Week Three Blog Post By Miles O'Brien


Week Three Blog Post By Miles O'Brien

In chapter three: Pregnancy and Prenatal Development we started discovering about the beginning journey of life. I dove deep into understanding pregnancy and the prenatal process. This chapter followed the process from conception, all the way to birth and it covered every detail. I particularly found the different prenatal periods to be very interesting. I also enjoyed how the chapter brought in biological processes to help the reader further understand. On page 66, the embryotic period described how it was a time of rapid development and great sensitivity. I related this to the” Through the Ages” handout by understanding statistics on different defects the fetus can develop such as FAS or cerebral palsy. Chapter 4 discussed the birthing process and different sequences that can be followed. This also lead to understand different complications that can develop during the birthing process. Page 87 talked about anoxia, which can occur when the baby doesn’t have enough oxygen. Often times the umbilical cord can become rapped around the newborns neck causing some sort of asphyxiation. After we covered challenged from child birth, characteristics of newborns quickly followed. This is where many sensory and reflex skills begin development. They still do not have complete control over motor skills as they are still trying to control them. Chapter 6 pushed me further along to understand the stage of infancy. When talking about infants, one cant help but to take into consideration the hard truth of mortality rate. This is something that needs to be considered on a worldwide basis. Figure 5.1 shows the Infant Mortality Rate of 35 countries from 1960 to 2004. In 1960, the United States ranked 12 in the world for the infant mortality rates. In 2004, the United States was ranked 26th in the world. This tells us that other countries average for mortality rate are higher than ours. Figure 5.3 moves forward to show the different parts of the brain that develop specific cognitive functions for life. Psychosocial development is important to consider when analyzing the development of a child. Studies conducted by Bowlby analyzed how infants react when separated by their parents and how it could potentially affect their future development. They concluded that attachment was a very important part of development. Throughout the reading of these chapters I was able to link the early stages of lifespan together and how the human develops in these fragile stages of life.

Comments

  1. Todd FitzpatrickSeptember 12, 2018 at 7:29 AM

    You ended this blog on a great point. Raising children, you do no realize how truly fragile these stages are to the psychological and emotional well-being. As a parent, I never really thought about how my actions toward them, such as how much time I spent with them, was effecting them, because in my mind I figured, "well, they're never going to remember this anyway." To me, I figured around the ages of 3-5 were the time when attachment and bonding were of greatest concern. However, you highlight a great point, through you analysis on Bowlby's studies, that attachment, and all-around proper psychological and emotional care of an infant, is just as important, if not more important at this young age as it is when the human mind truly begins to physically and emotionally grow.

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  2. UnknownSeptember 12, 2018 at 6:48 PM

    Miles,
    First off , I'd like to agree with you on the infant mortality rate being so high for such an extended period of time raising many questions. Considering all the huge advancements we have made in science and medicine, it is astonishing how we have not addressed this issue. Furthermore, I like how you mentioned the importance of Psychosocial development in children. This is something I am very interested by and feel plays a large role in an infants development

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