Chaos/Poverty

Chaos/Poverty  

 

 

 

 

As a child I experienced chaos in my house due to my parents arguing all of the time. My mom was and still is the best mom ever hands down. She worked in as a lab proctor and bus driver in the school system for thirty years. She also was and still is one of the managers at my family’s restaurant. My mom is the kind of person that just makes things happen, no matter what the situation is. My father on the other hand was totally opposite, he was very laid back and took things one day at a time.  His mother died when he was about fifteen and I feel that her death took an emotional toll on him, that he never dealt with. Which led to issues in his adulthood hence my mother and his marriage.

I always felt that he was jealous of my mother because she had so much support from her sisters and brothers whether it was finically or emotionally, they are just a family that sticks together. I was told that my father and my mother had issues while my mom was pregnant with me. My mother being the woman that she was tried to still make things work. Now let’s fast forward to when I was in elementary school. I can remember my parents arguing almost every day mainly about money. Even though I was a child I still could tell that there was great tension between my parents and my father’s jealousy didn’t make it any better. Their fussing and fighting stressed me out a great deal, my brother wouldn’t begin to show symptoms of being stressed when my parents divorced.

I would go to school and go through the motions of my daily schedule, but in the back of my mind I would dread going home because I knew what I would be facing. I knew I was really stressed when I began to feel the need to defend my mother, which was not my job as a child. I do feel that I didn’t perform to the best of my abilities due to the chaos that I was experiencing at home. My parents never got physical with each other but the words that they used towards each other where enough for me. It also affected my social emotional skills also I was very shy and took the friendships I had very seriously. Today while raising my own child I have did my best to shield her as much as I can. I don’t want her to be stressed about anything, because I want her to stay on the path that she is on. Children so be able to stay children for as long as they can, and I plan to give her a very good one with lots of fun positive memories.   

When I was a child one of the many places that we went on vacation to was Canada. Niagara Falls was one of the most beautiful places that I had seen. I would love to go back one day, so it wasn’t hard to decide the place that I wanted to research for this assignment. From my research on what stressors affect the children in Canada, I came to the conclusion that poverty is one of the number one stressors of children in Canada. Persistent socioeconomic disadvantage has a negative impact on the life outcomes of many Canadian children. Research from the Ontario Child Health Study in the mid-1980s reported noteworthy associations between low income and psychiatric disorders (5), social and academic functioning (6), and chronic physical health problems (7) (Ferguson- Bovaird- Mueller,2007).  Children who live in poverty often start school later than children who do not live in poverty, which makes them already behind of their peers. Sadly the number of families living in poverty in Canada is growing. However governmental and school officials are aware of this problem and see the need of intervention to help reverse this issue. Prevention and intervention programs that target health concerns (eg, immunization and prenatal care) are associated with better health outcomes for low-income children and result in increased cognitive ability (27) (Ferguson- Bovaird- Mueller,2007).  Canada has programs like Ontario Early Years Centres, the Aboriginal Head Start Program in Northern communities, and programs related to the Alberta Children and Youth Initiative (Ferguson- Bovaird- Mueller,2007).

Sadly poverty is an issue that many countries deal with, it has horrible effects on the development of children and their families. I am glad that there are people in the world who do want to make a difference, and try to make things better for these children. No child should ever have to worry about how they are going to eat, or where they are going to lay their heads. The only job children should have is being a child, you can’t get those years back once they are gone.

 

 

Reference

Ferguson, H., Bovaird, S., & Mueller, M. (2007). The impact of poverty on educational outcomes for children. Paediatrics & Child Health, 12(8), 701–706.

Immunization

 

 

 

 

 

Immunization

The topic for this assignment that I choose to discuss is Immunization. I choose to discuss Immunization because I feel that they are vital to the heath of every child, especially young children. I think it is so wonderful that health care around the world is improving, so that children can get the immunizations that they need to fight off illnesses. Hopefully this will help to decrease childhood illnesses.

