Being a nurse and a mother I had a pretty good idea about the birthing process. So before I began to read this chapter I was pretty confident that it would be a lot of review for me. Boy was I wrong. The making of a new life is an amazing process. From the moment the sperm fertilizes the egg and through the many stages and changes that take place. As I watched the podcast “Life’s Greatest Miracle” and actually could see these stages takeing place, I was in aw. From the mechanisms of heredity, which discussed how family traits are passed from one family member to another through DNA and genes. And the difference between dominant and recessive genes, now I know exactly why I have brown eyes like my father and not hazel as my mother. The most interesting part of this chapter, for me was the section on prenatal development, which discussed risk factors specifically teratogens. Having 2 children of my own I could not see how any mother would pollute their unborn child with drugs and alcohol knowing the risk factors. And in today’s society and culture most kids from the age of 13ish has been given some knowledge of this. I do however feel that knowledge and community involvement is the key to decreasing the number of birth defects due to these teratogens.
Chapter 3,
In this chapter I focused mainly on the subject of temperment. Which was facinating. Learning that one’s temperment can be heriditary explained so much to me about my own tempermant and those of my children. It made me think about the differences between them. My daughter who was born when I was 19 and single is very strong willed, and independant as i was during her childhood. My son, born 9 years later is also independant but not as strong willed. I feel this is due to the fact that I was older and more experienced in life and raising a child. With my daughter I wanted to everything my way and didn’t take much advise from others, luckly by the time my son was born I had learned that i didn’t know everything and I could learn from others. My half sister and I where brought up in two very different enviroments, she in a rule based enviroment, me in a learn from your mistakes enviroment, but still found that after not having any communication for 20 plus years we still had many common traits. I agree with the the way the texts explains that heredity gives you the building block or blue prints for your trait, but your enviroment can alter them.
I was also very surprised to find out that caffeine and aspirin had effects on a fetus. Heck, I drank coffee every day and took aspirin. I find it very disturbing when I see mothers smoking and drinking when they are pregnant. I was told that the placenta will come out black in color instead of red. But to feed your unborn child nicotine with out concent is beyond words. My ex sister in law smoked through her whole term and ended up with a 6 pound baby. Both my children where almost 9 pounds each. Makes a big difference. I still am having problems with temperment being passed on from birth. I feel it is all in the way a child is raised and the way that child is spoken to in their young years. Haven't figured out how a gene can be passed on to predict the way we handle our temperment. You would think children watch what their parents do and say. If they see their parent acting in a bad way then it must be okay for them to react the same way. Not sure, still learning but yes, this is all very interesting
ReplyDeleteMary, thoughtful post!
ReplyDeleteYou wrote "I do however feel that knowledge and community involvement is the key to decreasing the number of birth defects due to these teratogens."
Absolutely, it is a key to supporting healthy pregnancies, moms, and children. A biggie that I feel gets too little press is stress and its impact on the developing fetus. Chronic stress literally bathes the fetus in toxic chemicals--chemicals that can impact neurological development among other things.
Leah
I really like how you made the connection about how your daughter is so strong willed and how you believe that is because when you had her, you were very strong willed. It again goes to show how certain events in your life effect things differently.
ReplyDeleteI also really enjoyed learning about the process of making a baby. It is so amazing watching those videos as they take you through the whole process from when the sperm meets the egg to a full blown 7 ld child. It is crazy!
I agree with what your saying about seeing the process from conception to birth it is amazing and so much is going on that we don't even think about! And temperament was very interesting to me also, it really showed me the differences in my children and my way of parenting each of them according to their specific needs.
ReplyDeleteMary, I have to agree on before reading these chapters, I felt that I knew all about what was being explained considering I just gave birth on April 10th. But I was so wrong too! There are so many things that have to be considered. And now that I finally see my latest creation, it amazes me more. How could this beautiful girl come from this process? And prenatal care is so important. So many things can affect the fetus and it is heartbreaking seeing so many having issues from mothers allowing these teratogens in their body knowing the damage they can do. Great post on these chapters!
ReplyDelete