Stressors

I have not experience any stressors as a child but I do know my best friend/cousin experience some violence in her life with her mom and dad. She explained to me how her dad was addicted to drugs and would come home and verbally abuse her and physically abuse her mom. I could tell that it really affected her because I just found this out not to long ago. She cope with the situations by doing what she loves which is singing and she said it made her realize how she did not want to live once she was older. She is a year older than me and today she has a very respectful boyfriend. Some children that grows up in that situation tend to follow into the footsteps of their parents. She could have ended up on drugs did her father or a abuse relationship like her mother. I believe with her coming around my family and spending time with me as little girls she got a chance to see a happy Christian lifestyle. I had to go to church every Sunday with my mom and dad plus they have been married sense my mom was nineteen. When you grow up with a family or knowing a family can be functional then a child can set their expectations the same for when they grow up.

I know that diseases are a big stressor in Africa and many children are born with diseases. It saddens me to know a child has to live with a disease for the rest of their life that they had no control over. Africa is affected by the HIV and AIDS virus and many children are affected by the disease.  This disease is effecting a child’s development in many ways such as growth in organs and body. And the best way for mothers and fathers to minimize the stressor is to practice safe sex and use condoms.

Child Development and Public Health

Nutrition/ Malnutrition 

I chose the Nutrition and malnutrition health topic. The nutrition and malnutrition topic is meaningful to me because I have many different children that has many different eating habit s. Parents have many different preferences for their child and as a teacher it’s important for me to explain to the parents the importance of a healthy and nutritious eating habit for young children.  Malnutrition is globally the most important risk factor for illness and death, contributing to more than half of deaths in children worldwide; child malnutrition was associated with 54% of deaths in children in developing countries. Women and young children are the most adversely affected groups; one quarter to one half of women of child-bearing age in Africa and south Asia are underweight, which contributes to the number of low birth weight infants born annually.  The information that I have read about developing countries and especially Africa because it seems as if they have the worst case for malnutrition is a wake up for how fortunate children in the United States are. From a personal stand one I think I will get a little more involved with donating what I can to organizations that are helping children and the mothers.   

Childbirth-In Your Life and Around the World

Armonie and I

A birthing experience that I have had was when my best friend had her little girl. It was an over the phone experience I had because I live in Raleigh and I did not have time to meet her at the hospital before she had the baby. She called me while she was in labor driving herself to the hospital. She was saying that she thinks the baby was coming out and she did not think she was going to make it to the hospital. All I could do is tell her to keep breathing and hopefully she would make it there soon. I had to use the techniques I had seen on television. I do not have kids of my own and I am just the one that visits everyone once the baby has entered the world. I believe that birth is wonderful and its a process of the child's development.

I chose to read about the birthing process in Europe. I learned that they have home births because they do not like an clinical atmosphere for the birthing of their child. The difference is in the U.S. almost all children are delivered in the hospital where in Europe it is disliked. Also learned that the risk of having a baby at home are equal as having a baby with a professional physician.