Stressors

My husband grew up in poverty where they moved around a lot and had very little to eat. His mom was a single parent just trying to get by. His dad was an alcoholic, who lived on unemployment and paid the lowest of lows of child support. He said that his coping measure was to be a child who could help out as much as possible. He learned how to fix cars and how to make that car last way longer than anyone would think of doing. Another coping measure he used quietness. He went from being the boy who wanted to make everyone laugh to a boy who became very quiet and didn’t make any new friends. He knew that he probably wouldn’t see the people again after school was over, and his thoughts were that it wasn’t worth it to get attached to something just to have it taken away. The support system that he had was his family. His grandparents would watch him and his sister during the summer and they would go to their other grandparent’s house to be watched in the early mornings so that their mom could go to work.

The county that I wanted to know more about in this area was Ireland. I am part Irish and have always been curious about my heritage. Some of the stressors that children face are; political violence, illness, isolation, and poverty. The political violence that is going on in Northern Ireland is due to the fighting of the Protestants and the Roman Catholics.

Ireland came up with the Convention on the Rights of the Child which is the most popular human rights treaty. It involves civil rights, family environment, health and welfare, education, and much more. Ireland also has Children Protective Services to help and provide support for the children in need.

Immunizations

I chose this topic for one specific reason. While growing up, I received all of my immunizations and my parents made sure that everything was kept up to date. When I was a teenager, I met a family who got to see the side effects of those immunizations. Their first son received all his immunizations at birth and when it came time to receive the few shots for starting school, things went wrong. At five years old he became paralyzed from the waste down and lost most function in his hands and arms. Daily tasks could no longer be performed on his own. His speech was impaired and most times it was hard for me to understand what he was saying. His mother spoke passionately about how she no longer believed that the vaccines, that the government was requiring, were safe and her youngest son never received a single vaccine. I know that immunizations are important to make sure that we do not have any more outbreaks of certain diseases and illnesses, but do we really know the long term affects of these shots? There are always side effects to every drug and shot, but could these side effects be stopped if more testing was done, and more time was spent on making these drugs and vaccines safer?

While thinking about immunization in the US I decided to look into a few other countries to see if they had the same immunizations or if they thought differently about it. First country that I looked into was China. I found that China basically immunized their babies just the same as the US does. I decided to try to find a country that was different from my own. India was actually the country that caught my attention. Starting in 1975 India started the Expanded Programme on Immunization which provided immunization against diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, poliomyelitis, typhoid and childhood tuberculosis. In 1985 they renamed their program to the Universal Immunization Programme where the measles vaccine was added and the typhoid vaccine was taken out. “India’s Immunization Program is one of the largest in the world in terms of quantities of vaccines used, numbers of beneficiaries, and the numbers of immunization sessions organized, the geographical spread and diversity of areas covered” (http://www.whoindia.org/en/Section6/Section284/Section286_506.htm).

Ways this information will impact my future work is quite simple. I now will understand when a child is not immunized and just as always will respect the choices that a parent makes. It takes reading and thinking about certain areas that bring back memories of something you would not think about. I really liked this assignment because it reminded me of the importance of knowing the facts and considering all of your options even when it comes to basic things as “required” immunizations.

A Birth That I Saw

It all started with a phone call that said, “We are going to be induced at 8PM tomorrow and you should bring clothes to stay the night.”

This was my cousin calling to let me know that his wife would be heading to the hospital and that my godson will be born soon. I had promised to be there for everything so that I could take any pictures that they wanted.

I went to the hospital and they induced my cousin and we waited and waited. It took 3 inducements and 2 nights later my cousin was starting to get harder contractions. By the next morning, my cousin was ready to have the baby, but the baby was still not ready to come out! Since I knew that the baby loved hearing his dad’s voice, I talked my cousin into going to the foot of the bed and reading to the baby. The baby starting kicking and moving and it was about an hour later that we were in the process of delivering a baby.

I chose this example because the lead up and the process it took for my godson to come out was amazing. He was and is a determined little boy and the long hours of sitting at the hospital, was well worth it all.

My thoughts on birth are very simple; it’s a natural part of life. My godson came into a warm, inviting hospital room with his mother, father, and godmother there to support him. I believe that because of the process of talking to the baby in the womb and playing with him, my godson will grow up to have a connection with his parents that some may not have.

In America there are doctors and nurses that are there to take care of a mother and baby. In Africa, there are not only doctors and nurses but there are midwives and doulas. The midwife goes into their homes or the hospital and is there to deliver the baby. Doulas are coaches for the mothers and there to relax the mother by reducing stress. It seemed that many women only went to the hospital if things started to turn for the worse. In America birth outside a hospital is mainly unheard of. Both countries are the same though in the thought of having a stress free birth so that the baby comes into the world without the extra stresses that will come later in life.