A woman's behaviors during pregnancy can have a significant influence on her baby's healthy development. Women who smoke or drink alcohol during pregnancy, go without prenatal care or suffer from poor nutrition are more likely to experience complications during pregnancy or childbirth, and their babies are at increased risk for developing a number…

This report uses data from the 1983 through 1988 rounds of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY) to provide information about prenatal, infant, and child health. Objectives of the report are to present statistics which should be of value to maternal and child health policymakers, and to provide NLSY users with baseline information about…

Substances in the environment that are potentially harmful to children's health and development, from conception onward, include metals such as lead and mercury, pesticides, indoor air pollution, residues of synthetic chemicals, radiation from the sun, nuclear sources, and air pollution. Children's exposures to these substances, as well as…

This monograph presents the proceedings of the first National Institute on Drug Abuse technical review related to the conduct of controlled studies on prenatal exposure to drugs of abuse. Papers in the monograph are categorized by session. The first session (two papers) focused on the detection and quantification of prenatal drug exposure in…