Stress and Child Development

The stressor that I chose for this week is violence. My mother grew up in a home with domestic violence. This was a huge stressor for her and her sister. Every night they lived in fear of the horrific fighting between their parents and many times, they left the house in the middle of the night running to a neighbors house. They did not cope with this stress very well. No one was there to help them and no one spoke of it. They had to wait until they were old enough to move out of the house before any relief came to them. The effects of the violence has stayed with them and it is something that to this day, hurts when they talk about it.
My mother has written a book about it. It is called "Do it for the children" and it discusses her life growing up in a home with domestic violence and how it effects children. I think that this book is both my mothers way of helping to educate others but it is also her way of healing.

I chose to look up stressors that children in Afghanistan face. I found it hard to find information but this just motivated me more to find something. I learned that many (about half) of afghani children  do not have an education. Many of them are forced to work in the streets. Savethechildren.org states that 1 in 4 children die before their 5th birthday from things that could have been prevented and from malnutrition. Afghani children suffer from one of the highest levels of maluntrition.
Save the children is working to help children in Afghanistan. They are trying to cut down on malnutrition, healthy and safety and many other needed areas.
Here is the website in case anyone is interested: http://www.savethechildren.org/site/c.8rKLIXMGIpI4E/b.6150517/k.8737/Afghanistan.htm

Child Development and Public Health

The public health topic that I chose for this week is Immunization.

I think that this topic is an important one. I am a mother and a wife and I see immunizations as a way to protect my children from getting sick and it also prevents me from getting sick and passing anything on to them.

I looked at UNICEFs website and found an artcile from October last year.
"Malawi introduces the rotavris vaccine to reduce diarrhoea illness & deaths among children"
(by the way, I have never seen such a spelling for diarrhoea)
Anyway, the artcile stated that diarrhoea and pnemonia are the 2 leading killers of children in Malawi accounting for nearly 25% of under- five deaths (2012).

I find this information exciting in the way that Malawi now has the vaccinations but also sad because they have not had it for a long time and those illnesses caused so many deaths.

I think that this information has impacted my future in that I will not take any vaccinations for granted and I think I will read more about UNICEF to see if there is any way that I can help.

Here is the website I found the article in case anyone else would like to read it: http://www.who.int/immunization/GIN_November_2012.pdf

Childbirth in my life and around the World

I have birthed 2 children, but the one that I will discuss is the birth of my son. While I was working as an infant teacher at a daycare, I found out that I was pregnant! My husband and I were so excited. I planned on staying at work until he was born and then go on maternity leave. Well because of the strenuous nature of carrying heavy infants (18mo+)  I started dialating very early(well this is why we think ), around 30 weeks. The doctors were very concerned. When they checked me, I was about 1cm. So they wanted to keep a close eye on me. I had a dr apt every week and I was still dialating. So, they opted to give me a shot of steroids that would help develop my sons lungs in case he were to come early. I had a few overnight stays in the hospital and was told to take it easy at home. So one night, around 33 weeks gestation, I woke up to a lot of blood and cramping. I called the dr and they told me to come in right away. Needless to say, my son was born that night. After 14 hours of labor and 6 weeks early we welcomed a new baby into the world.
He was immediately rushed to the NICU, I only got to see his face when the doctor carried him to me  and then he was taken away. He had to stay in the NICU for 2 weeks and he was able to come home. After visits with the dr went ok but they always seemed to mention that since he was a preemie, he wasnt really at full gestation. I was a little confused about that, he was born but they counted as if he was not really at term until his due date.

I chose this story because premature labor happens frequently and there is some concern about development and premature babies.

Birthing in India:

I found an organization called Birth India that strives to help women in India to have natural childbirths. The website stated that about 50% of women are being led into C-Sections and in some private hospitals, it is as much as 80% of women! They state that many women in India are given C-sections and other un-needed medical interventions that are harmful to the women and babies.
The world Health organization states that the C-section rate should be between 5-15%

This is very disconcerting to me. I know that in the US, C-sections are a routine surgery but many women are not coerced into having one. I find this interesting and I hope to learn more about it.
http://birthindia.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=section&layout=blog&id=6&Itemid=27