LifeSpan Psychology- Week Three

Pregnancy, Prenatal Development, Birth, Newborn Child and Infancy

In this weeks reading from our LifeSmart text,  Chapter 3 focused on the pregnancy and prenatal development. In the beginning, it discussed the biological basis of development and how scientifically we come to be.  From here, we are shown the different complications and disorders that can arise during this time. Personally, as someone that will be looking to start a family in the next few years, I found this section to be quite unnerving.  So many things can go wrong!  After this, it is back to high school health class and we are shown the fertilization process.  Not much new information there.  Following this, the chapter goes on to describe that there are 3 stages of prenatal development: germinal, embryonic, and fetal. The germinal period is the time when the fertilized egg passes through the fallopian tube.  The embryonic period is the time of rapid development and great sensitivity.  The fetal period is when the fetus prepares itself for life outside of the womb.  The rest of the chapter focuses primarily on how different things can harm the fetus and shows how great the need is to take certain precautions (especially/mainly by the mother) when a fetus is developing.  Again, as a woman who is thinking of starting a family in the near future, this section set off my worry wart and made me incredibly uneasy as to all the things that could go wrong.  However, this chapter also showed me just what a miracle it is to become pregnant and how amazing it is that a human being can develop our of just one tiny little zygote. 

Next, we ready Chapter 4.  This chapter focuses mainly on the birthing process and the first characteristics exemplified by neonates.  This section (combined with the last few minutes of the Nova movie we watched this week) terrified me!  My sister is due to have her baby in a few weeks and I cannot fathom what she is going to go through-willingly!-for a second time. Thank goodness for modern advancement of birthing techniques!  Mothers and babies now have much better pre- and post-natal care than ever.  When I was born I was just over six weeks early.  If it wasn't for the technology available nearly 30 years ago I would not be here, and quite possibly my mother may not have been as well. 

Our final chapter of the week, Chapter 5, dealt with infancy and the different was that an infant develops during this stage. Having many nieces and nephews, as well as from working with infants it is truly amazing to watch the different physical, perceptual and cognitive developments that take place- and so quickly!- during their infancy.  The chapter goes through the different accomplishments that infants achieve during this time, as well as how they acquire information about the world around them. The section of this chapter that I found of particular interest though, was on the social and emotional development during this time.  On page 119 it states: "during infancy, emotions generate adaptive functions that help to define the meaning of a child's experiences." In other words, our emotions and emotional development help us to process and behave during certain situations.  When we are infants we are not only setting up our physical and cognitive future selves, we are also starting to develop our emotions and our future emotional responses.
Following this the chapter discussed attachment.  At my job, many children are still in the securely attached stage and exhibit a lot of distress at being separated from their parents and/or caregivers. 
Finally, the section on temperament really hit the nail on the head when it stated "Infants instantly tune in to their environment.  They give clues to their personalities so that mother's and father's responses to their child's signals must be appropriate for that child; that is, greater parental sensitivity produces more responsive infants." (pg. 124) I completely agree!  Each infant and each person for that matter is different, and must be treated as such.  My cousin Erika has fraternal twins, Caden and Brock.  While they are the same age and look very similar, they are very different.  Caden is more cuddly and prone to smiling, whereas Brock is more reserved.  At first Erika's husband found it frustrating that Brock did not like to be held and cuddled, he grew to understand that while they may be nearly the same boys, they each have differences and are each unique and wonderful.  Not holding one child to anothers standards is something that even as adults dealing with one another we need to properly learn.