Prenatal Care

I think that there is a very strong connection between social economic status and prenatal care. With that being said, for families/ women of low social economic status prenatal care can be too costly. Furthermore, many of the foods and vitamins that are best for pregnant women to use to nourish their bodies are expensive and out of the question. General, the cheapest foods are the least nutritious. For many families, these low cost, high calorie foods are the only option, or may seem like the only option.

Furthermore, low socio-economic status significantly lessens the options a family has regarding childcare. For example, for a family that is upper middle class, childcare is not a very big issue, there are many options to choose from, including daycare, nannies, or even a parent staying home full time to be with their child. All of these options include generally healthy environments filled with stimulation for a growing baby’s/child’s brain.

According to an article by Clancy Blair and Keith Scott entitled, “Proportion of LD Placements Associated with Low Socioeconomic Status” many factors influence a child’s risk of developing a learning disability. These factors include the amount of his mother’s education, whether or not his mother was married at the time of his birth, the trimester in which prenatal care was initiated, and his weight at the time of his birth (Blair & Scott). In their research, linking birth and school record data in Florida, they found that learning disabilities were most likely to occur if birth records showed a maternal education of less than 12 years, the mother was not married at time of child’s birth, prenatal care did not start until after the first trimester of pregnancy, or the child was born with a low birth weight (Blair & Scott). Blair and Scott found that if any of these conditions existed, children were between 1.2 and 3.4 times more likely to be born with a learning disability placement by their early teenage years (Blair & Scott).

After reading this article, I think the key to preventing learning disabilities starts with great prenatal care. Prenatal care in the first trimester and throughout a pregnancy is key, this will also prevent a low birth weight.

Blair, C., & Scott, K. (n.d.). Proportion of LD Placements Associated with Low Socioeconomic Status . The Journal of Special Education . Retrieved January 26, 2012, from http://sed.sagepub.com/content/36/1/14.short