Time for a check up:
Apgar Scale, heart rate, breaating, muscle tone, body color, reflexes.
Brazelton Neonatal Behavioral Scale (NBAS), Neurological development, reactions, reflexes.
Size and weight matters
Low birth weight is less than 5 and a half pounds.
Preterm, born three plus weeks early. Typical pregnancies are 37 weeks.
What is the postpartum period?
Physical adjustments.
Breasts, can be uncomfortable, milk supply increases 48-72 hours after delivery.
Bleeding, discharge of old uterine lining and blood. Can stop and start over the course of a few weeks.
Sleep and Fatigue
Babies have different schedules than adults, typical newborns wake every three hours and need to be fed, changed, and comforted.
8 hours of uninterrupted sleep is very unlikely.
Postpartum Depression
Emotional fluctuations are common. 70 percent of new moms experience “postpartum blues” two to three days after birth and they are depressed, anxious, and upset.
Postpartum depression is a major depressive episode, occurs about a month after delivery. Often treated with medication and therapy.
Can affect infant care.
Partners
Also have to adjust to an infant.
May also develop depressed feelings.
PPD Study
Postpartum Mental Health Among Visible and Invisible Sexual Minority Women
Research focuses on heterosexual married women.
Sexual minority women may have distinct risk factors for PPD. “Invisible” sexual minority women may have increased risk.
PPD Study
Multi site in Toronto and Boston. Partnered with hospitals, OBGYN’s, and midwives.
Mixed methods, longitudinal study, participants were a hundred women completing online surveys and thirty conducting interviews.
Research Questions
Findings for LGBTQIA+ Families
ISM women are the largest sexual minority group among women who experience pregnancy.
There is a lot of diversity in wome
n’s identities, behaviors, and relationship configurations. ISM may be at a higher risk for certain health problems.
Service Providers
Findings for Service Providers
Check assumptions about clients. Use inclusive, non biased language, ensure confidentiality. Consider how CNM intersects with service delivery.
Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale
10 question rating scale, “select the answer that comes closest to how you have been feeling in the past seven days”.
Cephalocaudal period.
Growth and development that occurs from the head down. Age two months they can lift their head and their chest, three they can lift head, chest, and abdomen.
Proximodistal pattern.
Center of body to extremities.
Infancy
Time of drastic growth in height and weight.
Height
One inch per month in the first year.
Weight
5-6 ounces per week during the first month.
Early Childhood
Preschool age to about five years old.
Diverse growth patterns, hereditary and environmental factors.
Middle and Late Childhood
Age 6-11 years old
Involves slow, constant growth. 2-3 inches per year and 7 pounds per year.
Some sex differences, muscle mass increase in males.
Adolescence
Puberty
Rapid physical maturation involving hormonal and bodily changes.
Timing of puberty starts at age 10-13 and ends between 13-17.
Menarche, a person’s first menstruation.
Hereditary and Environmental Influences
Programmed into genes.
Environmental factors.
Hormones
Chemical substances secreted by the endocrine glands and carried throughout the body by the bloodstream.
Sex Differences in Hormones
Males, androgens, testosterone.
Females, estrogen, estradiol.
Growth Spurt
Starts over two years earlier for girls on average.
Age 9 for girls and age 11 for boys.
Sexual Maturation
Males
Increase in genital size, appearance of pubic hair, minor voice change, first ejaculation, body growth, growth of armpit hair, growth of facial hair.
Females
Early vs Late Maturation