When most parents even hear the word immunization they automatically think of needles, and the pain that their child might feel while getting them. Truth is Immunization primes the body’s immune system to resist a particular disease, it also protects not only from temporary sickness but also from com- plications, including deafness, blindness, sterility, and meningitis (Berger 2016). Immunizations are meaningful to me because they help to save parents time and money so they won’t have to take as much time off of work because they have sick children. Immunizations also protect the future generations of children from getting certain illnesses that might mutate and get worse over time. Immunizations are also important to me because they are one of the first defenses of health that help the world that we live in to be a healthier environment.

Like other topics there are also people who have different opinions of immunizations. When I was studying for my associate’s degree my instructor had a young man to come in who was a father to speak to our health class. This young man was the father of two and his view on immunizations was very interesting to me. He had a son who was about maybe two years old who had been diagnosed with autism. Well this young man seemed to be convinced that his son had autism because of the immunizations that he had gotten. Although The National Vaccine Information Center (NVIC) says that vaccines may be linked to learning disabilities, asthma, autism, diabetes, chronic inflammation, and other disabilities (http://vaccines.procon.org/). I do believe that they may have side effects but there is little to no research that directly links immunizations to any of the things that are listed. I believe they do more good than they do bad, and I also feel that children should get them for their health. I mean really if you think about almost every medicine that you take has a risk of some type even though its purpose is to help you.

I have always wanted to visit Australia so I decided to research their vaccine laws. Australia offers parents an incentive to parents for keeping their children up to date with their vaccines. Parents receive nontaxable payments of a $129 for each child who meets immunization requirements between 18 and 24 months of age, and again if the child meets requirements between four and five years of age (Walkinshaw 2011). Children also do not have to be immunized to attend school, however if there is an outbreak of a disease those children who have not been immunized cannot attend school. Parents who do not wish to get their child immunized also may fill out a form that exempts their child from getting their vaccines for medical or philosophical exemption (Walkinshaw 2011).

The information that I learned about the immunizations policy in Australia may help me one day, in case I have a parent from that country and they refuse to get their child immunized. I will understand why they feel this way and maybe offer them information on why vaccines are beneficial to the whole family. This information also might be beneficial to me if I am ever given the chance to maybe teach in Australia or work as a school official. I will be aware of the vaccine laws and how they relate to enrollment requirements. It is always good to know information about other cultures and the way they do things, it one of the ways that we stay diverse and multicultural.

 

 References

Berger, K. S. (2016). The developing person through childhood (7th ed.). New York, NY: Worth Publishers.

http://vaccines.procon.org/

Walkinshaw, E. (2011). Mandatory vaccinations: The international landscape. CMAJ : Canadian Medical Association Journal, 183(16), e1167–e1168. http://doi.org/10.1503/cmaj.109-3993

 

 

 

 

 

References

Berger, K. S. (2016). The developing person through childhood (7th ed.). New York, NY: Worth Publishers.

http://vaccines.procon.org/

Walkinshaw, E. (2011). Mandatory vaccinations: The international landscape. CMAJ : Canadian Medical Association Journal, 183(16), e1167–e1168. http://doi.org/10.1503/cmaj.109-3993

 

Child Birth in My Life and Around The World

                                                 
                                                 (My daughter and I the day after I gave birth to her)

 

 

 

 

The birth of my daughter was one of the most amazing events in my life. Three years prior to giving birth to my daughter I gave birth to my son at six months. Sadly he lived a little less than twenty four hours, I could not go on and explain about the birth of my daughter without mentioning my late son. I went the doctor for my yearly, and before I could get changed into the gown the nurse was telling me to stay dressed. Because my pregnancy test had come back positive. I was in a state of shock, over joyed, and scared. I was scared because I didn’t want to lose my daughter, I couldn’t bear to go through that heart break again. The doctor checked me before I left and determined I was going into my fourth month. When I went to my OBGYN he confirmed that I was indeed in my fourth month of pregnancy. I didn’t get to enjoy my pregnancy the way that I thought I would but I was still thankful for the ending result.

