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Teratogens 1: Professor Diane Smith

This document discusses teratogens, which are agents that can harm an unborn child during pregnancy. It notes that smoking, drinking, radiation, and chemicals are common teratogens. The author shares her personal experience with smoking during two pregnancies, which resulted in low birth weight babies and one that needed to stay in the NICU. The document emphasizes that teratogens can negatively impact fetal development and that avoiding them is important for a healthy pregnancy and baby.

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105 views

Teratogens 1: Professor Diane Smith

This document discusses teratogens, which are agents that can harm an unborn child during pregnancy. It notes that smoking, drinking, radiation, and chemicals are common teratogens. The author shares her personal experience with smoking during two pregnancies, which resulted in low birth weight babies and one that needed to stay in the NICU. The document emphasizes that teratogens can negatively impact fetal development and that avoiding them is important for a healthy pregnancy and baby.

Uploaded by

api-303293059
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Teratogens

Teratogens

Brittany Clayton

Ivy Tech Community College of Indiana

Professor Diane Smith

ECED 120

January 18, 2020

There are many things that a mother can do and be exposed to during pregnancy. Some of

these things are more harmful than others and many of these things can affect the unborn child as
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well. Many new mothers don’t know what these things are, or how they will affect the baby. If

mothers were more informed, they may be more apt to avoid these things and help their baby

grow as healthy as possible.

These factors that can harm the unborn child are called teratogens. “A teratogen is any

agent that causes an abnormality following fetal exposure during pregnancy.” (Alliance and

Health, 2020) Teratogens include but are not limited to: smoking, drinking, radiation and

different chemicals. In earlier years, people didn’t think that these caused problems with

pregnancy, but the more that is learned about them, the safer pregnancies are for women.

Some women may think that if they are only a few weeks pregnant, that it will be okay

for them to have one night of drinking or to continue smoking for a few more months but this

isn’t the case. Once the sperm enters the egg, the baby is conceived and it isn’t long after that the

baby and mother will share everything. “After conception, it takes about 6 to 9 days for the egg

to implant in the uterus. Once the fertilized egg is attached to the uterus, the mother and the

embryo share a blood supply. Chemicals in the mother's blood can then affect the growing

baby.” (Stanfordchildrens.org, 2020) With the mother and baby sharing a blood supply, the

mother feeds the baby and gives it everything that it will need until birth.

The teratogen that I believe is one of the most important to talk about is smoking. When I

got pregnant with my oldest child, my daughter, I was smoking and young. I was warned by

doctors that smoking could lead to premature birth and low birth weight, but like everyone else I

didn’t think it would happen to me. At 32 weeks gestational age I went to the doctor for a check

up and found out that I had preeclampsia and that I would have to head to the hospital and have

my baby early. She was born that night through an emergency c section and weighed only 4

pounds 12 ounces. I was lucky and got to take her home when I left, but she was very small.
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I got pregnant with my second child a few years later and convinced myself that it wasn’t

smoking that had caused my daughter’s low birth weight but the preeclampsia so i continued

smoking throughout this pregnancy as well. At 28 weeks gestational, my doctor informed me

that I had lost almost all of my amniotic fluid and that they would have to do another emergency

c-section. My second child was born weighing only 2 pounds 2 ounces. He didn’t leave the

hospital with me, instead he had to stay in the NICU for two months after I went home.

These pregnancies put a toll on me and I realized then that even though the other

complications were part of the problem, my smoking only made things worse. Once I got

pregnant for my third and final time I quit smoking immediately. My youngest son was born at

36 weeks gestational and weighed 7 pounds 15 ounces. It was then that I realized that I had

finally made the right decision and was becoming the mother that my children deserved.

While low birth weight and premature birth are examples of what a mother and child may

experience from smoking there are many other things that can happen. According to Very Well

Family the reason for this is that the baby isn’t getting the oxygen that it needs to grow properly.

“Smoking is another major teratogen. If you smoke during pregnancy, chemicals (nicotine,

carbon monoxide, tar, etc.) pass into your developing baby’s bloodstream, where they can

deprive the fetus of oxygen it needs for proper development. There are many very serious

harmful outcomes of smoking during pregnancy: miscarriage, stillbirth, birth defects, ectopic

pregnancy, vaginal bleeding, preterm labor and premature birth, placental abruption, placenta

previa, low birthweight and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.” (Verywell Family, 2020)

So while you may not realize the importance of avoiding certain things during pregnancy,

there are good reasons to do so. Having a healthy baby and taking care of yourself while

pregnant are important to give your baby the best chance possible at having a good life. If a
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person is planning on getting pregnant or has found out that they are, they should research and

talk to their doctor and find out what things to avoid and why.

Bibliography
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Alliance, G. and Health, D. (2020). Teratogens/Prenatal Substance Abuse. [online]

Ncbi.nlm.nih.gov. Available at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK132140/ [Accessed 17

Jan. 2020].

Stanfordchildrens.org. (2020). default - Stanford Children's Health. [online] Available at:

https://www.stanfordchildrens.org/en/topic/default?id=teratogens-overview-90-P09519

[Accessed 17 Jan. 2020].

Verywell Family. (2020). What's a Teratogen and How Does It Affect My Pregnancy?.

[online] Available at: https://www.verywellfamily.com/that-are-teratogens-2371658 [Accessed

18 Jan. 2020].

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