Consequences of Stress on Children's Development

                                                                                  

 The one stressor that I have really dealt with as a child was noise. I would assume it was because I was brought up in the country where it is pretty quiet. Every year, my family and I would take trips to the beach. It was great and it was fun except for the noise. The noise of motorcycles and fireworks was my problem. It would scare me a lot when I was a toddler. I would scream beg my mom to hold me close. Even as a grown adult now I still can’t stand fireworks. It somehow really messes with my nerves. I am also a very light sleeper and easily wake up to noise. I would both hide under something and cover my ears (not like a little kid of course) haha! I would also believe that that the fireworks could explode and catch something on fire like I heard on the news. Some fireworks exploded and landed on the highway on a car and killed someone.

Noise is an unwanted or objectionable sound. Common sources of outdoor noise arise from transportation (aircraft, car and truck traffic , and trains ), occupations (construction machinery , assembly lines ), and even from neighbors (yard equipment, loud music ). Indoor noise is affected by outdoor noise, and indoor sources such as TV, radio, music and children at play. My issue may not have been severe but the implications of noise effects can be lifelong impairment of learning and education, short-term deficit followed by adaptation, and non-intentional lesions. Exposure to excessive noise and vibration during pregnancy may result in high frequency hearing loss in the newborn, may be associated with prematurity and growth retardation, although the scientific evidence remains inconclusive.

                                                                              

Racism and discrimination have been used as powerful weapons encouraging fear or hatred of others in times of conflict and war, and even during economic downturns. Greece has one of the worst records in the European Union for racism against ethnic minorities. Anti-immigrant sentiment has long been high, especially against ethnic Albanians, who form the largest minority. Until the 1990s, Greece had been an extremely homogenous society. With the fall of communism many immigrants from Eastern Europe came to Greece. Albanians especially have been targeted by a lot of racist sentiment. Some hostage taking by a few Albanians in recent years has not helped the situation.

Early childhood may be a crucial sensitive period when stressors such as racial discrimination affect a person's long-term well-being. These stressors affect how the young brain develops and forms neural connections between different regions. Previous research says that when older children, who have developed cognitive skills, are exposed to racial discrimination, they may perceive their own ethnic group negatively, become self-conscious, and develop low self-esteem and symptoms of depression.

Resources:

http://www.who.int/ceh/capacity/noise.pdf

http://www.globalissues.org/article/165/racism

http://www.aboutkidshealth.ca/En/News/NewsAndFeatures/Pages/children-racism-long-term-impacts.aspx

Child Development and Public Health

                                            

The public health topic that I am most interested in is nutrition/malnutrition. It has been my most favorite since doing political research as am undergrad. I did one paper on Child Hunger in Niger and another on First Lady Michelle Obama's Let's Move Initiative. Nutrition is highly important to children because it helps them to grow up strong, fully develop, and to focus in school. Unfortunately, in Niger, Africa, that is a big problem and still is. According to UNICEF, children under the age of 5, at the population of 356,324 of them had malnutrition last year. The biggest issue with this was that a lot of the children had vitamin A deficiencies which causes the children to have fatigue, blindness, and the inability for their little bodies to fight off infections. A lot of children are not able to go to school and miss out on their education.

For the future, this information can help me to better understand ways to help women who are going through this specific area. 5 years from now I hope to be working in the hospital setting doing early intervention development services. Then later move into working for the Maternal & Child Health Bureau. I want to use my experience and research to help women nationally and internationally to help keep children and their families be safe and feel healthy. That is at least what should every child should deserve in this lifetime.

Resource
 http://www.unicef.org/appeals/niger.html
http://nutrition.about.com/od/therapeuticnutrition1/a/Vitamin-A-Deficiency.htm

Childbirth in My Life and Around the World

My birthing experience was quite scary. This is a picture of me and my mom holding me.  I was born in December in the year of 1990. Ever since I was born, I have been called the “miracle baby” even as an adult by those who know me very well. My mom told me the story about when I was born. I weighed 3 pounds and 4 ounces. My mom had pre-eclampsia which is a potentially dangerous pregnancy complication characterized by high blood pressure. She was still working and putting too much pressure on her herself for working so hard doing physical therapy. That was her job at the time. They had to perform a cesarean section to get me out. I was born three months early at the time. They had me in an incubator for 6 weeks in the neonatal unit. My lungs had not matured at the time and I had to get shots to help mature my lungs. My parents had to pay $900 each for these shots! I was transferred to another hospital closer to home and I stayed in there for 4 weeks. After that I was home free. To me, birth is challenging there is not much to do but sit and rest your body. Make sure that you are eating the right foods and taking care of your body. It is all in what you do to ensure that your child grows healthy. I chose this example because of the issue of mothers with high blood pressure and the effect of it. In my mom’s case she had high blood pressure and at the time that she was about to be put on bed rest after her last day at work. My birth to me was a blessing. I am now living a normal life and want to become a blessing to other families who are going through the same.

Birthing in Japan

 Foods rich in protein & carbohydrates such as mocha (a sweet rice cake high in starch content) and eggs are sometimes offered and encouraged at the onset of labor to ensure adequate energy throughout the laboring process. Minimal noise and verbal expressions of pain were accepted. Extremely loud expressions of pain are considered shameful. In Japanese culture, you are expected to deal with pain in a stoic manner. Pain medication can be asked and received. Female family members, nurses, midwifes are the main support.  The only exception were male doctors.  The mother’s significant other and other family members can be there to support during laboring and delivery. Traditionally, breastfeeding was encouraged a day after birth as emphasis on mom's recovery was a priority. A special food offered after birth was carp fish soup and mochi.  These foods were thought to enhance breast milk production. Hot soups such as miso were also thought to help promote good health.  Eating spinach and other green vegetables were eaten to help with blood clotting. Some mothers are advised by their mother not to shower for the first month postpartum. Instead, sponge baths were encouraged.  Grated ginger root was rubbed on the skin to promote healing. The mother and baby are not allowed to leave the house for 2-4 weeks after the baby is born. Traditionally, fathers occasionally helped with baby care, although their main role remained being the breadwinner.

The difference to me is the noise level when it comes to birthing. Japanese are very quiet and cordial people and prefer to have quiet births. Here in the US, women can scream almost. The reason for quiet births is to keep from startling the child when it emerges. Also men are not really allowed to be in the birthing room except the father. While he is in the room, he can only be at the mother’s side not near where he can see the baby birthing out. That is because they fear that the man will get scared. Of course, here in Japan, women are recommended to eat fish during their pregnancy. While here in the US, women are not encouraged to do so. The showering part I do not understand why not to shower postpartum but here in the US I am pretty sure we do shower…… The part about not leaving home for 2-4 weeks may be for ensuring that the mother and infant have the most bonding time. I still believe that staying in for 2-4 weeks is a bit much. A comprehensive birth class focusing on preparation for labor and birth, including information on breastfeeding and the postpartum period is given in Japan. The same is given here as well.

Resources

 http://www.hawcc.hawaii.edu/nursing/RNJapanese03.html
Berger, K. S. (2012). The developing person through childhood (6th ed.). New York, NY: Worth Publishers.