Critical Thinking Questions

1. A recent cartoon showed a pregnant woman walking down a street carrying an MP3 player with a set of very large headphones clamped around her protruding abdomen. What point was it making? What research might have provided the basis for the woman’s behavior, and what assumptions is she making about what the result might be? If you or your partner were pregnant, do you think you would do something like this?
2. We hear a great deal about the terrible and tragic effects that illegal drugs like cocaine and diseases like AIDS can have on fetal development. But what two maternal behaviors associated with prenatal harm are actually the most common in the United States today, and what are some of the effects they can have?
3. Suppose you were in charge of a public health campaign to improve prenatal development in the United States and you could focus on only one factor. What would you target and why?
4. Describe some of the cultural differences that exist in beliefs and practices with respect to conception, pregnancy, and childbirth. Is there any practice of another culture that appeals to you more than the practices with which you are familiar?
5. Are you more encouraged or more discouraged by the results of intervention programs such as the IHDP? What would it take to make their gains larger and longer lasting?
6. Speculate on why the infant mortality rate in the United States has steadily gotten worse compared with that of other countries.
7. Explain the basic idea of the multiple-risk model and how it relates to poverty in terms of prenatal development and birth outcomes.