogens affects child brain and physical development negatively.

Prematurity and preterm birth

Premature birth is the birth taking place more than three weeks before the baby’s estimated due date and it is generally occurred during 37 weeks of pregnancy. Premature babies have medical problems and the child brain and physical development can be hampered in long run. The causes of the premature birth are such as placental abruption, hormonal changes, infections and incompetent cervix for which the premature child is born. There are multiple risk factors for premature birth including having previous premature birth, progeny with multiple babies, infection and drug use (Burke, Sanson and Van Hoorn, 2018). Preterm birth is where the babies are born before 37 weeks and there are major risk factors which hampers the child development. Low weight and lack of brain development are the major risk factors for the premature birth, children mental and physical health is affected negatively. There are intervention involved in protecting the incident premature birth where use of maternal progesterone supplementation, surgical closure of the cervix with preventing of exposure of pregnant workmen to cigarette smoke, judicious use of fertility treatment are effective.

Maternal and paternal behaviour

Maternal behaviour is important for child development and the behaviour and attitude of the mother affects the condition of the child during the prenatal stage. the prenatal environment inside the uterus is referred to the place where the child is developing and the maternal and paternal behaviour in this regard are crucial to reshape the child’s brain where there needs positive cooperation, love and care to protect the chid and give positive environment for development. There is interdependence between the maternal and paternal behaviour where both the parents need to be cooperative and develop string relationship during the prenatal stage of child development. The interactions and the behaviour f the mothers and fathers need to be submissive and avoid ager and depression in this stage as high aggression and depression may hamper child development.

Prenatal risk factors and causes

There are prenatal risk factors which are such as preconception factors, infections, exposure to toxins, maternal nutritional deficiencies and maternal chronic illness and these are the major factors that hamper child development during the prenatal stage. It is necessary for the mother to follow suitable diet ad medications during the stage in order to mitigate the risk factors during the prenatal development. In this regard the major causes are such as pregnancy related complications, prematurity and low birth weight, isoimmunisation and infections which are major causes of adverse environment during the prenatal stage of the child (Miguel et al., 2019). The development of the child is also hampered due to such issues and risk factors where the mother is under risk of infections, nutrition deficiencies and chronic illness. For example, low weight child birth is a common issue where child development is not effective and the main reason of such is nutrition deficiencies where the mother did not follow appropriate chart for in taking the right food and liquids at right time. It further hampers the child development activities where the child’s physical health and brain development can be affected negatively.

Nature vs. nurture

Nature is the pre-wiring and it is influenced by genetic inheritance and the biological factors. On the other hand, nurture is generally taken as the influence of external factors that affect conception and for example the product exposure, experience and learning of the individuals. The nature versus nurture involves the human behaviour which is determined by the environment, either parental or during the person’s life and genes (Laing, 2018). Genes and heredity factors, physical appearance and personality characteristics determine nature and on the other hand, nurture indicates the environmental variables mainly the childhood experience, social interrelationship and surrounding culture. Hereby, both the nature and nurture are important to reshape child development.

Prenatal environmental factors affecting child development

There is great importance of genetics in human development and there is serious controversy about the nature vs. nurture, where the factors such as personality trait, aggressive behaviour vs. submissive behaviour, and other risk levels are considered including addiction and alcoholism. Before birth, a fetus had a limited opportunity by its environment beyond factors such as substance use, mother’s diet and anxiety level (Chisholm, 2017). This is the major reason the genetics plays crucial role in shaping the child and developing the mental health and physical health of the children. There are several environmental factors during prenatal development which affect the development of child and in this regard the environment factors are such as food and liquid, medication of mother, travel and personal trait which are crucial to reshape the child development.

Apart from that there are some genetic factors which are also crucial to reshape child developmental activities and in this regard the factors are such as infectious environment, radiation and drug exposure during pregnancy that affects the child development in a negative way. High stress and poor health condition of are also crucial factor that affects the child development where the stress level of mother affect negative in developing child’s brain. Apart from that, anger and depression are also critical factor that also hamper child’s brain development and also physical development (Cao-Lei et al., 2017). Hard diet and travel unnecessarily are also serious factor that hampers child development, where the mother should take rest during pregnancy so that the child development would be normal. In addition to this, the factors such as excessive misuse of dug and other substances are one of the major factors that have negative impacts on child development. The environment during prenatal stage is hereby major factor that helps to develop child physical condition and brain.

Social and economic factors are also there for child development, where the economic condition and family structure and nutrition that helps to grow child’s mental and physical condition. For example, structure family with care and love, string social bonding as well as medium and high economic class are effective where the mothers can take care of their health condition and they try to be under proper diet and medication during the prenatal stage (Neuenschwander and Oberlander, 2017). On the other hand, low economic people face difficulties during the prenatal level of child birth where due to lack of economic stability, they suffer to manage the stage of child birth and for which the child development can be hampered. On the other hand, there are some physical environments which are attitude of the mother; stress level and depression, aggression vs. submissive behaviour which also affects child development, where the personality trait of the child and brain develop are determined by the behaviour of the mother (Burke, Sanson and Van Hoorn, 2018).

Conclusion

It can be concluded that, the prenatal environment is playing a crucial role to catastrophic child development. The genetic factors as well as the external environment such as personality trait, social relations and surrounding couture are also effective to develop child’s brain and physical condition. For example, the adverse situation such as poor diet and medication, aggressive behaviour and depression, stress and poor social relations, low personality trait and the use of teratogens affect child development negatively.

Reference List

Buckingham, L., Janssen, M., Ray, E.M., Tucker, K., Davidson, B.A., Arenth, J., Lefkowits, C., Jones, J.A., Gehrig, P. and Jones, C.A., 2020. Top Ten Tips Palliative Care Clinicians Should Know About Caring for Serious Illness in Pregnancy. Journal of Palliative Medicine.

Burke, S.E., Sanson, A.V. and Van Hoorn, J., 2018. The psychological effects of climate change on children. Current psychiatry reports, 20(5), p.35.

Cao-Lei, L., De Rooij, S.R., King, S., Matthews, S.G., Metz, G.A.S., Roseboom, T.J. and Szyf, M., 2017. Prenatal stress and epigenetics. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews.

Chisholm, J.S., 2017. Navajo infancy: An ethological study of child development. London: Routledge.

Laing, R., 2018. Responding to catastrophe: Learning from perinatal death in midwifery practice (Doctoral dissertation, Murdoch University).

Miguel, P.M., Pereira, L.O., Silveira, P.P. and Meaney, M.J., 2019. Early environmental influences on the development of children's brain structure and function. Developmental Medicine & Child Neurology, 61(10), pp.1127-1133.

Neuenschwander, R. and Oberlander, T.F., 2017. Developmental origins of self-regulation: prenatal maternal stress and psychobiological development during childhood. In Parental Stress and Early Child Development (pp. 127-156). Springer, Cham.

Pacheco, S.E., 2020. Catastrophic effects of climate change on children’s health start before birth. The Journal of Clinical Investigation, 130(2).

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