Additional aid from social service agencies to facilitate a better diet and breast-feeding would be optimal in such instances. Yet for all women, simply having individuals around them who stress that the lifestyle changes are important can have a critical social facilitation effect. Prenatal care also can play a role in creating such an informed support network for the woman.

Above all, the woman must be motivated to change and aware of what changes are needed. Education, age, and other factors may act as enablers for the woman to appreciate the gravity of her situation, and to appreciate the long-term affects her health decisions can have upon her fetus and subsequent postnatal development. However, although "traditionally it has been felt that women who are better educated tended to make healthier lifestyle changes" according to one survey, physicians were the most influential in their decision-making processes regarding their pregnancy, and all...
[ View Full Essay]