Prenatal

• Fertilization, also known as conception, is the process by which sperm and ovum (sex cells) combine to create a single cell called zygote, which then duplicates itself again and again by cell division.
• Physical Adjustment during the Postpartum Period includes the loss of sleep that the primary caregiver experiences and sudden and dramatic hormone production.
• Bonding, the formation of a connection, especially a physical bond, between parents and the newborn in the period shortly after birth, is a crucial aspect of the Postpartum Period.
• Emotional and Psychological Adjustment during the Postpartum Period can include emotional fluctuations and Postpartum Blues, which occur 2-3 days after birth, or Postpartum Depression, which involves a major depressive episode that typically occurs about four weeks after delivery or at least a two-week period of having trouble coping with daily tasks.
• Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, also known as crib death or sudden death of an infant under age 1, is a condition where the cause of death remains unexplained.
• Estrogen and progesterone levels drop steeply and remain low until the ovaries start producing again during the Postpartum Period.
• Newborns must have close contact with the mother in the first few days of life to develop optimally, a notion that is NOT true.
• Respiratory Distress Syndrome in preterm babies is a condition where there is a lack of surfactant, a lung-coating substance that keeps air sacs from collapsing.
• Postmature Babies are long because they have kept growing in the womb but have had an insufficient blood supply toward the end of gestation.
• The Postpartum Period is the period after childbirth and lasts for about 6 weeks or until the mother’s body has completed the adjustment and returned to nearly prepregnant state.
• Passive Correlations: parents tend to provide an environment that encourages the development of that trait.
• Niche-Picking: tendency to seek out environments compatible with one’s genotype.
• Nonshared Environmental Effects: result from the unique environment in which each child in a family grows up.
• Infertility: inability to conceive a child.
• Maternal Blood Screening: identifies pregnancies that have an elevated risk for birth defects.
• Germinal Stage: from fertilization to about 2 weeks of gestational age, zygote enters into cell division (mitosis) while making its way to the fallopian tube, differentiation, blastocyst, trophoblast, ectoderm, endoderm, mesoderm, amniotic sacs, placenta, umbilical cord.
• Chorionic Villus Sampling: small sample of placenta is removed, small risk of limb deformity.
• Early Signs and Symptoms of Pregnancy: Tender, Swollen breasts or nipples, Fatigue, Slight bleeding or cramping, Food Cravings, Nausea with or without vomiting, Frequent Urination, Frequent, Mild Headaches, Constipation, Mood Swings, Faintness and Dizziness, Raised Basal Body Temperature.
• Reactive or Evocative: children with differing genetic makeups evoke different reactions from others, other people react to the children’s genetic makeup.
• In Vitro Fertilization: eggs and sperm are combined in a laboratory dish.
• Fetal MRI: uses powerful magnet and radio images to generate detailed images of the body’s organs and structures.
• Proximodistal: development proceeds from the center to outer parts of the body.
• Amniocentesis: sample of amniotic fluid is withdrawn and tested for chromosomal and metabolic disorders.
• Ultrasound Sonography: high frequency sound waves are directed into the pregnant woman’s abdomen, no risk to the woman or fetus, detect abnormalities, number of fetuses, and sex.
• Active: actively selects or creates experiences consistent with their genetic tendencies.
• Gestation: period between conception and birth, between 37 and 41 weeks, gestational age dated from the first day of an expectant mother’s last menstrual cycle.
• Cephalocaudal Principle: development proceeds from head to the lower extremities.
• Thalidomide caused stunted limbs, facial deformities, and defective organs.
• Environmental influences can interfere with normal prenatal development through a teratogen, an environmental agent that can cause birth defects.
• Malnutrition results in fetal growth restriction and low birth weight.
• Toxoplasmosis is caused by a parasite in the bodies of cattle, sheep, and pigs, and in the intestinal tracts of cats that causes fetal brain damage, severely impaired eyesight, seizures, miscarriage, etc.
• The fetal period lasts from 8 weeks to birth and is marked by the appearance of the first bone cells and the final stage of gestation.
• Moderate exercise is recommended during pregnancy to reduce back pain, risks for gestational diabetes, etc.
• Omega-E, DHA, Folic Acid are nutrients for the development of the nervous system.
• Another set of drugs that are harmful for pregnant women include Antibiotics, certain Barbiturates, Opiates, Acutane.
• Males are more likely to be spontaneously aborted or to be stillborn.
• Neonate Abstinence Syndrome is a sleep disturbance, tremors, difficulty regulating the body, irritability, crying and etc.
• Rubella is almost certain to cause deafness and heart defects to babies.
• Babies born with drug-addicted mothers tend to experience withdrawal once they are born and no longer receive drugs.
• Opioids are associated with small babies, fetal death, preterm labor, and aspiration of meconium.