Childhood Stressors~ Early Childhood Development: Week 4

While I was student teaching in a third grade class several years ago, one of my students lived in severe poverty.  I was made aware of the situation upon my arrival in the classroom as she was a part of many programs that the school offered in order to help her survive.  She was one of many children and lived with her single mom.  Dad was no longer in the picture and they lived without his support.  Mom was not able to provide even basic necessities for the children.  They lived in low-income housing just around the corner from the school.  The children were all given free breakfast and lunch at the school.  They were also part of a program called "Backpacks for kids".  This program provides a backpack full of nutritious, quick foods that children are sent home with on Friday's in order to be sure that they have food for the weekends when they are not in school.  The girl in my classroom often wore the same clothes every couple of days and they were not very clean.  She did, however, have many friends in the class and did not seem to be the focus of teasing or bullying from the other students.  The school also provided new clothes for her twice a year.  At Easter time I can remember one of the guidance staff coming to the room and taking her for a shopping trip at the local K-Mart.  She came back with a few bags of new clothes and wore those clothes with pride for weeks after!  I'm not exactly sure where this money came from, but I thought it was an awesome opportunity for the school to help out this family!  Because her mom worked two jobs with one at night, this young lady was responsible to look after he younger siblings.  As mom was not home to help with homework at night, she was allowed to come to school about a half hour early where I, or my co-op teacher, would sit with her and help her with her homework.  She always seemed to appreciate the effort we made to help her and was humble and sweet regarding any help she received.  I'm sure there were days where she went hungry, or was cold at home, or wished she had new clothes or shoes, but she never showed it.  She was a well-adjusted 3rd grader whom I enjoyed spending time with and helping as much as I could.  Without the help of the school, this little girl would have been in a much worse situation than she was.

I am particularly interested in the stressors that face children living in countries such as Iraq, after the terrors of war.  There are obvious stressors such as war, poverty, and homelessness, but there are also many others.  Many children lack the accessibility to medicine or proper medical care.  Because their mothers are staving, children are born with malnourishment, or lack of proper nutrition.  In 1996, UNICEF reported that 4500 children under the age of 5 die every month due to starvation.  Due to the use of depleted uranium (a form of nuclear warfare), childhood cancers have risen.  1.5 million children are orphaned in Iraq.  I would think that the stressors in the lives of children in Iraq are far beyond what any American could conceive, unless it has been seen first-hand.

Reference:
http://www.ibiblio.org/prism/Mar97/iraq.html

Early Childhood Development: Week 2

Breastfeeding:

"Is Breast the Best?"

               Breastfeeding is linked to many aspects of development in infants. Mothers who breastfeed ensure proper physical development by providing important nutrients and disease-fighting antibodies, protecting their infant's delicate system from illnesses. Breastfeeding is also linked to social development through a stronger mother-infant bond, as the process of breastfeeding provides closeness and intimacy. A breastfed infant's mental health is also being cared for as breast milk is suggested to provide specific fats and sugars that are better for developing brains. It has also been suggested that mothers of breastfed babies are better caregivers.

 
             As a mother of three children, ages 4, 2, and 10 months, I chose NOT to breastfeed. As a large chested woman, I found the changes to my breast tissue, as I started to produce milk during the last two months of my first pregnancy, to be excruciatingly painful, with many odd side effects that could not be explained by my doctors such as a painful burning sensation in and around my nipples particularly at night. I was also uncomfortable with their increasing size and felt that I could not endure several months of breastfeeding while trying to work full-time. After talking with my prenatal doctor, pediatrician, and doing some research of my own, I decided that my children would be exclusively bottle fed and was given the okay by both my prenatal doctor and my pediatrician.

 

               When I went to the hospital to deliver my first daughter, I was asked if I would be breastfeeding or bottle feeding. I told them bottle feeding and the nurse was very pleasant about it. After delivery, I was asked once again if I wanted to try breastfeeding and holding this tiny baby, I started to question my decision. However, I was still in pain from delivery and opted not to. This was my first encounter with a nurse who made me feel guilty for not breastfeeding. My husband assured me (and the nurse) of our decision and I put my guilt aside.

              Our children are very healthy, active children. They are rarely sick and fight it off quickly when they start to get a cold or the sniffles. In contrast, I have several friends who breastfeed their babies and they seem to be sick quite often. Our children are very bright, with our pediatrician always commenting on their intelligence and early speaking skills. They are also very well attached children with a secure bond with both myself and my husband. I do believe that children who are bottle fed while being held close and interacted with, as all of our children were, are to no disadvantage below those who are being breastfed. In fact, I see a lot of our friends' breastfed children who are always in need of feeding and seem to be at mom's breast for most of the day. Finally, I certainly do not think breast feeding or bottle feeding has anything to do with the idea of being a better caregiver. For us it was a personal choice, with no ill effects on our children thus far.

