Alcohol, tobacco and drugs are known to be harmful to human fetus when used during pregnancy, particularly during the time of organogenesis. The proof to their harm has been proved through human clinical and epidemiologic studies and research carried out in animals such as primates, rats and rabbits. This damages that occur during the fetal growth may be seen immediately the baby is born, during infancy or later in life, especially if the damage is in the Central Nervous System (CNS). In addition, most of the damage in the Central Nervous System may happen in the second and third trimesters of pregnancies, when most organs of the fetus have passed the organogenesis active stage. Concisely, the major stages of the development of the CNS are the development of the neural folds, their closure to form the neural tube that completely closes at the end of the fourth week post fertilization, the development of the major brain vesicles during the 5 th and 6 th week and the tissues surrounding the central canal that forms in the various brain vesicles. However, the cortical plate begins to form during the 8 th and 9 th week and the cerebral cortex develops later, mainly in the second and third trimesters. The cerebral cortex continues to form throughout the gestation period and even in the postnatal life, mainly by developing the various cortical layers, growth of neurons and sprouting, formation of synapse and myelinization. Therefore, it is expected that agents such as alcohol, tobacco and drugs can affect the formation of the CNS in the entire pregnancy. In this paper, I will discuss the effects of alcohol, tobacco and drugs on prenatal development and why it is important to maintain a healthy diet while pregnant.
Alcohol, Tobacco and Drug Use by Pregnant Women
Addiction to alcohol, tobacco and drugs results to physical and psychological dependence in ways that cause the health of the addict to deteriorate. The number of women who use alcohol, tobacco and drugs is increasing constantly. Statistics show that women between the age 15 to 44 years are the group that are considered to be the most regular abusers of these addictive substances (Bernstein & McMahon, 2018). Such abuse is a serious issue, not only to the pregnant women and their children but also to the social costs such as neglect of children when the mother becomes dependent on these addictive substances. As a result of using these addictive substances, mothers are often denied their children and the whole family suffers from the mother’s addiction. Children born of addicted mothers end up in foster home. This is because they do not receive sufficient care and are exposed to cases of maltreatment. Pregnant women are special people in our society and therefore need special care during pregnancy and in their treatment for addiction. Special programs have been formed to assist pregnant women fight addiction. These programs will provide addicted pregnant women with psychiatric and medical care.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
Effects of Alcohol, Tobacco and Drugs on Prenatal Development
Alcohol
When a woman consumes alcohol during pregnancy, so does the baby because it freely passes through the placenta to the baby. When a woman chooses to take alcohol while pregnant, they increase the chances of their children to be born with a Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD). These disorders are the full range of birth defects that are as a result of prenatal alcohol exposure. In the United States nearly 40,000 children with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders are born every year (Bergeson, 2016). The most common effect is permanent brain damage which causes disabilities in learning, behavior problems, memory and attention deficits. This is known as static encephalopathy which means that the damage in the brain does not get any better or worse. More damage from alcohol drinking causes scattered holes in the brain that affect any area that was forming at the time, resulting to death of brain cells, migration of cells to the wrong places and causes tangles to the neurons with inaccurate connections.
Regions in the brain that are commonly affected by alcohol consumption in prenatal development include Corpus Callosum which processes information between the left and right brain, cerebellum which is for motor control and basal ganglia which processes information. In addition, other parts affected the hippocampus which is essential for learning and memory, hypothalamus which controls, emotions, pain sensation, appetite and temperature and lastly the frontal lobes which is used for executive function, judgment and impulse control. The corpus callosum in children exposed to alcohol before birth is damaged and does not function sufficiently. The pathways between the left and right side of the brain are minimal hence the information is passed ineffectively or slowly.
