Teratogens: Greek ‘ Tera’ - Monster
Environmental agents, namely, drugs, medication, dietary imbalance, polluting substance have potential to cause pre-natal developmental deviations
Exert their effects largely during sensitive periods of development ( Briggs et al;, 2005)
Exert the most threat in the embryonic stage but capable of causing abnormalities in the fetal stage also.
Every organ however has vulnerable/sensitive period for development, e.g heart- 20-40 days after conception
The Zygote- 0-2 Weeks
The Embryo-2-8 weeks
The Fetus- Beginning 3 month- delivery