Blog Assignment: Week 4

While going over this week’s assignment, I was overcome by how many of the stressors we see throughout our lives and how they affect us. I will say that for me I feel my childhood was very stressful because I was a military child and moved often and then when I was two years old my dad was killed in a car accident. After this happened my mom did the best she could to raise five children alone and we ended up still moving around and living close to military bases so we had their support system. Being part of the military family has a lot of benefits because they do take care of their own-no matter what. One week before my eleventh birthday my mom passed away from cancer and we started moving around to family and strangers homes. My brother tried to care for us but he had his own family by now and it was just too hard to take in four more people to care for. I lived with aunts that just wanted the money that came with us and then the foster care system that I my view did a very poor job of screening families before putting children in their care. One family I lived with abused us often and we finally found our voices and told someone and they came and got us out, but not before they had damaged our small two year old brother (foster brother) by hitting him because he wouldn’t talk-he had something in his throat that had to be operated on later and I found out he fully recovered with no side effects. I lived in over ten places between the years 1971-1979. Over this time my siblings and I lost all our belongings so that we now have nothing to show or share with our own children and grandchildren.

For me I feel that many of the stressors listed this week and many others fall into my life as I am sure they affect many of my classmates. We all have difficult times to remember and persevering throughout is what makes us stronger and the person we grow to become as an adult. I am very sensitive to how the foster care system works and have talked with social workers many times about what I need to do to make a difference and I am in the process of working with our local office as a volunteer so I can made an even bigger impact on children’s lives and help them in new ways.

Childhood Stress

I chose childhood stress in Japan because of the Tsunami and the fact that I lived there for three years (in Misawa). I would like to research the Tsunami and find out in what ways others and I can help those affected. I was reading on the internet today that a man’s motorcycle was washed up in Canada in April. It was a very touching story about the Tsunami even though it does not deal with childhood stress. So many families were and still are affected; they will be continued to be affected for the rest of their lives. Children need to be talked to and shown books that can help them understand what happened and this also helps them to cope with the help of the adults in their lives.

References: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2011/04/04/disasters-put-stress-children-japan.html

Just a side note about breastfeeding-does anyone have an opinion on the Time magazine cover story? Just wondering what everyone's ideas are on how it was done and all the hype that is going on with it. I'm all for breastfeeding, but not so sure about children of this age-any thoughts?

Week 2: Breastfeeding

Breastfeeding

I chose breastfeeding because it is a very important issue and one that needs to be talked about more and not pushed under the carpet. In the United States it is a topic that people don’t like to talk about and it just so natural for a mother and child to have this connection from birth. Breastfeeding is very important for a child’s healthy development and there are many benefits for both mother and child. I breastfed both my children (both until 6 ½ to 7 months and I stopped then because when the teeth start coming in OUCH) and I think it helped us to bond better and they had less colds and other health problems growing up. I believe that every mother should try to breast feed unless there are health problems that prevent it. My daughter has breastfed her children as well and I think they have done very well also. Some things about breastfeeding that I feel are important: Breastfeeding protects babies, breastfeeding should last at least the first six months, breastfeeding helps the mother’s body and also breastfeeding helps the child fight illnesses through the nutrients in the mother’s milk.

I found many sites with information about breastfeeding around the world and it can vary depending on where you are. There are many factors to look at in regard to breastfeeding, social issues, workplace issues and the country you live in. according to the World Health Organization, globally less than 40% of infants under six months of age are exclusively breastfed (“10 facts on breastfeeding,” 2012). Optimal breastfeeding together with complementary feeding help prevent malnutrition and can save about a million child lives. The Philippines is one of the leaders in international efforts to promote and protect women’s right to breastfeed. The country has implemented laws to control aggressive marketing by formula companies and their false claims that formula makes babies smarter. The WHO estimated that the nation’s total lost wages from caring for formula-fed children with diarrhea and acute respiratory infections during the first six months of life was 1 billion pesos ($23.4 million). Eighty-eight percent of Filipino babies are breastfed at birth and 34% are exclusively breastfed up to five months of age (www.incultureparent.com).

Share ways the information you have learned may impact your future work

This information will not really change my work because I work with preschool children; however, some of my children have newborn siblings. My center does care for infants six weeks of age, so I may find that I could share this information with my co-workers that work with the infants. I know this information will come in handy when I finally get to open my own school after I finish my Master’s program. My daughter and I want to care for infants because it is so hard for mothers to find quality care for these very important young children when they have to go back to work. I say this because my daughter had this problem and ended up being a stay at home mom because she couldn’t find a place that she really felt comfortable with and I am in the mindset that if you can stay home at least for the first year-DO IT!

References:

(2012). 10 facts on breastfeeding. World Health Organization, retrieved from http://www.who.int/features/factfiles/breastfeeding/en/index.html

http://www.usbreastfeeding.org/workplace

La Leche League International; http://www.llli.org/toolkit

www.healthychildren.org

http://www.incultureparent.com/2012/03/breastfeeding-around-the-world

Blog Assignment Week 1 EDUC-6160

Write about a personal birthing experience. It can be your own birth, your child's birth, or one you took part in. What do you remember about the event? Why did you choose this example? What are your thoughts regarding birth and its impact on child development?

The birthing experience I chose is when I had my daughter. I remember most of this because I was having my second C-Section and was able to be awake for everything. When I had my son I was put under because it turned out he was too big for a natural birth and I was a small framed person and this is why I chose his sister’s birth. I was able to pick the date I wanted to have her (so I could spend Christmas with my son) and then move on to recuperating. I went in the night before to get ready and then in the morning everything just went fairly quick. They gave me the epidural and then after about 10-15 minutes they checked to see if I could feel anything and when I couldn’t they started the C-section. What I remember from the prep before having her is the doctors and nurses talking to me as they did each step so I knew what was happening the whole time. I do remember the pressure from when they were taking my daughter from my body and the joy and excitement when I was able to see and hold her for the first time. I chose this one because it is the one that I was awake for and really remember. My thoughts on birth and the impact on child development are that we really do need to have some idea about child development when thinking about having children.

Choose a region of the world or a country, other than the U.S., and find out how births happen there. Write about what you learned, and the differences and similarities with your experience (in the personal example you provided). What additional insights, if any, about the impact of the birthing experience on development, did you gain from this comparison?

I chose Turkey for this half of my blog assignment, in Turkey most births where supervised by midwives as recently as 20 years ago because there was a shortage of doctors. However, now most do use doctors and many Turkish women elect to have c-sections done (a rate of 75%) according to Kybele, a U.S. nonprofit group that is for safe childbirth practices in developing countries. A main reason for this is not enough people trained in obstetric anesthesia. By using general anesthesia Turkey has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in Europe. Local customs for Turkey are that all celebrations are done after the baby is born, plus, mother and baby stay home for the first twenty day after birth. Friends come by and drink a special beverage called lohusa serbeti. After the twenty days the mother and baby can make return visits to friends. The baby also gets flour rubbed on their eyebrows and hairline which is supposed to grant a long life.

References:

Berger, K. S. (2009). The developing person through childhood (5th ed.). New York, NY: Worth Publishers.

Birth Customs Around the World: http://www.parents.com/pregnancy/giving-birth/vaginal/birth-customs-around-the-world/