Tobacco
Cigarette smoke has approximately 4,000 chemicals including chemicals such as lead, cyanide and about 60 cancer-causing compounds. When a woman smokes tobacco during pregnancy, the toxic chemicals get into her bloodstream, which is the only source of nutrients and oxygen for the fetus (Newman, 2017). While these 4,000 compounds are harmful for the developing baby, the most poisonous compounds in tobacco are nicotine and carbon monoxide. These two chemicals account for every complication related to smoking during pregnancy. The most common complications linked to tobacco smoking during the prenatal development are premature birth, low birth weight and stillbirth. Nicotine cuts off the amount of oxygen reaching the baby by narrowing blood vessels in a mother’s body, including those in the umbilical cord which forces the red blood cells to pick particles of carbon monoxide as an alternative.
Women with a habit of smoking a pack of cigarettes each day while pregnant will result to their babies’ weight to reduce with approximately a half-pound of a normal weight of a new born baby. Smoking two packs a day during pregnancy makes a baby one pound or more lighter. While some women may be happy with delivering a smaller baby, inhibiting the growth of a baby in the womb can have adverse effects that last a life time. Underweight infants tend to have bodies that are underdeveloped. Their lungs are weak and may not be ready to work on their own, which means they have to spend their first weeks attached to a respirator. After they are able to breathe on their own, these infants may have progressive breathing problems due to the delayed development of the lungs. Children whose mothers smoked tobacco while pregnant are vulnerable to asthma and have high risk of sudden infant death syndrome. Also a bay whose mother smoked during their first trimester of pregnancy has a high chance of having a heart defect at birth. One of the defects in the heart is obstruction of blood flow from the right side of the heart into the lungs and openings between the upper chambers of the heart. Children whose mothers smoke during pregnancy are also likely to have behavioral problems, learning disorders and low levels of intelligence quotient.
Drugs
When a woman is pregnant, it is very important to watch what she consumes or puts in her body. Consumption of drugs is harmful for both the unborn baby and the mother. Studies show that consuming illegal drugs during pregnancy can cause miscarriages, premature labor, low birth weight, abruption in the placenta and fetal death (Sigelman & Rider, 2018). Some of the drugs consumed during pregnancy are marijuana, cocaine, heroin, and methamphetamine. When a woman smokes marijuana, it passes through the placenta to the unborn baby. Like cigarette smoke, marijuana has toxins that prevent your baby from receiving enough oxygen that is needed for growth. Marijuana smoking increases the levels of carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide in the blood, which decreases the supply of oxygen to the fetus. Marijuana smoking increases the chance of premature births, miscarriages, low birth weight and learning and behavioral changes.
Cocaine enters the baby’s blood circulation through the placenta. The eradication of cocaine is slower in a fetus compared to an adult. This means that the cocaine consumed remains in the body of the baby much longer. Studies show that children exposed to cocaine during the early months of pregnancy are born with smaller heads and their growth is restricted. Later in pregnancy, cocaine use can cause abruption in the placenta which can cause severe bleeding, fetal death and preterm birth. These babies after they are born they may have withdrawal symptoms such as sleeplessness, tremors, feeding difficulties and muscle spasms.
Using heroin during pregnancy increases cases of premature birth, breathing problems for the child, low birth weight, hypoglycemia, intracranial hemorrhage, and sudden infant death (Sigelman & Rider, 2018). Babies can also be born addicted to heroin and have withdrawal symptoms such as sleeplessness, joint stiffness, irritability, diarrhea, convulsions and fever. Pregnant mothers who use injecting narcotics are susceptible to HIV, which can easily be passed on to the unborn baby. Consuming methamphetamine while pregnant can lead to problems similar to those evident with using cocaine during pregnancy. The use of methamphetamine can result to the baby getting small quantities of oxygen than expected which can cause low birth weights. It can also increase the chances of abruption of the placenta, miscarriages and premature labor. Children can be born addicted to methamphetamine and can have withdrawal symptoms such as feeding difficulties, sleeplessness, tremors, and muscle spasms.
