Carbon Monoxide Poisoning Effects on the Mother and Her Unborn Child

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CARBON MONOXIDE POISONING EFFECTS ON THE MOTHER AND HER UNBORN CHILD EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This essay has been written to create awareness of carbon monoxide poisoning and it's negative impact on the expectant mother and her unborn child. The essay will show evidence that carbon monoxide (CO) when inhaled by the mother can have serious repercussions to the health of the mother and her unborn child. Evidence has been gathered through experiments on animals, specifically female pigs (sows) due to their internal organs being similar to human organs, where elevated amounts of CO were inhaled by the sows. The resulting effects on sow's and there fetus' have been recorded to better enable the medical fraternity to understand the dangers to pregnant women and their unborn children. Carbon monoxide poisoning in pregnant women has been associated with miscarriages, low birth weight, peri natal death, development issues such as ADHD and neurological problems for the child, over the past 30 to 40 years. Research is ongoing but more education on CO and it's dangers to public health is paramount to preventing needless deaths and ill health in the general population. Schools, Hospital, GP's surgeries, Health Executives and the Government play a vital part in getting the message out that CO is preventable if people know where it comes from, know its symptoms, know who is most vulnerable and know how to ensure they remain safe from it's deadly impact. Unfortunately due to the lack of quantitative research collected here in Ireland regarding this topic, I have had to do most of my primary research online. The majority of my data has been derived from American and UK carbon monoxide websites and from medical online journals. There tends to be a huge amount of qualitative research found online from people with personal experience of carbon monoxide, charitable
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