Drugs and Fetal Development

Paper Summary:

This paper looks at how the consumption of alcohol, tobacco, and legal or illegal drugs by the mother during pregnancy can cause serious defects in the future physical, emotional, and intellectual development of her child. The paper also examines how the medical theories on Fetal Alcohol Syndrome have changed over the last decades.

From the Paper:

"For the record, those who work closely with FASD children point out that they may have certain positive characteristics in common that other children their age may be less prone towards, such as being tactile, loving, cuddly, clingy, with a lot of determination and persistence and compassion. They tend to be friendly and trusting (if to a fault) and have lots of spontaneous energy. Of course, many of these positive traits are brought out not so much by the syndrome itself as by the way the caretakers respond to the syndrome. Without proper parental (whether biological or adoptive) care, many FASD children become even worse off than they were destined to be by their early developmental setbacks. In fact, it has been theorized that some of the worst problems with many substance-abuse babies comes in equal amounts from the actual substance in their own bloodstream and from the way their parent's substance abuse will affect their future life."

More papers on Drugs and Fetal Development:

• Essay # 11113 : "Cocaine's Affect on Fetal Development"
• Cause and Effect Essay # 31274 : "Effects of Drug Use on Fetal Children"
• Essay # 55951 : "Drug Use During Pregnancy"

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