Teratogen: Factor that Affects Prenatal Development and the Newborn

Prenatal Development and Newborn
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Prenatal Development and Newborn
Prenatal development is the different processes during the 40 weeks from when the baby is conceived to the child's birth. According to Piersma and Hessel (2017), the various activities are heavily determined by genetics. The fetus or embryo might acquire some functional or physical defects during pregnancy because of the substances that a pregnant woman might be exposed to. The materials are commonly known as teratogens. The most common teratogens during pregnancy are drugs. Drug usage during the prenatal period directly affects the infant.
Whenever one injects, smokes or drinks so does the fetus. The use of legal or illegal drugs can be very dangerous to the unborn child in different ways. First, it might cause a child to be born with a physical malformation (Piersma & Hessel, 2017). The drug substance might jeopardize the growth of the infants, causing them to have some premature body parts. Also, drugs can affect the child's emotional development, making them have slow social development in their childhood. Some of the kids might permanently remain emotionally slow. Finally, it might decrease the child's intellectual quotient (IQ), affecting their ability to reason normally. Apart from the child, drugs cans also lead to miscarriage, abortion, and preterm labor. Identification of the exposure can...