Abstract
This research involves a critique of empirical peer-reviewed analysis and reviews of the impact and implications of inadequate prenatal care. The study examines two professional journals that provide information about late prenatal care and risk management in prenatal care.
The findings indicate that prenatal care that is given late in a pregnancy often comes with inherent issues including emotional stress, self-esteem problems and substance abuse risks. These situations include the presentation of intensive prenatal care to deal with cases involving late care. There is the need for gaps and issues to be dealt with in order to get the mind, body and soul of a fetus to be relaxed and appropriate.
Prenatal care is viewed in a risk management context where medical risks, psychological risks and dual risks. These issues seem to have long-term implications for the fetus. This include sicknesses and diseases which come out of medical risks. There are various complications like psychological imbalances and mental health issues where psychological risks are unchecked. Other matters like dual risks lead to fatal consequences and permanent life-long mental and physical disabilities amongst fetuses that did not receive adequate prenatal care.
Introduction
Prenatal care is an important and fundamental part of care and nurturing to promote the physical and mental health of an unborn child. There is evidence that the level of prenatal care or the lack therefore, has a direct and empirical impact on the health and the psychology of a child by age 5. This is a crucial part of a child’s life and lays the blueprint for the rest of the life of the child. Thus, prenatal care is important and vital.
The purpose of this research is to conduct a critical analysis of empirical research into the implications of prenatal healthcare on the medical and the psychosocial development of children. This will be done by examining two peer-reviewed journals taken from EBSCO which give an insight into the core variables that determine the health implications of development of fetuses and how it impacts on the quality of life of these children throughout their development.
Late Prenatal Care and its Implications
In the case of young people who get pregnant, it is apparent that there are circumstances and risks that forces young mothers to stay away from prenatal care. Many do not even notice that they are pregnant until it is in the advanced stages. Others notice it, but lack the means to deal with it. Such situations provide an opportunity for the study of these pregnancies and their challenges in order to evaluate the medical and the psychosocial problems related to inadequate prenatal care in these situations.
Unplanned pregnancies lead to the delay in providing prenatal care and this leads to complications in the formation of the baby and other things . This is because there are some essential care elements and aspects that include nutrition and emotional and psychological stability that makes the pregnancies worthwhile and supports the basic features of the fetal developmental processes. When delayed, these lead to problems and issues that affect the baby in the future.
In such situations, Feldman argues that the late prenatal care must be viewed in the context of an intervention meant to protect the fetus. This is because such an avenue gives impetus for the provision of care which is specialized and corrective in outlook in order to ensure that the fetus is given good care and attention. Where this fails, there are problems with the development of the fetus and this causes the formation of the fetus to be limited significantly and by extension, causes major health and psychological problems.
Studies show that in 2010, 30% - 50% of unplanned pregnancies did not receive timely prenatal care. This is due to the obvious lack of attention and care to the pregnancies. Many of these pregnancies came with demands for abortions and other uncertainties which happen to be the case with teenage and adolescent pregnancies as well as pregnancies involving unmarried couples. Hence, there are many forms of challenges and decisions which involve the mother and has direct implications on the fetus.
The stress and the complications that mothers go through, coupled with the denial of prenatal care or inadequate prenatal care causes the mind of a pregnant woman to be unsettled. This means that issues like self-esteem also causes the mother to think too much. Such worry and an unsettled attitude causes the mother to go through complications and this creates emotional challenges that lead to a situation where the brain of the fetus and its formation becomes difficult for it to function well.
There are some government benefits and other subsidies that are offered in prenatal care which are standard elements that are seen to be essential to the care of fetuses. This include some medical packages, nutritional support and others that help to deal with the issues and problems the development of fetuses. These are denied and they reduce the level of prenatal care that can be provided.
Other matters and pointers like income and age come together to create complicated and difficult situations that causes acute demands and requirements for prenatal care. These procedures of prenatal care can help to ease the stress and cause the mother to be more adjusted and more prone to complications and difficulties.
