Factors that Negatively Effect Fetal Development Essay -- essays resea

Factors that Negatively Effect Fetal DevelopmentNicotine and drugs can affect a fetus by entering into the blood stream of the unborn child. While you are pregnant, almost everything you eat, drink or smoke passes through your body to your baby. That is why drugs taken during pregnancy can be pestilential to your baby. The word drugs doesnt only mean illegal drugs. It also means legal drugs and prescription and over-the-counter medicines. The use of alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs during pregnancy continues to be a confidential information preventable cause of mental, physical, and psychological impairments and problems in infants and children. A developing fetus really is a part of its mother, sharing oxygen and nutrients through the umbilical heap and across the fluid-filled bubble known as the placenta. It was once thought the placenta as a natural filter, shielding the fetus from external harm. Today, we know that virtually everything in a womans bloodstream passes through to the developing organs of the fetus. Since a fetus cant remove harmful substances on its own, all the drugs a woman uses during pregnancy breathe in its body longer than they do in moms -- and at higher, more toxic levels.Main risks of smoking during pregnancy include Delayed Growth. The more a woman smokes, the less her baby grows. Twice as many babies weighing less than 5 pounds are born to smokers as to nonsmokers. Premature Birth gravid smokers are more likely to suffer bleeding, damage to...