Reference no: EM133987595

Question

Environmental influences affect numerous things in an individual's life. You may be thinking, well, what exactly is an environmental influence? Environmental influences are factors that affect the way a person or thing may turn out that has absolutely nothing to do with their DNA. It could be factors all around you that you may encounter in your day-to-day life. Environmental components can be an immense part of the way a person behaves, the way they may think, the opinions they may hold, etc. The physical, social, and psychological surroundings in which individuals live and interact with one another are all impacted by environmental variables.

When it comes down to prenatal development, environmental factors play a huge role. Although every stage in pregnancy is vital, the prenatal development stage is key to how a child will thrive. The reason a woman should actively seek to remain healthy during the prenatal stage is so that she does not run into the risk of future pregnancy complications. Some examples of pregnancy complications are miscarriages, stillbirth, birth defects, etc. According to our textbook, A Child's World: Infancy Through Adolescence, components such as lack of vitamin D, drug intake, alcohol, caffeine, etc. can affect the prenatal development stage heavily. (Feldman, Martorell, Papalia, 2013) Some teratogens, or environmental factors that can also affect prenatal development can be poor nutrition, stress, nicotine, air pollution, chemicals, radiation, and extreme heat. As it states in our textbook's PowerPoint notes slide, "everything that affects the mother's well-being may alter her unborn child's environment and influence it's growth and health." (Feldman, Martorell, Papalia, 2013) This is why it is significant that a mother is aware of her environmental surroundings all throughout her pregnancy.

Some ways we can do a better job of educating families on these influences can be by encouraging expecting parents and relatives of those expecting parents to take courses on childcare. There is no better time to start learning about how to take care of your child and what measures you can take to avoid complications than when they are still developing in the womb! The earlier in the pregnancy, the better of course. It is also CRUCIAL that doctors take the time to instruct parents on these factors at their appointments. If their providers are not informing them of the risk of prenatal development environmental influences, then who will? With reasoning, the public health system has much control over these issues. They can supply information to these individuals on how to manage their environmental variables and teach them what can cause trouble in pregnancy if not cautious. I know if this were to take place, it would be highly effective because many people would listen to their providers' advice and follow their guidance/tips.