Chapter Introduction

Prenatal Development and Birth

  • Prenatal Development
    • Germinal: The First 14 Days
    • Embryo: From the Third Through the Eighth Week
    • Fetus: From the Ninth Week Until Birth
  • Birth
    • The Newborn’s First Minutes
    • Medical Assistance
    • Alternatives to Hospital Technology
  • Problems and Solutions
    • Harmful Substances
    • Risk Analysis
    • Applying the Research
    • OPPOSING PERSPECTIVES: “What Do People Live to Do?”
    • Low Birthweight
    • Complications During Birth
  • The New Family
    • The Newborn
    • New Fathers
    • New Mothers
    • Parental Alliance
    • Bonding

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WHAT WILL YOU KNOW?

  1. What are the three stages of pregnancy, and what are the major developmental changes in each stage?

    Pregnancy is divided into the germinal period, the embryonic period, and the fetal period. During the germinal period, the zygote divides and multiplies until it becomes a blastocyst. The outer shell becomes the placenta, which implants in the uterine lining, and the nucleus becomes the embryo. During the embryonic period, the primitive streak becomes the neural tube, arm and leg buds appear and grow, with hands, feet, fingers, and toes developing in turn. During the fetal period, the genitals differentiate into male and female structures, the brain develops rapidly through neurogenesis and synaptogenesis, and the age of viability is achieved.

  2. What usually occurs in the first few minutes of a newborn’s life?

    The Apgar test is administered one minute after delivery to assess five vital signs: color, heart rate, cry, muscle tone, and breathing on a scale of 0–2. The test is re-administered five minutes after birth.

  3. What factors determine whether a potentially harmful substance or circumstance will actually have detrimental effects on the developing fetus? What are the causes and consequences of low birth weight?

    The timing of exposure, the level of exposure, and genetic vulnerability determine the effects of teratogens. If the exposure occurs during a critical period, the level of exposure exceeds the threshold level, or the fetus has a genetic vulnerability, then the teratogen is more likely to have detrimental effects.Anoxia often occurs for a second or two during birth due to compression of the umbilical cord. These brief periods of anoxia rarely cause any effects. Prolonged anoxia can combine with other factors such as genetic vulnerability, teratogens, and maternal infection to increase the likelihood of cerebral palsy.

  4. What kinds of changes does the birth of a child cause in family relationships, and what can couples do to help ensure they adjust to these changes in ways that are best for the child?

    A new baby becomes a third person in the parents’ relationship, and the parents must adjust to that. By building a parental alliance in which both parents commit to cooperate in raising their child, the couple can work together to protect their relationship and their child.

Birthdays are important. A day or two before every February 28, I send a birthday card to my older brother, a 6-foot-tall grandfather of six, born in 1936.

Prenatal care is important, too. Although my brother was full term, he was born underweight because my mother was told to be hungry when she was expecting. Seventy-three years later, when my daughter was pregnant, she was told to eat as much as she wanted. In mid-pregnancy she baked a cake for her husband’s birthday and decorated it with a metal figure of Superman. She wrapped Superman’s legs in plastic before sticking it on the cake because she worried the figurine might be made of lead and wanted to ensure that she could eat a slice.

I think both my mother and my daughter were irrational mothers-to-be. There are other foolish warnings—no spicy foods, no reaching, no sex, no exercise—that pregnant women have followed over the years. I took some needless precautions and stupid risks myself. There is one universal: Women everywhere and in every cohort want healthy and happy babies, and they change their habits to that end.

My brother often asked what time he was born. My mother always answered that she didn’t remember. Finally, when she was in her 90s, he told her “a story.”

When your first precious baby was beginning to be born, it was February 28th. But labor was slow, so he was born on the 29th. You felt sorry for your little boy, with a birthday only once in four years, so you persuaded the doctor to lie.

“Yes,” Mom replied. “That is just what happened.”

Glen told me that with a smile; he had long suspected my mother’s memory of his time of birth was intact, a few hours past midnight, and that her claim of forgetfulness was to protect a lie. But I was shocked. I thought my scrupulously honest mother would never lie, much less persuade a doctor to sign a false birth certificate. But this illustrates another universal truth: Parents imagine their newborns’ future lives and try to protect them.

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In this chapter, you will learn about the amazing growth of the embryo and fetus, and you will learn how family members and medical professionals safeguard newborns. Possible harm is noted, too—causes and consequences of diseases, malnutrition, drugs, pollution, stress, and so on. Birth locations vary: a high-tech operating room or a lowly hut or tub at home or a bed in a birthing center. Practices vary too. Despite such variety, remember the universals: Humans all develop for months before birth, nurtured by women’s bodies and by thousands of others, who have hopes, plans, and fantasies for each person’s future.