~Anyone's Dreams Can Come True~Anyone~

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Consequences of Stress on Children’s Development ~sub-Saharan Africa

As a child, I experienced poverty, racism, natural disaster, and isolation. I also experienced a near drowning incident. I was about nine-months old and my mother mentioned that it was a tornado on Lake Michigan were my family and I had been camping for the weekend. All of a sudden the clouds got black and my mother said I was just sitting in the sand playing when a huge wave came and took me out to the sea. Luckily, my mother had been a champion swimmer in high school. She jumped in and saved me. She said that I was still breathing and smiling. On the other side of the beach my older brother and sister were at a picnic table and found shelter in a public rest room where they got shelter for several hours. Later that evening all was well and my family returned home.

Also, between 18-24 months, I crawled around the sofa in our front room and ingested rat poison.  The two levels of prevention were applied. My mother had ipecac on hand and she called the emergency physician on duty. And last, at around age 3-4 years, I had a head injury. It was known that I had a fall from a bed and had to have 17-stitches in my left temporal forehead. My parent's took me to the hospital. In the end, I found this happen due to parental neglect and supervision. 

We experienced hunger and poverty because we often got snowed in and my father couldn’t work. Sometimes my father stayed at work and we had no way of getting out due to snow storms. Mainly, we had a deep freezer where we kept food, but sometimes our lights were out and we couldn’t get to the stores to buy food. This is where the isolation comes in; we were sometimes isolated in our house for six weeks to six months at a time due to severe snow storms. The snow would cover our house. 

~sub-Saharan Africa~

The region in the world, I choose is the region of sub-Saharan Africa, the stressor is hunger.

According to The Hunger Project, the four social conditions that give rise to the persistence of hunger and poverty in Africa are the marginalization of women food farmers, poor leadership, too little investment in building people’s capacity in rural areas, and AIDS and the gender inequality that fuels the epidemic.

Dr.  Ernest C Madu* during the 20^th convention on the Rights of the Child wrote:  About half of the world’s 2.2 billion children live in poverty, and 300 million go to bed hungry each night. On average, 24,000 children under the age of five die every day, most from preventable causes, with undernutrition contributing to about one-third of these deaths.

The Child Development Index, developed by Save the Children UK in 2008, combines performance measures specific to children in the areas of education, health and nutrition. By this assessment, sub-Saharan Africa lags behind other regions of the world, reflecting the highest levels of deprivation in essential primary health care and education services. In 2008, the region’s under-five mortality rate stood at 144 per 1,000 live births, more than double the global average of 65 per 1,000 live births. In the same year, roughly 50 per cent of the 8.8 million deaths among children under the age of five occurred in sub-Saharan Africa alone (Madu, 2012).

References:

Madu, Ernest C., PhD. http://www.unicef.org. Retrieved from the web on January 28, 2012.

The Hunger Project, 5 Union Square West, 7th Fl, New York, NY 10003. http://www.thp.org/africa

Retrieved from the web on January 28, 2012.

*Dr. Ernest C. Madu, an internationally respected authority on sustainable health systems in low-resource environments, underscores the problems in health faced by children in developing countries. In order to improve their situation and increase their educational opportunities, he recommends shifting the focus to empowering parents economically.

***My Three Grandsons in Georgia***

~Language Learning~

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I Can Only Image...

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Breastfeeding~Public Health

I chose the public health topic of  breastfeeding. Believe it or not, I breastfed my first born son for nearly four years. He seldom ever gets a cold. He was exempt from taking any immunizations (he has a rare immune metabolism gene); he has never been to the dentist and eats healthiest for his age group. In the beginning, I nursed him completely for 12 months straight, no food, and just some water during the summer season. I was a single mother and this was my first child. I was assisted by my local La Leche League and Dr. Paul Fleiss a holistic pedestrian who is a strong advocate for breastfeeding.  When my son turned six months, my mother said that he needed food.  I consulted La Leche League and asked them “should I give him oatmeal from an infant cereal box”. They told me that it was more nutrients if I just gave my infant the box to eat than the cereal inside. From then on, I continued to breastfed and only gave my son table food beginning at 12-months that I made from my blender.