Importance of Maintaining a Healthy Diet during Prenatal Development
Maintaining a healthy balanced diet is essential for maintaining optimal health in one’s lifetime. For women in the childbearing age, it is important to maintain good nutrition as a way of preparing the body for demands during pregnancy. During pregnancy, the energy, vitamins and minerals of a woman increase. It is important that she consumes food which will provide her body with energy and certain micronutrients which are important for maintaining her health and that of the baby. While nutritional supplements provide large amounts of certain micro-nutrients, a healthy and balanced diet should create the base of nutritional intake of a woman. Proper nutrition is essential before conception and in the 12 weeks of pregnancy (Marotz & Allen, 2015). Therefore, it is important for a woman to uphold a healthy diet in the childbearing years and especially if they are planning to be pregnant. Poor maternal health is the main factor that contributes to retarded fetal development, which intensifies the risks that the baby will be sick and eventually die. Studies show that the nutritional status of a woman while pregnant plays a significant role in determining the health of a fetus and tendency to some diseases. For example, research shows that in gestational surrogacy, factors that relate to the recipient mother impact the health of the fetus than those of the donor mother.
Maternal nutrition during pregnancy appears to have an effect on fetal programming which means that the fetus learns some nutritional habits, which will impact if for the rest of its life, even before it is born. A fetus will also adapt its absorption and other systems in the body to manage with varied states of nutrition. For example, a fetus that does not receive sufficient energy or macronutrients will have reduced glucose levels and the insulin production will be minimal. This will automatically reduce the growth rate of the fetus and increase risks of low birth weight. It may also interfere with the metabolism permanently and leave the mother exposed to metabolic conditions such as diabetes. The fetus also familiarizes with under-nutrition by redirecting blood flow and as a result, the supply of nutrients to safeguard the brain and other organs such as muscles, kidneys and endocrine system reduces. It is important for pregnant women to eat nutritious foods and sufficient calories to ensure healthy weight for the unborn baby. Pregnant women should consume approximately 300 or more calories every day during pregnancy which should be from foods such as while grains and calories (Marotz & Allen, 2015).
Conclusion
Alcohol, tobacco and drug use during pregnancy is a serious issue because they not only threaten the health of a woman, but also the development of their children. With the increasing number of women using these addictive substances, the number of children that are prenatally exposed to the impacts of drugs upsurges. Since it is always better to avoid negative consequences, the best way to stop the use of addictive substances is prevention. However, convincing mothers to stop using addictive substances at the beginning of pregnancy does not solve the issue of negative social influences during postnatal development of the child, in spite the fact that the mother would abstain during pregnancy which may have impairing effects on the development of the fetus. Thus the best way to deal with the effects of prenatal addictive substance exposure is the general prevention of addiction. Also, doctors should educate women on the importance of maintaining a healthy diet during pregnancy and the impacts it has on the growth and development of the baby. Eating healthy ensures the baby grows and develops properly, and that the mother experiences lesser complications from pregnancy.
Abstract
Children whose mothers use alcohol, tobacco and drugs while pregnant are known to have variety of behavioral changes and developmental delays. Alcohol, tobacco and drugs may affect the developing fetus in a dosage dependent way. With the high repetitive doses, there is a chance of the developing fetus to have fetal alcohol syndrome established by prenatal and postnatal growth deficiency. The child can also have particular craniofacial dysmorphic features, mental delay, behavioral changes and other abnormalities. With lower repeated doses, there is a risk of effects that are mainly established by mild intellectual impairments, growth disorders and behavioral changes. It is advised that hospitals offer maternal abstinence programs to women before they plan on being pregnant. The long term intellectual results of children born to alcohol, tobacco and drugs dependent mothers is predisposed to a large magnitude by the environment in which these children are raised.
References
Bergeson, H. (2016). Interventions for Children With Fetal Alcohol Syndrome: A Systematic Review .
Bernstein, M., & McMahon, K. (2018). Nutrition across life stages . Burlington, Massachusetts : Jones & Bartlett Learning.
Marotz, L. R., & Allen, K. E. (2015). Developmental Profiles: Pre-Birth Through Adolescence (8th ed.) . Cengage Learning.
Newman, B. (2017). Development Through Life . Cengage Learning.
Sigelman, C. K., & Rider, E. A. (2018). Life-span human development . Boston, MA : Cengage Learning.
