Childhood Stressors

If I were to sit down with any person in this world, they would have something to say about how they grew up.  Growing up we all deal with things that may not be positive, but children are resilient and it becomes their normal.  In many third war countries, they deal with much more than I ever in my life would ever dream of dealing with or seeing.  However, we all have our battles, some may not be as big as others may but it is still our battle.

 Three things came up for me:

One is chaos, now when I refer to chaos it is not the kind of chaos as war or violence.  The chaos in my house was with four children.  We all had our personalities, schedules, and needs.  Things were not always peaceful. It did not harm me per say, it mainly strengthened my ability to multitask, handle disorder, and to find peace within myself.  As an adult now, I require alone time often, and you will know when I need it because I will get grumpy.  Many times, I lie down and cover up; it is my safe place.  Additionally, I am able to step back now from lots of practice and evaluate a situation outside of myself.

The second thing I dealt with is my father being in the military.  I had to move a lot.  I still struggle with friendships because I have been conditioned that they move away, or I move away.  I have now lived in Colorado for 12 years.  The longest I have ever lived in one place. It was my life, I adapted just like any other kid, and I just kept my distance.

When I was in 7^th grade was the first time my mom got sick. That was a very high stress in my life and during that time is when I gained weight…I have been fighting it ever since.  I am strong because of her, but I am also weak because of the situation. She died when I was 22 years old leaving behind five children, the youngest being 2 years old and me.

Malnutrition in Eastern and Southern Africa:

Eastern and Southern Africa have chronic malnutrition. Which is causing stunting. Stunting is irreversible; therefore, it is important to stop this symptom of malnutrition right away. UNICEF is aiding in the battle of malnutrition. One way is encouraging exclusive breast feeding, providing education, and providing nutritious food.

“Over the years, awareness of nutrition issues, particularly stunting, has increased, thanks to advocacy informed by researches. Sixteen out of the 21 countries in ESAR now have improved nutrition plans that no longer treat nutrition as a standalone sector, but one that needs to be integrated with health, agriculture, sanitation, welfare, education and others.Twelve countries are in the SUN partnerships, with Burundi and Kenya being the newest signatories. Ten countries have all or most of the provisions of the Code for Marketing of Breast milk Substitutes as law, with Kenya and South Africa having just recently passed this into legislation. Most countries in the region have bi-annual mass vitamin A supplementation as part of the Child Health Day campaign, together with other high impact interventions such as de-worming, immunization and distribution of insecticide-treated mosquito nets.Countries are increasingly recognizing Integrated Management of Acute Malnutrition as part of the minimum core package of nutrition interventions. Seventeen of the 21 countries in the region have begun to build national capacities to scale up this approach.”
http://www.unicef.org/esaro/5479_nutrition.html

Sadly, children are dealing with this and have no control over it. It is so important that we educate these countries and give them the knowledge they need to support their children's growth and development.

 

 

Breast-feeding

 Breastfeeding has been very important to me.  I feel that breast-feeding is a way to bond, nourish, and aid in my child's development.  Breast milk has been proved to have natural antibiotics that keep infants healthier. “Breast milk has the perfect combination of proteins, fats, vitamins, and carbohydrates.  There is nothing better for the health of your baby.  Leukocytes are living cells that are only found in breast milk.  They help fight infection.  The antibodies, living cells, enzymes, and hormones make breast milk ideal.  These cannot be added to formula” (American Pregnacy Association, 2013).  I was told how important breast-feeding was before I even got pregnant.  My husband completely heartily believed that kids that breast-fed were smarter.  I am not sure that is 100% correct, but in his experience, it was true.  I was so nervous that I was not going to be able to do it that I read many books on the subject before giving birth.  I realized when trying to breast feed it is all about being calm, patient, and drinking a lot of water.  Pressure is the evil of breast-feeding; you do better when you do not worry so much.  I feel that my children have developed a bond with me and a secure connection with me partly due to breast-feeding.  Often time’s women switch to formula because they cannot see how much their child is eating and feel uncomfortable with that.  More women need to continue to breast feed until a lactation specialist or doctor tells them to supplement.  Interestingly you can now buy breast milk online from milk banks, I even had a friend sell to a milk bank and later a friend buy from a milk bank.  Breast milk is so healthy for our babies. I will support mothers within my daily work by providing support and media to educate mothers about breast-feeding and its benefits. Additionally, I will provide an area for mothers to breast feed.

I did not look at one country and their culture on Breast-feeding.  I found the WBTI, which stands for World Breastfeeding Trend Initiative.  This initiative goes out worldwide to train, assist, and promote breast-feeding in at least 100 countries by 2012.  In 2012, they fell short, but had reached 88 Countries. Below is bullet points about their mission.

 

What is WBTi:

• Participatory, action oriented simple research
• Tracking, Assessing and Monitoring (TAM) the implementation of Global Strategy for IYCF
• Ensures uniformity,
• Objective is to reach about 100 countries by 2012.

