What I am tired of is people telling parents of problem kids, parents who pop them put and then plop them in front of a TV as soon as they're old enough to sit in a walker, that their child's problems are due to smoking whoile pregnant, or drinking while pregnant..not the total LACK of parenting the child is getting, but one event that happened before buirth.
What I've pointed out is that there is no ONE scientifically provable physical factor that can be unequivocally pointed to which is the cause of a child's possible developmental problems. Other factors, like the living environment and current diet must be taken into account, because the brain is an amzing construct and the more input it gets, the better it develops. This is a fact, and positive results can be seen even in autistic and trisomal kids (higher end).
I also gave an example of one pregnancy - my daughter's, and I forgot to mention she tried to quit smokeing when she discovered she was pregnant and had been on one cigarette a day fpr 4 months when preeclampsia set in and the nurse blamed it on her smoking. Any problems Cael might have will be due, not to smoking or anything else his mother did while pregnant : it will be due to the results of oxygen deprivation due to lack of blood flow through the umbilicus as a result of the preeclampsia.
No one factor.
We can do everything right and still have everything go wrong. Period.
There is no sense letting a need to do everything right become a neurosis - increasingly common in the past 15 years - and thus causing actual health problems for the mother, which then can really harm her baby.
Thank you for summing up, so well, what I was apparently having a difficult time putting into words.
I would have commented earlier, except my computer took a bit of a header on me and we had a meeting to attend. Since both my husband and I were attending we brought our 6 year old with us. The 6 yo kept herself occupied with an activity magazine and her "journal" during the 45 minute meeting. Nobody noticed her being there and then most folks engaged her in conversation during 'social" time afterwards. So much for damage done by smoking and drinking on the part of her parents.