CFS100 Walsh Ch.6

Family & The Early Years

• Nearly all individuals are raised in some family context, & characteristics of that family context often have implications for development

Families of Orientation

• the families we are born into or raised by

Families of Procreation

• the families we create ourselves

The Early Years: New Parents

• Renegotiate roles & responsibilities

• Older siblings

• Stress can be amplified for single parents, working parents, & other parents

• Marital satisfaction may decline (Khajehei, 2016)

• Most parents don't regret having children, & many voluntarily do it again

Physical Health & Development

• Healthy physical growth & development begins before birth, & arguably even before conception

  • Age

  • Health of the mother

  • Genes

  • Chromosomes

  • Nutrition

  • Prenatal exposure to substances that can harm fetal development

  • Prenatal care: over 99.99% of infants surviving their first year of life (Centers of Disease Control & Prevention (CDC), 2016b)

Careers that might emerge from this:

• Ultrasound tech

• Midwife/doula

• Nutritionist

• OB/Gynecologist

• IVF Doctor

• Labor/Delivery Nurse

• Geneticist

  • Advanced Maternal Age

Physical Health of Infants: Height & Weight

• Low birth-weight

• Preterm

• Small-for-gestational age (SGA)

Low Birth-weight

• Newborns weighing less than 5.5 pounds (2,500 grams)

  • Less than 10% of newborns are low birthweight (CDC, 2016b)

Preterm

• 3 weeks early

Small-for-gestational age (SGA)

• Weigh less than they should, given their gestational age

  • can be caused by maternal smoking, drug use, malnutrition during pregnancy, carrying multiples (twins, triplets)

Physical Health: By first birthday…

• nearly tripled their birth weight, & have grown almost a foot (CDC, 2016a)

Physical Health: By age 6…

• the average child weighs between 40 & 50 pounds, & is at least 3.5 feet tall (CDC, 2016b)