The Need:

• The United Nations Millennium Summit for MDGs – MDG 4 (2000)
• The Global Strategy for Infant and Young Child Feeding (2002)
• WHA Resolution - Each country urged to develop, implement, monitor and evaluate a plan of action on IYCF
• Innocenti Declaration on IYCF (2005)

Basis:

• WABA’s GLOPAR 1993
• WHO’s tool “Infant and Young Child Feeding : A tool for assessing national practices, policies , and programs” (2003/4)

WBTi –How It Works?

• Phase one – National assessment
• Phase two – Ranking the country/region
• Phase three – Reassessment to analyze trends

Indicators Part-I

1.        National Policy Program and Coordination

2.        BFHI

3.        Implementation of the Code

4.        Maternity Protection

5.        Health and Nutrition Care

6.        . Mother Support and Community Outreach

7.        Information Support

8.        Infant feeding and HIV

9.        Infant feeding during Emergencies

10.     Monitoring

Indicators Part-II

11. Early Initiation Rates
12. Exclusive breastfeeding Rates <6months
13. Median duration of Breastfeeding
14. Bottle Feeding Rates
15. Timely Complementary feeding Rates

What Goes in?

1.        Coordination

2.        Training/orientation

3.        Organizing national consultations and discussions leading to national assessment

4.        Analyzing and publishing the country report cards

5.        Compiling and publishing state of world’s breastfeeding, nationally and regionally

6.        Publishing results through WBTi web tool

7.        Follow up and offer IBFAN services for capacity building in code implementation, planning and facilitation, training of workers, and other program related to IYCF

8.        Advocacy with the use of report cards at national, regional and global levels to gather support in bridging gaps in program and policy

 

http://worldbreastfeedingtrends.org/report/The-state-of-breastfeeding-in-33-countries-2010.pdf

http://www.worldbreastfeedingtrends.org/about.php

 

 

Poor African women gives birth on the Floor.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XKrIeMRNAA

 

 

 

I was amazed at the above women giving birth in her hut with her children playing outside. She cannot afford medical care; therefore she does it at home with a neighbors help. They lay plastic on the floor and the baby just falls out, she ties a string to tie off the umbilical cord, and then bathes her newborn. I could never do this.  This is a far cry from what I went through! I had the doctors involved with every aspect of my child's birth. This mother is more worried about how she will feed her 8 children, which could affect her children's development. I read a bit more about babies being born in Africa and it is absolutely a scary feat for these African women. There are more deaths of both mother and child then any other country due to young mothers, most women have a baby before they are 14. In addition they fight the risk of Malaria and HIV and AIDS. I am realizing how blessed I really am. I have learned that health care really is a need for a child to start life out with a better chance of survival and quality of life.



Birth of my Baby Girl!

 I had been waiting for years to have a baby, and finally I was blessed to get pregnant.  I was so excited and so was my wonderful husband Kevin.  I was so excited at 7 weeks I had not had any morning sickness.  Well I spoke to soon, at 8 weeks I began morning sickness and it didn’t stop until my baby girl was born…it was awful, yet everyone said if you are sick that is a good sign of a healthy baby!  WHAT????  I grinned and bared it.  I am an overweight…shall I say fluffy individual.  My doctor informed me I could only gain 10- 15lbs because of my obesity.  I only gained six.  (Sticking my tongue out!J)  I had little complications during my pregnancy until the very end.  They induced me on my due date due to my blood pressure. When I arrived for the induction, they immediately started the Pitocin.  My contractions would not pick up intensity.  I was not progressing as fast as they had hoped.  12 hours later, they took me off Pitocin, told me to eat a meal and they inserted the pill into my cervix that they should have done in the first place.  Overnight I got minimal sleep and at about 6am I knew something was happening, I made my way to the bathroom, when I felt sick and gaged I felt dripping down my leg.  My water broke; now remember this is already over 24 hours after my induction began.  There was meconium in my water.  I was very upset about it.  My husband left to shower and within 45 min, my contractions started strong, and I requested an epidural.  My husband came back, I received my epidural, and instantly my contraction not only were relieved but also stopped.  About 4 hours later, they realized they never turned the Pitocin back on.  It was turned, and we waited.  My husband went down to lunch and 10 minutes later, I knew something was about to happen.  The nurse came in and I told her I felt a lot of pressure.  She checked me and said, well that is because you are ready to push.  I called my husband crying that it was finally time to push.  He returned and 45 min later after four pushes my baby girl, 7lbs 4oz was born, 32 hours later!  They were having trouble getting her numbers up, and forty-five minutes passed and I still had not held my new baby.  I asked please could I hold my baby; finally they gave her to me and told me if her number got below a certain number to call the nurse.  The instant she was in my arms her numbers went up!  The nurse said, ahhh she just needed her mommy.