               In Africa, breastfeeding is common practice with about 95% of African mothers choosing to breastfeed. Children in Africa are commonly breastfeed for anywhere from 16 to 28 months. However, there are different reasons for breastfeeding in Africa such as poverty, inadequate water supply, and lack of access to formula. There is much concern over the AIDS epidemic in Africa when it comes to breastfeeding, as transmission of the disease can occur through breastfeeding. There are many studies occurring in Africa regarding breastfeeding, AIDS, and the rate of infant mortality.  I think this will be an important issue in future years, as the results of the research begin to emerge.

                Breastfeeding is a very personal choice that should be honored and respected, regardless of the choice. This subject is important to my professional experience and future experiences in that I may be working with infants again and need to respect a mother's choice about what or how she chooses to feed her baby, breast or bottle. Also, if I do not work with infants, it is important to understand that there are choices made by families that may not be the same as my own choices, but that do need to respected and honored by me as an educator, provided there is no harm being done to the child.

 

 

 

 

Reference:

Breastfeeding in Africa~

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11943640

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

Early Childhood Development: Week 1

I have given birth 3 different times and have had 3 very different experiences.

Our daughter, who is now almost 5, was a planned pregnancy. We were able to get pregnant the very first time we tried purposefully! The pregnancy went wonderfully, with no signs of morning sickness, no gestational illnesses, and we were ready to give birth when the time came. I went into labor on my own very early in the morning on her due date, December 8, 2006. I was 5 centimeters by time we got to the hospital and in mild pain. I was moved to the delivery room and the doctor who was going to do my epidural was called. I knew from the moment I conceived, that I wanted to have drugs during delivery as I do not handle pain very gracefully. However, after the 7th time that the doctor tried to administer the epidural, I was in extreme pain from his procedure and it was worse than the labor pains. I decided not to try again and finished out a very painful labor and delivery with a lot of pain medicine through my IV. I had a lot of trauma to my body and had a very painful few days in the hospital and a rough couple weeks at home.

After this experience, I wanted to wait a while before we tried again. When our daughter turned 3, we decided to try for a second child. We got pregnant right away again, but this pregnancy brought on new challenges. I was working full time in my first year of teaching, had a three year old, was finishing up my first Master's in Education degree, and was also working part time as the Children's Ministry Director at our church. I encountered morning sickness for about 3 weeks and had trouble keeping my blood pressure in check. For the last 10 weeks of my pregnancy, I had to go for weekly non-stress tests to be sure the baby was not affected by my blood pressure. A week before my due date, my doctor became concerned about the high blood pressure and lack of fetal movement, so they sent me to the hospital to be induced on August 20, 2009. The induction went great and the labor was going good, so I decided to try the epidural again. We requested a different doctor than we had the first time and he was able to get it in on the second try. The rest of the labor went great, but during the delivery, my doctor hit a moment of panic when my son was born with the cord wrapped tightly around his neck three times with two big knots. He was only 6 pounds, much smaller than our eight and a half pound daughter and much smaller than they were anticipating at 10 plus pounds. The doctor finally got the cord removed and he seemed fine. She told us we were very lucky that he was born alive and she suspected that the knots in the cord was why he was so small. He is a happy, healthy two year old now with no signs of the drama that happened at his birth.

Our third pregnancy was unplanned, occuring just 7 months after the birth of our son. I was using birth control and was not expecting to get pregnant, but when I was a week late I knew something was up. Although there were a lot of unexpected emotions with our "bonus baby", I knew we would be okay with a third. This pregnancy was fairly easy until the last trimester when I developed high blood pressure again, as well as gestational diabetes. They monitored me closely with non-stress tests for the last 8 weeks, and also had me test my blood sugars at home. Two weeks before my due date I was set up for an induction on December 16, 2010. The labor and delivery were very smooth with a sucessful epidural and a wonderful delivery doctor. It was text book perfect, with an easy recovery and I went home in two days with no complications.

All three births were different and unique, just like our three blessings, and I wouldn't trade anything about each birth!

One thing that I was after each delivery was exhausted. Even with two days in the hospital with each birth, I was completly wiped out when returning home. And after the first one, I had little ones to come home to and care for which made getting that extra rest extra hard! One practice that I had heard about from other cultures was the idea of several weeks rest and bonding time for mommy and the new baby. So I did some research to find out where this wonderful practice takes place. In almost all non-Western countries, 40 days of postpartum care is considered appropriate for recuperation of the mother. During this time the mother is strictly limited on what she may do, is encouraged to rest, and is taken care of by female family members.

Here are some other countries ideas for helping the mother to rest after delivery:

*Guatemala~ a midwife visits the mother at home for up to 2 weeks after delivery to check on mom and baby and to wash the family clothes so the mom may rest!

*China~ mothers are given a 30 day confinement to her home, where live in relatives take care of all the household duties so mom can rest!

*India~ 40 days are required for a mom to be confined to her home with her baby to avoid the evil spirits as well as illness.

*Middle East~ someone comes to the house for 40 days while mom rests. This person takes care of the baby and any other children and performs all the household duties while mom is resting.

(information from http://www.nursingcenter.com/prodev/ce_article.asp?tid=408218)

I wish I had some of those same customs when coming home with my own children. Two days in the hospital is all I had and when I returned home to "full duty", I have never full recovered my rest and sleep!! :)