The source I will be summarizing comes from an article in Pediatrics, the Official Journal Of The American Academy of Pediatrics. The article, “Smoking During Pregnancy and Newborn Neurobehavior,” reported a study of the effects of maternal smoking during pregnancy and its relation to newborn neurobehavior. The study included a sample of 27 nicotine exposed, and 29 unexposed full-term infants with no medical problems, all coming from comparable social class backgrounds. Mothers were not allowed to use of any other illegal drugs, during pregnancy.
Cigarette use was self-reported, and mothers were encouraged to admit smoking patterns. In order to increase accuracy, nicotine exposure was determined by cotinine in maternal saliva in order to confirm what was actually reported. The NICU Network Neurobehavioral Scale (NNNS) was used to measure neurobehavioral function and was administered by masked examiners. All infants born to mothers in this study were tested before hospital discharge, therefore eliminating any factors related to second hand smoke inhalation, and its possible effects on neurobehavior.
The results reported significant differences between the two groups of infants. Those infants born to mothers who smoked reported to be more excitable and hypertonic, required more handling and showed more stress/absence signs in three main areas; the central nervous system, gastrointestinal, and visual areas. A higher amount of maternal salivary cotinine was related to greater signs of stress, including excitability, and visual stress in infants. Basically, the more cigarettes smoked, the greater amount of stress associated with the newborn. As a result of prenatal tobacco exposure on newborn neurobehavior, the study suggests the relationship could be an indication of neonatal withdrawal from nicotine.
CITATION:
Law, Karen L., et al. "Smoking During Pregnancy and Newborn Neurobehavior."
Pediatrics 111.6 (2003): 1318-1323. 24 January 2007 http://www.pediatrics.org/cgi/content/full/111/6/1318.
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7 comments:
Dani, I found this topic to be very interesting and the article you chose was a very good one. I only really glanced at the article because it was so long but it’s easy to see that it is very scientifically sound and comes from a good source. Your summery is very well written and perfectly explains your stance on the subject. This seems like a topic that will be very manageable, but it seems a little one sided in that no one is really saying that smoking is good for infants. Also there is a lot of research in this area already so if you could try to find a unique spin on the topic I think it would help you considerable. I hope this could be of some help to you while we are still in the beginning stages of our papers. You have done a great job so far and I’m looking forward to reading more in the future.
Possibly, in the future, think about putting links to some of your more scientific diction. Such as, Neurobehavioral, cotinine, the organizations you used, just to give the blog reader a better understanding about your information. Maybe throw in a description or definition about it...just for the blog though, I know you can post links on your hard copy of your paper.
The two study group evaluations were kind of one sided too. To write a good "persuasive" paper there should be an apposing argument as well. Not a bad blog though, keep up the good work.
~CodyLee
Excellent summary, and you have included the citation--good.
Omit empty phrases like "he source I will be summarizing."
Dani,
I really enjoyed reading your blog. I saw that you really were interested and fully into the subject at hand. I think you will be able to fulfill the requirements in this class with the subject and you won't get bored. You could tell your side when you read this blog and thats the only down fall i could see. In class i wasn't sure she really wanted just one side when writing theses papers. You might just want to try to look at both.
lula
Very informative summary, also a great topic. I doubt you'll have any problem finding information for your stance on the issue. Although it will be difficult to get any info on the side that says, "yes women should smoke when pregnant." Yet I don't think that will be much of a problem considering we were never formally told this had to be an "argumentative" research paper.
This topic is very interesting. It's amazing to see how many people actually smoke when they're pregnant. They should really be aware of the dangers and stop being so selfish. They are putting their child at risk for many things. I am glad that you decided this topic. Maybe you will help a few more people realize this horrible mistake. The only thing I wonder is if this topic would be long enough to write an eight page paper on. Maybe you could consider all the smoking risks in general.
Interesting study, good use of facts such as the effects that were seen upon the infants born to the smoking mother. If this was to be persuasive I would of made it a little more one sided and hint alot more at the causes and effects. More facts would have made it more detailed. All in all, a good read!
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