CFD 3250 Lecture 5: Chapter 5-child develop

• School: UCM
• Department: Child and Family Development
• Course: CFD 3250
• Professor: Victoria Voland

Document Summary

Optimizing the chances of having healthy babies: avoid teratogens during pregnancy. Factors that can cause prenatal harm (viruses, drugs, chemicals, stressors, environmental hazards) Nicotine is the most common teratogen exposure. Importance of maintaining a nutritious diet throughout pregnancy: Maternal malnutrition is correlated with low birth weight. Folic acid deficiency is related to neural tube damage. A balanced diet should be supplemented with prenatal vitamins. Begin before pregnancy if planning to get pregnant and continue afterward if breastfeeding. Without prenatal care, women are three times more likely to have low- birth-weight infants. Ingest unhealthy substances from psychoactive drugs to spoiled food. Birth and newborns: birth is a significant event in the lives of families everywhere. The primary goal of expectant parents is to have full-term, healthy babies. The majority of babies are carried to full gestational term and are born healthy. There is, however, a major difference in the survival rates of infants born in industrialized and non-industrialized countries.