Problems in prenatal development

1. Problems in prenatal development

2. Good Morning! 3/12/14 • Today’s Agenda: • Problems during prenatal development • Review Prenatal development • Turn in entry about pregnancy • Friday: • Quiz on prenatal development

3. Losing a baby • Sometimes a baby doesn’t develop normally, sometimes causing the baby to die • If the baby dies before 20 weeks, it’s a miscarriage • After 20 weeks, it’s called a stillbirth

4. Grief • Loss of baby can be very painful • Couples who lose an unborn baby, grieve just as they would for a child who had been born • They go through the same stages of grief • Most are able to successfully have children later

5. Birth Defects • Born with serious problems that threaten their health or ability to live • There are hundreds of different ones • Vary widely – some are mild and can be corrected easily • Some are severe, lifelong disabilities • Some cause death • 3 out of every 100 children in the US are born with a birth defect • Not always apparent at birth – show up months or years later

6. What are they? • Some could affect the shape or size of the body or certain parts of the body • Child could be born with a misshapen foot, a missing finger, or an extra finger • Some could effect their body functions • Blindness, deafness, mental retardedness

7. What causes them? • 60% of the time, we don’t know what caused it • Constant research is done to decrease the number • 4 main causes: • Environmental • Hereditary • Errors in Chromosomes • Interaction of Heredity and Environment

8. Environmental causes • Baby develops all the bodily systems during the first few weeks of pregnancy • Depends completely on the mother for nourishment • Choices the Mom makes can effect the baby • Nutritional diet of mother • Diseases or infections the mother has • Harmful substances • Some medicines • Exposure to hazards (radiation)

9. Hereditary • Genetic blueprint has thousands of genes • Each person has 5 or 6 recessive genes that are imperfect but have no effect on development • But, if each parent passes on the same imperfect gene or it’s a dominant gene, it may cause a birth defect • Some only effect one gender – hemophilia and color blindness only affect males

10. Errors in Chromosomes • Could be too many or too few chromosomes in each of the baby’s cells • Most common of this type is down’s syndrome • 1 in every 800 births has this condition • Risk increases when mother is 35 or older • Has an extra chromosome 21 • Hundreds of genes in chromosomes, so it can interfere with development in many ways

11. Interaction of Heredity and Environment • A baby may inherit the tendency for a heart defect, but it only shows up if other factors affect the baby during pregnancy • Drugs and alcohol • Certain viruses • These cases, if only one thing happened (heredity OR environment) the heart would likely be normal

12. Prevention and Diagnosis • Some can be prevented • Healthy diet choices • Taking vitamins – particularly Folic Acid • Right amount could prevent 1000 cases of spina bifida per year • No harmful substances

13. Genetic Counseling • Parents already have a child with a birth defect • High risk group – over 35, have hereditary risks • Over 100 birth defects can be diagnosed before birth-possibly treated and prevented • Different tests

14. Prenatal diagnosis • Ultrasound – sound waves to make a video image of an unborn baby. Can show certain defects with skeleton or organs. • Amniocentesis – withdraw a sample of the amniotic fluid and testing for indications of certain problems • Contains some cells from the fetus • Determine Downs syndrome • Chorionic villi sampling – small amounts of tissue from the membrane around fetus. • Can be done earlier than amniocentesis

15. Complete: • Birth defects affect…