Consequences of Stress on Children's Development

A stressful time I can clearly remember in my life as a child was the Vietnam war. When I was about 8 or 9, I remember my parents being worried about my brother in the war. It was stressful to see my mother worry so it made me very nervous thinking every time I heard the phone ring I just knew it was bad news. But that was just the beginning. By some unfortunate mix up another brother was sent overseas as well. Although some people do not know they normally do not send to brothers to war unless they both agree to go. It took my parents nine months to get the second brother back to the states. I think from this experience even now some times when the phone rings I get this bad feeling in my stomach like its going to be bad news.

NEW DELHI, 20 April 2013 – The rape in Delhi where a 5-year-old girl is now fighting for her life is yet another sign that urgent and concerted action is needed to make sure that girls and women in India can feel and be safe on the streets, in school, at work and at home. Recently published data show that more than 30,000 crimes were committed against children in India in 2011. The same source of data shows us that one in three rape victims is a child. More than 7,200 children, including infants are reported raped every year. UNICEF acknowledges that there might be many more cases that go unreported, and thus also go without the needed care and support.

What is being Done to Help?

Following another tragic rape in December, the Government has taken some encouraging steps including commissioning the Verma Report that translated into the passing of the Criminal Law Ordinance. Prior to that, at the end of 2012 the Government had also passed the Protection of Children from Sexual Offenses Act, which provides a framework for stringent action on such cases.

This is promising for the children of India. Yet, the law is not enough if it is not enforced effectively. The brutal rape case this week also indicates the need to strongly improve the response of law enforcement officers.

Episodes of violence against women and girls continue to permeate daily life in India. Widespread acceptance of these violations is worrisome. More needs to be done to urgently change the mind-set towards the girl child and women and put a stop to these brutal crimes. In many parts of society in India, girls are often seen as liabilities and have little to say about their lives. Girls and women need to be valued, respected and feel safe, not only within the confines of their homes but also in public spaces. UNICEF joins its many partners in India to call for change and action, immediately.

Reference

UNICEF: Press Release

http://www.unicef.org/media/media_68828.html

I could not even imagine being a mother or father having to worry about if someone is going to harm your daughter or wife in this way. Being sexual abused can affect a child's development in many ways. Such as their emotional development, physical development and their mental state overall of not being able to recover from such trauma.

Child Development and Public Health

The public health issue I chose to research was “Nutrition/malnutrition”. My choice for this issue was because I observe children daily who lack healthy food in their diets. Children in a world were healthy food is available, but some parents do not take advantage of or see the value of such foods.

But when reading through an article about nutrition in Somalia. I found that, “Under-nutrition is not merely the result of poor food intake, in terms of quantity and quality, but also of illnesses. For the body to use nutritious food effectively also requires optimal health care, and access to safe water, hygiene and sanitation. This is particularly important for the most vulnerable groups, pregnant and breastfeeding women, children under two years of age and children under age of five who are suffering from infectious diseases such as HIV. There is well established evidence that a lack of key vitamins and minerals in the diet such as iodine, iron, vitamin A, and foliate, cause still births, miscarriages, mental and growth retardation, physical weakness, blindness, and increase the risk of diseases and ultimately death. When nutritional deprivations occur early in life, from conception up to two years of age, children will stop growing and become stunted (low height for age). Stunting, also referred to as chronic malnutrition, has long term debilitating effects: Children who are stunted are at greater risk of illness and death, and those who survive are more likely to perform less well at school. If children experience weight loss or "wasting" (low weight for height), they are suffering from acute malnutrition. Underweight is a composite measure of both stunting and wasting. Unlike wasting and underweight, stunting past the age of two is irreversible. Plus, almost twice as many children are affected by stunting than by underweight” (UNICEF, 2009).

Reference

UNICEF Eastern and Southern Africa – Young Child Survival and Development

http://www.unicef.org/esaro/5479_nutrition.html

“Childbirth In Your Life and Around The World”

Although I could write about my own experience in giving birth. But nothing was more exciting and emotional than watching my first born daughter give birth to her first child. What I remember about this experience was I felt as though I was not really within myself. Nothing could have ever in a million years prepared me for this. Watching the doctor do his job and the nurses running around, making sure that my daughter and her new baby was okay was just so overwhelming.

My choice for choosing the birth of my grandchild, was that I could not begin to explain what really happen within the delivery room when on the birthing end of such an experience. I also feel with child birth, women should be healthy physically, and mentally to go through what they go through at the time of giving birth. Although giving birth is a wonderful experience, at the same time it can be a dangerous one as well. In addition, when a mother is healthy physically and mentally it can sometimes help the child's outcome on being healthy and experiencing a healthy child development.

Native American Customs of Childbirth

Historian Ellen Holmes Pearson stated that; “In the seventeenth century, Dutchman Adrien Van der Donck described a woman’s preparation for childbirth among the Mohawk and Mahican Indians. Pregnant women would “depart alone to a secluded place near a brook, or stream of water . . . and prepare a shelter for themselves with mats and coverings, where, provided with provisions necessary for them, they await their delivery without the company or aid of any person. . . . They rarely are sick from child-birth [and] suffer no inconveniences from the same”.

Native American Customs of Childbirth

http://teachinghistory.org/history-content/ask-a-historian/24097

What I learned from this article was that the Mohawk and Mahican Indians women had to be strong physically and mentally to go out and give birth alone. Although we do hear of mothers giving birth alone today by being put in unforeseen situations. However it was so unreal to hear how mothers and their new born child rarely became sick from lack of some type of medical attention. While at the same time mothers today are at such high risk without medical attention, before and after giving birth.