Teratology, From the Greek Word Term Paper

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(Bendersky, Alessandri, Gilbert & Lewis, 1996)

Many teratogens, however, have much more subtle effects that may not be noticeable at birth. Sometimes months or even years, pass before the damage is recognized. For example, prenatal infection with the parasite Toxoplasma can lead to subtle visual impairment and/or learning disabilities that may not be detected until school age. A pregnant woman may have no noticeable symptoms from toxoplasma infection or just have nonspecific flu-like symptoms. Since the diagnosis of congenital infection with toxoplasmosis can only be confirmed in the newborn period, it is impossible to make a diagnosis in a school-aged child. Therefore, many children who have suffered brain damage from prenatal exposure to damaging agents will remain undiagnosed. (Strom, 1990, p. 71)

Drugs (or teratogens) produce the greatest danger to prenatal development if they are consumed prior to the 45th day after conception, when cell specialization and organ development are accomplished. Drugs that interfere with these processes can have disastrous consequences by altering the normal processes of development and by producing structural defects (congenital malformations) in the child.

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(Holmes, Reich & Pasternak, 1984, p. 41)

Researchers indicate that in the early 60's parents began to realize that a fetus was not even necessarily safe in the womb. This was now an era when thing i.e. Drugs and alcohol have a direct effect on the forming fetus and society was becoming aware. To further heighten this awareness in 1964 there was a rubella epidemic which resulted in approximately 20,000 infants born with defects i.e. deaf, blind, micro-cephalic, or otherwise severely mentally retarded; this was a direct effect of women being infected during the first trimester of pregnancy. Annually, about four percent of all live births in the United States involve babies with significant structural birth defects (more than 150,000 babies). Next to accidents, birth defects are the leading cause of death in children; they account for half of all pediatric hospitalizations. ("Developmental Mechanisms of Human Structural Birth Defects," 2004) Consequently, other teratogens including cigarette smoking by pregnant women resulted in lower infant birth weights and higher prenatal mortality. (Golden, 1999, p......

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