 

Let’s fast forward to the morning of March 8, 2010. I got up at 4am to get dressed because my C-section was scheduled for eight o’clock. My mom and my boyfriend’s sister accompanied me to the hospital, where my boyfriend and his mother met us. I was so nervous for so many reasons. I was afraid of the IV, the catheter, the needle that had to go in my back. After I got checked and went to my room, the nurses got me prepped for surgery and then the waiting game began. It was about 7:15am when the nurses came to get me to take me to the operating room. I said my goodbyes to everyone and then I was on my way to the operating room. When we got to the operating room my heart starting to race even more I started thinking to myself “This is real I am really going to have another baby”. Once on the table was told to lean forward so the anesthesiologist could give a needle to numb me from the waist down, one of the perks of being awoke during a C-section. My doctor came in and greeted me as he always did, to give you a visual he is could be Richard Gere’s twin brother.

 

As the medicine began to work I started make me feel sick. My child’s father held my hand as I released my insides to a pan. Once I pulled myself together and the doctors made sure I was numb from the waist down, the sheet went up and I knew it was show time. The doctor and nurses talked as they cleansed my stomach and cut the incision that I already had. In no time my doctor was saying “There she is” as the nurses cooed along with him. At exactly 8:05 I gave birth to the most precious thing in the world to me, my baby girl. The nurses wrapped her up and put her next to my face my face I can remember smiling and saying “Hey little girl”. After we introduced ourselves the nurses told her father to follow them as they took my baby to the nursery to get cleaned up.

 

My doctor then began the process of closing my incision, which took a while because my doctor somehow made the incision to wide. He ended up taking out some extra fat so all was well. Once I came out of recovery I went back into my room, and enjoyed my family and friends. The nurses brought my daughter in right after I got in my room, from then on my life with my daughter has been amazing and I am looking forward to many years to come being her mother.

 

I choose to talk about the birth of my daughter because it was the first time I have birth to a child that survived, a child that I could hold in my arms and give kisses to. The birth of my daughter changed me forever. It gave me a reason to live, a reason to stop crying because my son wasn’t here. Even though he never leaves my mind. I choose to share the story of her birth because it inspired me to be the woman that I am today. I feel that birth has an impact on child development because some of the things that can happen at birth can have a huge on impact on a child’s development. For instance if the cords get tangled, or the baby goes into distress, or even if the mom has other complications. All of these things could cause issues with the child could affect them personally or affect the parent in a sense of them being able to raise the child. I choose to research how the women in the rural parts of Africa give birth to their children. To my surprise most women give birth at home with the help of family and friends, sometimes mid wives help. They give birth at home simply because they don’t have funds for transportation to the hospital and for the hospital bill itself. In some cases they are no medically professionals to assist them. However since their medical system is steadily improving they are still urged to go to hospital just in case something goes wrong.  An obstetrician who is used to carrying out natural childbirth in Kenya is better placed to provide you with unbiased advice as you go through the pregnancy (http://withbabysolutions.com/childbirth-kenya-natural-childbirth/). Being that I live in the U.S. having my child in a medical setting was almost understood when I found out I was pregnant. Even though like the women in Kenya I had other choices. Women in Kenya have the same access to childcare as I do but it I some cases they are not being educated on how much their health care system is changing. They have OBGYN’s and mid wives just like we do in the U.S. Like me they also have C-section almost at much higher rates though. Please click on the following link to see the video of the woman in Kenya having her baby at home on the floor, https://youtu.be/8XKrIeMRNAA I gained a lot from this comparison. I didn’t know that better health care was on the rise in Africa.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

References

 

http://withbabysolutions.com/childbirth-kenya-natural-childbirth/

 

https://youtu.be/x7L2Vs6ZRNM