I got married and had my son with Autism and nursed him for nine months because his sucking reflex was weak. Again, La Leche League supported me in that decision. Dr. Fleiss believes that if you have to stop nursing an infant with special needs (mainly you won’t have to) it is best to stop at nine months because an infant is nine months in the womb and nine months out of the womb that he beings autonomy.

Next, my daughter was born and her sucking grasp was rough on me. But, I withstood it and nursed her for two years. Then, came my last son and he was nursed for over two years. None of my infants sleep with me except when to nurse. I maintained my weight up until my daughter was born of 125 pounds and a breast size of 30A. Doing the stress of raising my three small children alone is when, I finally increased my weight.

The country, I chose is West and Central Africa. Presently, it remains the region of the world with the highest mortality rates worldwide. Laws are being put into place for the mother to breastfed one hour after birth at least and continue breastfeeding for another six months. Through policy action and program implementation mothers are empowered to be protected, promoted and supported in their traditional breastfeeding methods. Breastfeed in African nations has the potential to become the single most important child survival intervention. In 1981, the year I began breastfeeding, the World Health Organization adopted the International Code for breast feeding mothers worldwide.  This Code establishes certain medical protocols for lactating mothers and their infants.

My desire has been to consult when needed for La Leche League for breastfeeding mothers nationwide giving them knowledge of longevity and breastfeeding special needs infants.

Reference:

http://www.unicef.org/wcaro/WCARO_Pub_Breastfeeding.pdf

PODCAST Dr. Gopnik

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Childbirth~My Daughter and Israel~

I remember the birth of my only daughter as if it were yesterday. There was an age difference between the birth of my son with Autism and my daughter. The age difference was about five years. It was always my desire to have one child every five years so that I could bond with each child.

Her birth was in a hospital setting but for the first time the labor, delivery and hospital recovery was in the same room. I was in excellent physical shape because I danced and took exercise classes throughout my pregnancy. I believe she came in the afternoon with about twelve hours of labor, but most of it was spent at home walking. My husband came with me to the hospital and while I was in labor, he read the newspaper.

My contractions were very mild. The only person’s in the birthing room was the doctor and my husband. I was asked to push and as I pushed, I saw this weird expression on my husband’s face. I said what is wrong? The doctor started massaging my womb area and her head was out. After a long pause she finally came out and I was not tired at all and asked the doctor can I go home now. I felt as if I wanted to run a marathon, I felt so good, it didn’t even seem like I had just given birth. Later, I found out the long pause between my husband and doctor was that my daughter’s umbilical cord was wrapped around her neck, but the doctor (Korean) had been skilled in this matter.

I take a very holistic view on birth and child development. We don’t know everything. The doctor’s don’t know everything. It is the most natural process women will ever experience.

The region of the world, I choose is Israel. My daughter is now 19-years old and is studying Hebrew in college. She wants to someday soon, travel to Israel and study the culture. What was interesting to me is that in Israel they have midwifes. The average family size is about two children. The similarities are that you can have your husband with you in the birthing room and he can also stay with the newborn as they perform neonatal checks. The differences is that you have to carry your passport with you to the hospital and during post birth, the routine procedure to health check the baby can take up to six hours and your baby is not with you.  The health check is performed by a pediatrician and the midwives (usually three in the room) are not trained to do initial neonatal checks to detect newborn abnormalities.  Ilana Shemesh is a Homebirth Midwife who is convinced that the safest and best atmosphere for birth is in the woman's home or out-of-hospital birthing clinic. The midwives are trained and licensed nurses. I am convinced that I would never allow anyone to take my newborn for six hours to be with other newborns in a room.

Reference

http://www.pregnantinthecity.co.il/Page/home_births.html

Song: BeBe & CeCe Winans

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