Week 4 — Readings & Resources

Your primary reading is Chapter 4 (in this module). Everything below is the optional, go-deeper layer — pick what helps, skip the rest.

How to use this page

This page has 11 items (5 readings and 6 videos). Allow 55–66 minutes for everything. Each group points back to the matching chapter section and class-session segment, so use the full menu when you want more, or take the quick path below.

Every video here has captions: turn them on with the CC button in the player. The chapter covers the same ideas in text.

Pick-one quick path (18–20 min total)

• A newborn's first hours of life — Office on Women's Health
• Reproductive System, Part 4 - Pregnancy & Development: Crash Course Anatomy & Physiology #43 — CrashCourse
• Waiting Room: Let's Talk About What Everyone Should Know About Alcohol Guidelines and Pregnancy — Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

① Before birth: the periods and the genes

Chapter 4, Section “Follow the three prenatal periods” · Session 1, Segment 1, “The three prenatal periods” · Remember: the embryonic period builds the major organs, and the fetal period grows and refines them.

• Reproductive System, Part 4 - Pregnancy & Development: Crash Course Anatomy & Physiology #43 — CrashCourse — an anatomy episode that follows one fertilized cell through implantation and the embryonic stage, when the placenta takes shape, to the point around the end of week eight when the developing baby is called a fetus. Listen for which structures form before that point. The episode also covers the pregnant body's changes and the hormones that start labor, which go beyond what this course asks of you. Use it while completing the Week-4 module overview. (video, 11 min) (captions: creator)
• Phenotype — National Human Genome Research Institute — a short glossary entry with a narrated explanation: a phenotype is an observable trait such as height or eye color, shaped by both the genotype and the environment. Compare its wording with the chapter's definition. (reading, 2–4 min)
• Genetic Traits: Nature? Nurture? Not That Simple: Crash Course Biology #32 — CrashCourse — an episode arguing that traits come from genes and the environment together, using height as a trait shaped by many genes and by the environment. It gives a figure for how much of the difference in height genetics can explain; the chapter keys no such figure, so treat it as the episode's own example. (video, 13 min) (captions: creator)

② Why timing matters

Chapter 4, Section “Explain why timing matters: teratogens and sensitive periods” · Session 1, Segment 3, “Teratogens and sensitive periods” · Remember: a teratogen's effect depends on timing, dose, and the individual.

• About Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASDs) — Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — the CDC's page on the conditions that alcohol exposure before birth can cause. It says there is no known safe amount of alcohol and no safe time to drink during pregnancy, matching the CDC statement quoted in this week's reading. (reading, 4–6 min)
• The Impact of Drinking Alcohol at Difference Times During Pregnancy — SACCounty Healthy Beginnings — a two-minute clip from a county family-health program in which a physician explains that alcohol's effects on growth, facial features, and the brain depend on when in pregnancy the exposure happens. It is a clear case of timing mattering; it is never a statement that some time is safe. (video, 2 min) (captions: automatic)
• Waiting Room: Let's Talk About What Everyone Should Know About Alcohol Guidelines and Pregnancy — Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) — a short animated clip from the CDC; start at about 1:00, where it turns to pregnancy and states that there is no known safe amount, no safe time, and no safe type of alcohol use during pregnancy, the same statement this week's reading quotes. Its opening on adult drinking limits and its estimate of how many schoolchildren may have an alcohol-related condition are the video's own figures, not ones the chapter uses. (video, 3 min) (captions: creator)

③ Birth and the newborn's first score

Chapter 4, Section “Total and read the Apgar score” · Session 2, Segment 5, “The Apgar score” · Remember: the Apgar score describes the newborn's condition at 1 and 5 minutes, not a forecast.

• What are the stages of labor? — National Institute of Child Health and Human Development — the federal child-health institute's plain account of labor's three stages, from the opening of the cervix to the delivery of the placenta. Notice that it gives typical lengths and measurements; the chapter describes the stages in words and treats no length as a rule. (reading, 3–5 min)
• The 3 Stages of Labor — NICHDVideos — a short narrated animation of the three stages, ending with the delivery of the placenta. (video, 3 min) (captions: creator)
• A newborn's first hours of life — Office on Women's Health — a federal health page on a newborn's first hours. Read its "Apgar evaluation" part, under medical care for your newborn: the five signs checked at one and five minutes, and its point that healthy babies often score lower in the first minute. This builds on Week 3's work with keeping what was observed apart from what it might mean: the scores go in one column and their reading in the other. Stop here before newborn reflexes and early growth; next week takes those up. (reading, 4–6 min)

④ Born early or born small

Chapter 4, Section “Tell low birth weight apart from preterm birth” · Session 2, Segment 6, “Low birth weight and preterm birth” · Remember: preterm is about timing, and low birth weight is about weight.

• When Baby Comes Early Introduction — March of Dimes — families and newborn specialists describe a neonatal intensive care unit, and the clip states that a birth before 37 completed weeks of pregnancy is preterm. Listen for the challenges it names, such as staying warm, breathing, and feeding; its other figures are not ones the chapter uses. (video, 5 min) (captions: automatic)

Optional one-stop reference (free online reference)

• Preterm birth — World Health Organization — the World Health Organization's fact sheet on preterm birth, with the definition this week uses near the top; the material on causes and the organization's programs goes beyond this week, so skim it only if you want more. (reading, 5–8 min)

Heads-up (links rot): these point to outside sites that occasionally move or rename pages. If a link ever fails, tell your instructor and use the reference above in the meantime.

Provenance: Built with The Course Maker · samples.thecoursemaker.com