F. Developmental Challenges and Milestones

• Wisdom


  Exceptional breadth and depth of knowledge about the conditions of life and human affects and reflective judgement about the application of knowledge
• Wisdom


  • May involve the lead to transcendence, detachment from preoccupation with the self
  • The ability to navigate the messiness of life
  • Older adults tend to make the most of their abilities, often exploiting gains in one area to offset declines in another
• Women of normal weight are less likely to have birth complications
• Overweight women have risk of having longer deliveries, need more health care services, gestational diabetes, cesarean delivery, birth defects etc.
• Malnutrition results to fetal growth restriction and low birth weight
• Thalidomide caused stunted limbs, facial deformities, and defective organs
• Another set of drugs that are harmful for pregnant women


  • Antibiotics
  • Certain Barbiturates
  • Opiates
  • Acutane
• Opioids are associated with small babies, fetal death, preterm labor, and aspiration of meconium
• Babies born with drug-addicted mothers tend to experience withdrawal once they are born and no longer receive drugs
• Neonate Abstinence Syndrome


  Sleep disturbance, tremors, difficulty regulating the body, irritability, crying and etc.
• Fetal Alcohol Syndrome


  Characterized by a combination of retarded growth, face and body malformations, and disorders of the central nervous system
• Maternal smoking was identified to be the most important factor for low-birth weight babies
• Tobacco also increases the risks of miscarriage, growth retardation, stillbirth, SIDS, etc.
• Caffeine has slightly increased risk for miscarriage, stillbirth, and low birth weight babies
• Rubella almost certain to cause deafness and heart defects to babies
• Toxoplasmosis


  Caused by 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.
• Diabetic mothers are most likely to have babies that have heart and neural tube defects
• Stress and anxiety has been associated with more irritable and active temperament in newborns
• Chronic stress can result in preterm delivery
• Depression may cause premature birth or developmental delays
• Chance of miscarriage or stillbirth rises with maternal age
• Adolescent Mothers tend to have premature or underweight babies
• Fetal exposure to low level of environmental toxins may result to asthma, allergies, lupus
• 1. Rays could triple the risk of having full-term, low-birth weight babies
• Exposure to lead, marijuana, tobacco, radiation, pesticides, etc may result in abnormal or poor quality sperm
• Babies who fathers had diagnostic x-rays within the year prior to conception or had a high lead exposure at work tends to have low birth weight and slowed fetal growth
• Older fathers may be significant source of birth defects due to damaged or deteriorated sperm such as dwarfism, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, ASD
• Breech Position


  Baby's buttocks are the first part to emerge from the vagina which can cause respiratory problems
• Complications of breech delivery


  Bleeding, infection, damage to pelvic organs, post-operative pains, riskier future pregnancies
• APGAR Scale


  • Widely used to assess the health of newborns at 1-5 mins after birth
  • 7-10, condition is good
  • 5, developmental difficulties
  • 3 or below, emergency and the baby might not survive
  • 9-10 score, risk of developing ADHD in childhood
• Anoxia


  Lack of oxygen
• Hypoxia


  Reduced oxygen supply
• Anoxia or Hypoxia may occur during delivery as a result of repeated compression of the placenta and umbilical cord that could leave permanent brain damage, mental retardation, behavior problems or even death
• Meconium


  Stringy, greenish-black waste matter formed in the fetal intestinal tract
• Neonatal Jaundice


  Skin and eyeballs look yellow caused by immaturity of the liver
• Low Birth Weight Infants

  Weigh less than 5 pounds and 8 ounces at birth
• Very Low birth Weight

  Less than 3 pounds 4 ounces
• Extremely Low Birth


  Less than 2 pounds
• Pre-term Infants


  Born three weeks or more before pregnancy reach full term (before the completion of 37 weeks of gestation)
• Small for Date Infants (Small for Gestational Age Infants)


  Those whose birth weight is below normal when the length of pregnancy is considered