Word: fetuses
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...exact mechanisms by which antenatal depression may affect a child's future behavior are hazy, but researchers think they could have to do with the environment inside the womb and its long-lasting impact on the growing fetus - a process known as "fetal programming." Maternal influences such as alcohol or drug use, poor nutrition and stress are known to affect the level of hormones in the mother's body. It is thought that biochemical changes in the uterus have an impact on the baby's development, affecting its birth weight and even its future risk of disease, among other things...
...American women tend to prefer a watch-and-wait approach to illness during pregnancy, says Dr. Shari Lusskin, director of reproductive psychiatry at the New York University (NYU) Langone Medical Center. Women's "hands-off method" - which may stem from an unwillingness to undergo treatment that could harm the fetus - combined with a general societal stigma that is still associated with depression, makes for a "'Don't ask, don't tell' sort of environment when it comes to depression during pregnancy," says Lusskin...
...Food and Drug Administration, all are pregnancy-related: drugs for inducing labor, for instance, or epidural anesthesia. That means that each year, thousands of pregnant women with common illnesses - from depression to flu or cancer - must decide whether the benefit of medications outweighs the unknown risks to their fetus...
Around the time he started collecting the data, Bygren had become fascinated with research showing that conditions in the womb could affect your health not only when you were a fetus but well into adulthood. In 1986, for example, the Lancet published the first of two groundbreaking papers showing that if a pregnant woman ate poorly, her child would be at significantly higher than average risk for cardiovascular disease as an adult. Bygren wondered whether that effect could start even before pregnancy: Could parents' experiences early in their lives somehow change the traits they passed to their offspring...
...constantly throwing up because of the pregnancy. If she eats something the fetus doesn't like, she is screwed. It's amazing: a three-ounce fetus, is calling the shots! It's so badass...