The Effects Of Drugs On The Fetus Essay
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The Effects of Harmful Drugs on the Fetus When a women is pregnant, she sustains the life of the baby growing inside ofher. The mother and unborn child are linked together through a complex and vitalorgan called the placenta. This organ is exclusively responsible for nourishing thegrowing child. The most important, and thus most vulnerable, stage of developmentoccurs in the part of pregnancy when the child is a fetus, during the third trimester. During this time, blood traveling in the fetal circulatory system come repeatedly intovery close contact with that in the maternal circulatory system. This contact allowsoxygen, vitamins, and other essential nutrients to pass from the mother to the fetus. Atthe same time, carbon dioxide and other waste products (such as those normallyexcreted in the urine in children and adults) pass from the fetus into the mother s bloodstream. In essence, what the mother eats and drinks, her baby eats and drinks. If themother takes any harmful substance into her body, the baby takes into its body(assuming that it can pass through the placenta). Many detrimental drugs- because oftheir small molecular size, chemical structure, or similarity to natural biologicalmolecules- cross the placenta and affect the fetal brain and organs as well as themother. Drugs taken by the mother can be particularly harmful to the fetus since dosesconsidered normal or mild for the female are relatively much stronger and more toxicto the smaller and infinitely more vulnerable fetus. In addition, the blood-brain barrier(a membrane separating the brain from the blood stream and organs such as the liver,which help to fight off drug activity in humans) are not fully functional before birth. There is a wide range of effects of drugs on the unborn child, and doctors agree thateach case is different. However, some drugs have common effects on the fetus, ofwhich everyone should be aware. Fetal Alcohol Syndrome Alcohol consumption during pregnancy has been conclusively proven to causeextensive harm to babies in utero. Fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) is a commonconsequence of drinking while pregnant. FAS is a condition in which the child suffersfrom characteristic facial deformities and anywhere from mild to severe mentalretardation. In fact, maternal alcohol use during pregnancy is the third leading cause ofmental retardation in the United States. 5,000 babies born each year suffer from FAS,while 50,000 infants show milder aspects of the disease such as learning disabilities,malformed joints, and misshapen facial structure. Recent research suggests a possiblemechanism by which alcohol hurts the fetus. Scientists say that alcohol inhibits or evenstops the transformation of vitamin A in a baby s system to retinoic acid (a vitalmolecule involved in construction of the embryonic brain). This does not eliminate thepossibility that alcohol harms the fetus in other ways as well. The extent of damagedone to the child is in relation to the amount of alcohol the mother drank whilepregnant. One study shows child bearing women who have more than the equivalentof three glasses of whine each day are two to three times more likely to have amiscarriage or stillbirth than a women who has only one drink a day. However,evidence suggests that even a small amount of alcohol can be detrimental to fetalhealth. Newborns who were exposed to alcohol while in the womb have been found todisplay sleep disturbances and a weak sucking reflex. These babies suffer at mostminor disabilities later on in life, they are perfectly capable and have normal lives,although inconclusive recent experiments show a trend among these adults developingthe disease alcoholism. Cigarette Smoking Cigarettes pose a dangerous threat to a fetus. This is further enhanced by thefact that smoking is not generally associated with diseases that could be passed onto ababy. Many female smokers who become pregnant continue to smoke throughout thepregnancy, without even realizing that they could be harming their child. Cigarettesmoke contains a multitude of chemicals, most, if not all, of which have the potential tofind their way to the unborn child. The most damaging of these toxins is the addictivedrug nicotine. It has been proved that nicotine passes through the placenta frommother to child. Once in the child s system, nicotine has the same effects on the fetusthat it would on anyone else. The results, however are worse because the fetus issmaller and more vulnerable. Nicotine may raise the child s blood pressure, and thusslows and weakens the baby s heart. Some surveys show spontaneous abortions to betwice as likely in smokers as nonsmokers. Congenital malformations also appear witha greater frequency in the newborns of smokers as compared to nonsmokers. Inaddition to birth defects, the unborn of smokers are at a higher risk of havingneurological disorders (brain damage), psychological abnormalities, and loweredintelligence. They also run a significantly high risk factor for hyperkinesis. Furthermore, recent studies connect fetal exposure to chemicals in cigarette smoke tobleeding and premature ruptures of membranes, and even SIDS (sudden infant deathsyndrome). Children exposed to nicotine as fetuses seem to progress at an impairedrate in the areas of math, reading, and general intelligence. This handicap, fortunately,is only apparent during the first several years of life, and generally disappears bypuberty. It is also known that tar, a toxic agent in cigarette smoke which contributes tocancer in smokers, passes from mother to baby through the placenta. As of yet, it isnot known if tar is detrimental to fetal health (but it certainty is not healthy). Anotherpoison found in cigarette smoke, carbon monoxide, is yet another substance which hasbeen found to harm unborn children. The carbon monoxide restricts or even cuts offthe flow of oxygen through the placenta, effectively strangling the baby and slowinggrowth. This is believed to be the reason that children of smokers have a loweraverage birth weight than that of children of nonsmokers. Marijuana Research suggests that marijuana has effects on a fetus similar to that ofcigarette smoke. Marijuana probably slows down the oxygen transfer between motherand child in the placenta. The lack of oxygen prevents proper growth in the fetus, andcan result in reduced birth weight, though this is not as severe as in crack or speed
babies. Studies show Delta-9-THC, the psychoactive drug in marijuana, does indeedcross the placenta and enter the fetus. However, the marijuana metabolite,11-nor-carboxy-delta-9-THC does not, and the fetus does not break down delta-9-THCinto 11-nor as the mother s body does, so unborn children are not exposed...
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