Childbirth and Infancy

Copyright © 2017, 2014, 2010, Pearson Education Inc. All Rights Reserved.Copyright © 2017, 2014, 2010, Pearson Education Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Childbirth and Infancy
Developmental Psychology
Modified by S. Landas 2018

Copyright © 2017, 2014, 2010, Pearson Education Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Labor: The Process of Birth Begins
Corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH)
• Oxytocin and other hormones triggered
• Uterus contracts
Contractions
• Braxton-Hicks
• Labor initiation

Figure 3-1 The Three Stages of Labor

From Fetus to Neonate
• When is the moment of birth?
• What causes a baby to cry after birth?
• What cultural differences surround the birth
of children worldwide?

APGAR Scores
Low scores
• Existing fetal problems or birth defects
• Difficulties related to process of birth
• Temporary deprivation of oxygen (anoxia)
– Wrapped umbilical cord
– Pinched umbilical cord

Newborn Medical Screening
American College of Medical Genetics
recommendations
• All newborns should be screened for 29 disorders,
ranging from hearing difficulties and sickle cell disease
to extremely rare conditions such as isovaleric
acidemia, a disorder involving metabolism
• Virginia: biotinidase deficiency, phenylketonuria,
hypothyroidism, homocystinuria, galactosemia,
congenital adrenal hyperplasia, medium-chain acyl-CoA
dehydrogenase (MCAD or MCADH) deficiency, and Maple
Syrup Urine Disease

Physical Appearance and Initial
Encounters
• Vernix – “greasy cottage
cheese”
• Lanugo – fine dark fuzz
A neonate is often not
the picture of
adorableness:
• Puffy eyelids – accumulation of fluids during delivery
• Blood and other substances – more fluids; why not?

Once cleaned up, she’ll look like
this:

Birthing Procedures
• Which type of birthing method?
– Lamaze birthing techniques
– Bradley Method
– Hypnobirthing
– Water birthing
• Who delivers:
– Obstetrician?
– Midwife?
– Doula?

Pain and Recovery
Kinds if Anesthesia and Pain Reducing Drugs
• Epidural anesthesia
• Walking epidural or dual spinal-epidural
Effects of drugs during delivery
• Mother
• Neonate
Post Delivery Stay
• Average, recommended stay is 2 days

Racial and Cultural Differences in Infant
Mortality
Although infant mortality has dropped
for members of underrepresented
groups, the death rate is still more than
twice as high for African American
children as for Caucasian children.
These figures show the number of
deaths in the first year of life for every
1,000 live births.
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Health Services, Health
Resources and Services Administration, Maternal and
Child Health Bureau, 2015.

Preterm Infants: Too Soon, Too Small
• Low birth-weight infants
• Small-for-gestational-age infants
• Respiratory distress syndrome (RDS)
• Incubators, NICU

Very-Low-Birthweight Infants
Smallest survivors
• Most vulnerable; immaturity of organ systems
• Weigh less than 1250 grams (around 2 ¼ pounds)
• In womb less than 30 weeks
• Age of viability
Causes?

Delivery Methods
• Vaginal Delivery
• Cesarean Delivery
– Blackboard

Stillbirth and Infant Mortality:
The Tragedy of Premature Death
• Joy that accompanies the birth of a child is
completely reversed when a newborn dies
• 1 out of 100 deliveries in U.S.
• Enormous impact on family; depression and lack of
support common; sometimes PTSD experienced
• U.S. infant mortality generally declining since
1960s

Moving from the Heights of Joy to
the Depths of Despair
Postpartum Depression
• Incidence rate
• Symptoms and causes
• Consequences
Depressed Mothers
• Display little emotion and act detached and withdrawn
Infants
• Display fewer positive emotions and withdraw
from contact not only with their mothers but with
other adults

Physical Competence: Meeting the
Demands of a New Environment
Neonates emerge practiced in many types of physical
activities.
Reflexes
• Sucking reflex
• Swallowing reflex
• Rooting reflex
• Coughing, sneezing, blinking

Sensory Capabilities
• Seeing
– Visual acuity not fully developed but can see to some extent
– Attend to visual field highest in information and brightness
– Possess some sense of size constancy
– Distinguish and show preference for different colors
• Hearing
– Clearly capable of hearing, but auditory acuity not
completely mature
– React to and show familiarity with certain kinds of sounds
• Other senses
– Senses of touch, smell, and taste are not only present at
birth, but are reasonably sophisticated.

Early Learning Capabilities
• Infants are capable of learning very early through
classical conditioning
• Operant conditioning functions from the earliest
days of life
• Habituation

Social Competence: Responding to
Others
• Newborns have the capability to imitate others’
behavior
• Jury is out on exactly when true imitation begins
• This provides them with an important foundation
for social interaction later in life
• Ultimate outcome of the social interactive
capabilities of the newborn infant, and the
responses such behavior brings about from
parents, is to pave the way for future social
interactions

Childbirth and Infancy

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