Week 4 Application Prenatal and Neonatal Terry Spencer Walden University

Lifespan Development Dr. Gordon Vessels January 17, 2013

This weeks application exercise really hit home on many levels, and was very difficult to not to react on an emotional level. You However, when you look at things on a rational level, this type of situation occurs more times than we would like to admit. Although, it is interesting because as far as I have always knew there was only the condition called Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, however as I have learned by the reading in both the textbook and additional reading that I have done, it has become a lot more specific in the diagnose with the broad diagnose being Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD). In terms of the childs environmental influences, there are several issues that need to be addressed in that regard. The environmental issues that are present based on the case scenario is pre-mature birth, and being six weeks early, developmental his lungs are not fully developed, so he is already starting out life rough. Having said, that his lungs are not fully developed he is also probably on a device to help with his breathing, this is common practice depending on the time in history that the child was born. There is also the stress factor on the mother having the child six months early and having to delivery by Cesarean instead of vaginal delivery as she had previously planned. The amount of stress that this can take on the mother can be overwhelmed, especially when you look at all the events that are leading up to the delivery of the child. I am by no means justifying what the mother did to her child; however, this does show that if the concurrent pattern of event continues, it is possible that the mother could have postpartum depression because of her knowing that her heavy drinking during the last trimester of her pregnancy has had a negative impact on the quality of life of her child as well as the developmental issues that will happen with her childs diagnoses. Based solely on the information provided in the case study I would say that they the mothers

job is a very stressful job, and would probably not pay as well as one person would think. The fact that she was planning on taking her full twelve weeks of leave following the birth of her child is pretty much standard practice for most all working mothers. The leave should have not played into any type of adverse environmental influence for the mother. However, the fact that her and her husband live in a rural area, and do not seen to have any type of support network in place would adversely affect environmental influence, because in all honestly parents do need a break away from their children no matter how old they are. This was a type of support that the mother had not thought about needing (May& Gossage, 2009). The father losing this job would also be a big blow as well. I get the impression that the father was the bread winner for the family. So that most definitely added to the stress level of his wife, however her way of dealing with it of consuming alcohol while she was pregnant was definitely was not the correct way to handle the situation. According to Berk (2009) up to twenty-five percent of women drink during their pregnancy at some point. Most all of the research that I have read has consistently stated that women, who are planning on becoming pregnant or are pregnant, should not drink any alcohol at all, because even a very small amount of alcohol can cause harm to the developing fetus. Most all women are well aware of this fact as well, so I wonder if that since they are in a very rural area if maybe the parents are not that well educated; perhaps they only have a high school education. I say this because most women who are educated are not going to drink at all during pregnancy, although they may forget about not drinking when they are trying to actively get pregnant. The case study states that the fathers mother has offered to come and live with them temporarily to help out. I believe in most cases that a women that is in this type of situation would be happy and be more than welcoming to help that is being offered since she is going to

talking about reducing her leave him and going back to work to help out the family financially, which is something that is obviously needed since her husband lost his job. If the mother is not living with them, then a babysitter is going to have to be employed, which would cause the family to need to spend more money for child care. The mothers offer is a way to help them out as well. However, I because of the hesitation I feel that there is more going on between the mother and the mother-in-law than what is stated, so there is possibly some fear of being judged by the mother-in-law. Given the vague facts about Sam and his low APGAR score, I would say that he is a Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS) child. The best case situation would be that Sam as very mild aspects of the problems that make up FAS, so he is able to have as much of a normal childhood and life as he can with his situation. However, given this APGAR score, there might be a chance for that. Although; I am an optimist the worst case situation is that Sam has all of the effects of being an FAS child (May& Gossage, 2009) . In the worst case situation Sam is never going to live independently, he will always need someone to take care of him, help him with daily functional needs. Intelligence will be closer to Mental Retardation. Worse case is that he will basically be someone elses responsible; parents or the states (Thomas,Warren,& Hewitt, 2010). .

References

Berk, L. E. (2009). Development through the Lifespan (5th ed.). Allyn & Bacon. May, P. A., & Gossage, P. J. (2009). Maternal Risk Factors for Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders: Not As Simple As It Might Seem. Alcohol Research & Health, 34(1), 15-26. Thomas, J. D., Warren, K. R., & Hewitt, B. G. (2010). Alcohol Research & Health. Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders, 33(1/), 76-85.