Foetal development Flashcards
First 4 weeks of pregnancy?
if you conceived naturally, the fertilised egg (also called a blastocyst) has made its way along your fallopian tube and attached itself to the lining of your womb
if you had assisted conception, the fertilised egg will already have been planted in your womb
The cells on the outside of the embryo start to link with your blood supply, so your baby can get everything they need to grow. This link develops into the placenta, which is attached to your baby by a cord.
First 5-8 weeks of pregnancy?
baby’s spine starts to grow
very emotional as pregnancy hormones start to kick in
very tired
some foods can start to taste different, and what you like or dislike may change
you need to go to the toilet more often - your womb’s now twice the size it was and is pushing on your bladder
your breasts feel heavy and tender as they start developing the tissue that will make and store your breast milk
What usually happens to mother around 19-20 weeks?
More tired and hungrier (should have healthy sacks around)
What is it normal for women to experience around 21-22weeks?
Get indigestion and the odd leak of urine.
At 22-23 weeks what is normal to develop?
Constipation
At 31-32 weeks what might you feel?
indigestion or feel a bit out of breath. This is caused by the pressure on your stomach and lungs as your baby gets bigger
What is DOHaD?
Study of the environment exposed to a foetus and the risk it has in life later for chronic disease. The diet of and supplements taken of the mother can change the foetus environment which can result in certain phenotypes being expressed to adapt to this, these phenotypes can even be passed down to the next children. This can permanently change physiology, metabolism and structure, which in turn predisposes the foetus to metabolic, cardiovascular or endocrine disease later on in adulthood (Barker, 1998).
Study done on DOHaD?
Dutch famine, people had different body composition depending on level of exposure in utero to malnutrition. If mother was malnourished in third trimester low incidence of obesity, opposite if malnourished in first trimester.
What is thought to play a role in DOHaD?
Epigenetics
What’s the Barker hypothesis?
The ‘foetal origins’ hypothesis proposes that alterations in foetal nutrition & endocrine status result in adaptations that change physiology, metabolism and structure, which predisposes the foetus to metabolic, cardiovascular or endocrine disease later on in adulthood, first introduced by professor barker (barker hypothesis) when a negative relationship between birth weight and death from heart disease was found
What factors are now recognised to be associated with DOHaD?
Poor maternal nutrition/ malnutrition and ill health
Poor living conditions
Mother smoking during pregnancy can cause infant to be born with a low birthweight
Artificial feeding practices were related to increased infant mortality.
Prenatal famine exposure has been shown to have lasting consequences in later life and can affect the structure and function of many organs and tissues, resulted in altered behaviour and increased risks of chronic degenerative diseases and increased mortality.
Paternal and post-natal exposures
List the limiting (confounding) factors of research into this area?
Most the research uses correlational studies without testing if there is cause and effect.
The research will typically only focus on the mother, it is more difficult to look at the ways others are involved in the pregnancy, because when forming an initial hypothesis for research should be based off previous research which focused on mother.
It is also easier to get mothers to participate in research because they are more likely to attend antenatal clinics than fathers and this is an easy place to conduct research.
