Consequences of Stress on Children's Development

As a child, I was exposed to many different types of stressors, but none of the ones that were listed. The one that I am going to talk about is violence. My mom was exposed to violence from her father and others that she was around. My Grandfather was a very abusive man that took all of his issues out on my mom. My mom is a very strong person that coped with the ordeal by keeping to herself and avoiding the situations to the best of her abilities. She spent a lot of time with her grandparents whenever possible. She moved out of her parent’s home as soon as she could. As an adult, she spoke with a counselor to help her deal with the things that happened to her. My mom is a very strong woman that went through a lot as a child and has come out the other side as an amazing person that gives her time to help others whenever she can.

There are stressors that exist in all countries and it is hard to illuminate all of them. The thing that has always stuck out for me is that only certain countries bring attention to the lack of food or to the poverty that exists. The reality is that all countries have children that are living in poverty and that are hungry. Why is it that we only focus on the countries with extreme issues? There needs to be more attention given to all countries. I have not picked one country because I think that someone needs to bring attention to the bigger picture. There are so many children all over the world that need more food or that need more finances, but we do not here about that. In some countries, one of the stressors that lead to poverty is war and lack of availability. In many countries, the biggest issue is getting food to the people that need it. My concern is those that live in developed countries that should have access to food and or jobs to provide for their families and they do not. What about those families that live in developed countries? We never hear about those children that need support or help. I think that as a society we need to take the time to look at tall the children that are living in poverty and going hungry not just those in certain areas of the world.

Child Development and Public Health

This week we were to choose a public health topic. I chose nutrition/malnutrition for my topic. I have seen the effects that nutrition can have on children. I worked as the Health Advocate Coordinator for a family center for several years. During this time, I collaborated with Cooking Matters and Share Our Strengths to provide opportunities for children to learn about healthy eating in a way that was affordable. This topic is meaningful to me, because my nieces have lived in a situation with their parents where they never received proper nutrition and they did not know when their next meal would be. When I was younger, I had another set of family members that lived in that type of situation. My oldest daughter struggles to gain weight and is considered underweight. While she is provided proper nutrition, she is still struggling to gain or maintain her weight. These facts have made the topic of nutrition/malnutrition meaningful to me.

As I researched the nutrition and malnutrition in different parts of the world, I concluded that the basic dietary/nutritional guidelines are very similar. Most of the countries have something similar to our food pyramid or my plate. I researched the nutrition in Denmark and discovered that the nutrition guidelines are very similar to ours. I learned that, as with our country water is a very important aspect of proper nutrition. One of the things that I really liked hearing was that even in other countries the main cause of malnutrition is due to poor food and nutrition intake. This problem exists everywhere. One of the ways that everything that I have learned is going to influence my future work is to make me surer that I am going to encourage and demonstrate proper nutrition and food intake with everyone I work with.

Childbirth in My Life and Around the World

There are many different customs and traditions connected to childbirth in all countries, even the USA. Of all the people that I know, there are many different child-birthing experiences. I honestly do not believe that any of the stories that I have heard or have experienced are the same. I have chosen to share the experience that I had with my first daughter. She was right on time, even though she wanted to come early. I chose to have her at the hospital with an OBGYN. I was having contractions for three weeks before she came. I had both of my girls without pain medicine. I am very allergic to antibiotics and needed to find ways to ensure that I would not need one during delivery. My daughter actually came very quickly once I was given Pitocin.  My daughter was born with meconium in her fluid and a dislocated jaw, because she had been sucking on her lip and swallowing while in utero. She was very healthy and passed all of her tests, so they did not put her in NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit). She was able to stay with me. I chose this story because it is an example of a child that was born with complications that could have been problematic. In this case, it was not a major problem and did not affect her development in anyway, but that is not always the case. My youngest daughter had no noticeable birth complications and she had some challenges that have been contributed to birth trauma, but no one can figure out what that trauma was. In the example I shared, my daughter did not suffer any developmental challenges from having meconium in her fluid at birth. She actually is extremely bright and advanced for her age.

I believe that a child’s birth can have the potential to present both positives and negatives to a child’s development. Each child is an individual from day one, and it is important to remember that even when talking about infants. I think that there are many things that can occur during birth that can have the potential to affect a child’s development.

One of the things that I have found while researching births in other countries is that most of them do not use epidurals. In most other countries, epidurals are not as common as they are in the United States. The one thing that I found interesting is how caesarian sections (C-sections) are becoming more common in other countries. Another interesting thing about other countries is that there is a bigger push for a more natural birthing experience. In most of the countries that I researched, they were more likely to use a doula or midwife than a doctor. In the Netherlands and Germany, midwives are typically used over doctors. I found this to be interesting.