Prenatal care causes a connection between the fetus and the mother and this allows for psychological stability. There are some prenatal elements and features that helps the patient to relax and build the right processes which relaxes the fetus and enables the fetus to develop and grow. This procedure will also add up other things like proper levels of therapy and the positioning of the fetus in order to ensure the best results are taken in the development of the baby.
Medical and Psychological Impacts of Inadequate Prenatal Care
“Pregnancies complicated by medical and psychosocial risk factors are at significantly increased risk of adverse maternal and neonatal outcomes and represent a major social and economic burden” . This is because pregnancy involves the formation of the totality of the physical aspects of a child. As such, the emotional and the bodily functions of a child is formed during the early stages of the pregnancy which makes prenatal care important as a foundation to the development of a child.
Thus, in their study, Krans et al (2013) found ways of classifying psychological factors which relate to social elements which had direct connections to the mind and emotions of a child. This was complemented by medical factors like chronic hypertension and others which could impact on the birth and functionality of a child. Therefore, different pointers were raised and applied to the critique of potential mothers and their pregnancy period.
They classified four main types of pregnancies in order to test them to find the actual impact of prenatal care on these pregnancies. The categories include:
Medical risks
Psychological risks
Dual Psychological and Medical risks and
Little or no major pregnancy risks.
With this done, they moved to identify the implications of these issues to the development and growth of babies once they were born. The study included some 786 women in the United States, dominated by Caucasian mothers. This came up with several statistics that are of significant implications in relation to some elements and features that show some trends in inadequate prenatal care.
There was an identification of 56% of medical risks and complications that lead to sicknesses and diseases. These are complications and difficulties that come up with various complications that affect the long-term implications and elements of prenatal care which is not of a high quality.
Situations relating to dual medical and psychological risks accounted for 48% of issues and this causes difficulties like still birth and infant mortality. This involve the fact that children face a risk of dying or going through some major mental challenges that recur through the lives of people.
There was a 62% high psychological risk that caused major psychological and social imbalances. These created psychiatric and other permanent damage in the minds of children who do not get adequate psychological care packaged in the prenatal care. There are various imbalances which causes permanent and long-term problems with behavior and other actions that causes major problems and issues which causes tendencies for antisocial behavior and other psychological matters.
Those that do not go through major challenges and risks often turn out to have below 10% complications and difficulties in the 5 years of their lives. The conclusion of the research of Krans et al (2013) is that proper prenatal care must be risk-based. This is the best way a complication can be proactively sought and care can be given to rectify any form of difficulty and challenges that can affect fetal development. In the absence of prenatal care, there is a high possibility that a fetus could develop difficulties and challenges and this is what causes major complication in the first five years of a child’s life.
Conclusion
The research identifies that psychosocial and medical challenges are acute in situations where prenatal care is delayed. This is because in such pregnancies, there are often other complications involved like substance abuse, emotional stress, self-esteem problems and the lack of government benefits. This means that the absence of prenatal care leads to complications and difficulties that causes problems for the fetus and this could lead to various health problems for the baby in the early years of life. Other issues with prenatal care relate to specific medical risks and psychological risks that exist within the context of a given pregnant woman. Each pregnant woman has her own history of medical and psychological matters. This ought to be studied, understood and given a risk-oriented proactive prenatal care. Inadequate prenatal care implies that the care is less than ideal and there is no ability to deal with problems and issues. This means that there are high risks of over 50% for almost medical risks and psychological risks. Where a mother is exposed to both medical and psychological risks, there is a possibility of stillbirth, permanent mental and social imbalances that could affect the life of a given fetus. This must be checked through a risk-based system for care in prenatal care situations.
References
Feldman, J. (2012). Best practice for adolescent prenatal care: Application of an attachment theory perspective to enhance prenatal care and diminish birth risks. Child Adolescent Social Work Journal 29 (1), 151-166.
Krans, E., Davis, M., & Palladino, C. (2013). Disparate Patterns of Prenatal Care Utilization Stratified by Medical and Psychological Risks. Maternal Child Health Journal 17, 639-645.
Noonan, K., Corman, H., Schwartz-Soicher, O., & Reichman, N. (2013). Effects of Prenatal Care on Child Health at Age 5. Maternal Child Health Journal 17(1), 189-199.
