PRENATAL

DEVELOPMENT
Conception to Birth
Chapter 9
By Ms. Amarasekera
Zygote

 Male sperm cell (containing 23 chromosomes) fertilizes the female ovum

(containing 23 chromosomes) to create a fertilized egg.
Germinal Stage
 The first 14 days of conception
 Cell division stage
 Zygote divides and replicates itself until it becomes a 100 cell organism called
a BLASTOCYST.
 After the 9th day of conception, it implants itself in the lining of the uterine
wall and continues dividing until the 14th day.
Embryonic Stage
 Stage two lasting from the 2nd through the 8th week
 It is now called an EMBRYO
 The outer cells turn into support structure: Placenta, Umbilical Cord, Amniotic Sac.
 The inner cells become the embryo and form all the major organs and biological systems:
 - Cardiovascular System
 - Digestive System
 - Skeletal System
 - Excretory System
 - Respiratory System
 - Nervous System

 This stage is the most critical stage of pregnancy when most birth defects
and miscarriages occur. Why???
2nd half of the Embryonic Stage
 The body has taken form
 All vital systems are developed
 The heart is beating
 The liver is producing red blood cells
 Ovaries and Testes have formed (Embryo’s sex is not apparent till week 12-18
 All embryos start off as females. This is why men have nipples! 
 Facial features have taken shape
 Short stubs represent arms and legs
 Fingers and toes are apparent
Fetal Stage
 Stage three lasts from the 9th week until birth (approximately 36 weeks)
 It is now called a FETUS
 By 14 weeks, the fetus can kick, open its mouth and turn its head.
 By the 6th month (24 weeks), the fetus has reached VIABILITY
 During the last 3 months, the fetus is responsive to SOUND, LIGHT and TOUCH
 Animated Birth: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysyGGa5It9Q
 Vaginal Birth: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYu-0rOnLpA
 Labour Pain: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlU2lmzzpxQ
Down Syndrome
 Genetic Disorder resulting from an extra 21st chromosome
 Characterized by distinct facial features
 Most likely to suffer from heart defects and mental retardation
 An Amniocentesis Test can identify the presence of Down Syndrome
 Higher risks are based on the age of the mother.
 After age 35 the risk of having a child with DS is 1 in every 400
Teratogens!!!
An environmental substance that has the potential to harm the embryo
 - Drugs
 - Alcohol
 - Cigarettes
 - Caffeine
 - Cleaning Fluids
 - Exposure to Diseases
 - Toxins in the air
 - Poor quality foods filled with preservatives/sugar

*TERATOGENS effect the development of your baby during which most sensitive stage?
(See diagram 9.1 on page 382)
F.A.S.
Fetal Alcohol Syndrome

*Alcohol in the bloodstream prior to, during or after conception can

cause Fetal Alcohol Syndrome: Low birth weight, facial and head
deformities, brain abnormalities, and genetic addictions.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aV6Av4WdCOc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1dqG8tzuQA
 Brain Development
 A Neonate is a newborn during the first 28 days of life averaging 20 inches in length 7
pounds in weight.
 A baby’s growth triples in weight and size in just one year of development
 An infant’s brain has billions of neurons but the connections between each other
limited
 By age three, 1000 trillion connections have formed
 During this time the brain prunes and discards unnecessary connections
 The connections used repeatedly become permanent.
 The ones used infrequently will not survive (light bulb analogy)
 A baby’s brain is dense with neurons which means it can change easily and quickly
 As children age, the brain is less able to change and adapt because neural
connections have already been formed or discarded
 Reading Analogy: The earlier you read to a baby, the more neural connections are
formed, thus developing the brain at a faster rate
REFLEXES
*An automatic response (nature theory)
*Helps infants learn about their environment
*Biological/Physiological Perspective

Types of reflexes:
 Sucking
 Rooting
 Grasping
 Crying
 Smiling
 Crawling/Stepping/Walking
 Gross Motor Skills
Large Muscle Movements

 Crawling
 Walking
 Running
 Climbing
 Jumping

• An unstimulated baby can hinder his or her ability to use gross motor muscles later on…
• Studies have shown that teenagers who hate to be physically active may not have been
stimulated at an early enough age to develop the strength in their gross motor muscles.
Fine Motor Skills

Small Muscle Movements

 Picking up small objects
 Using utensils
 Writing
 Spooling
 Playing an instrument
 Different parts of the world stimulate gross and fine motor
development in a variety of ways. Can you think of some
examples???
Countries around the world stimulate their children’s fine
motor skills at an earlier age than North Americans do.
Perceptual Development

 Vision
 Hearing
 Smell
 Taste
 Touch
 Vision
 Babies are born nearsighted
 Objects must be close for babies to see them but objects will look
blurry
 ‘Neural connections’ must mature for babies to attain visual
convergence (ability to focus)
 Newborns prefer looking at complex, high-contrast stimuli
 Important for babies to be comfortable with different types of
faces/features/skin tones
 Infants are attracted to bright coloured characters such as Barney,
Elmo & Teletubbies
 Pay close attention to how toys for babies are designed (colour,
contrast, patterns, shapes, etc)
 ‘Depth Perception’ develops after 6 months which is their ability to
understand depth (a form of spatial awareness) Which brain part is
developing?
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6cqNhHrMJA
Hearing

 Unborn babies can react to sound around the 20th week

 A mother’s voice is recognized after birth
 They can locate directions of sound
 The start to learn the difference in sounds
 Babies grow a preference for sound.
 Babies prefer soft and rhythmic sounds which is why they like lullabies so much
 Babies also prefer listening to voices with rising tones and exaggerated, high-
pitched sounds (Elmo, Telletubbies)
 They do not like loud noises that startle them i.e. Vacuum, Blender)
 Taste – Smell - Touch
 An infant’s taste buds are functional at birth and prefer sweet tastes.
This is advantageous for mother as her breast milk is sweet.
 The worse thing to do when it comes to feeding is to introduce the
infant to other sweet tasting food. During the first year of life, bland is
best!
 It is very important to introduce different scents to babies to stimulate
their smell senses.
 A breastfed baby can identify the odor of their own mother by the scent
of their breast milk.
 Babies are extremely responsive to touch
 Touching and caressing stimulates their growth and brain development.
 Babies who are caressed/massaged routinely gain weight and develop
their brains faster than babies who are neglected.
 Deprivation in orphanages (extreme example of unstimulated brains):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1kbayAdlgg
 Let’s get ready for
JEAN PIAGET’s
Theory of
COGNITIVE Development

 Please read pages 389 to 393 before next class!

 Notes are highly recommended and necessary