Stress on Children's Development

The impact of domestic violence on young children:

When I was growing up I felt that overall any stress that was occurring within the family was managed fairly well.  I feel that I was very lucky to have a good childhood.  However, for my mother and her siblings they were not as fortunate.  My grandfather was an alcoholic and was very abusive to my grandmother.  There was never any direct abuse to the children but the children were witnesses of domestic violence and alcoholism. They grew up in a house that was very volatile and were always fearful as they never knew what was going to trigger a violent episode.  My grandfather did work away for some days at a time.  The children loved this time, as this was the only guaranteed time of peace within the house.  However, when the children would hear his truck pull up in the drive way, they would get physically ill.  Their stomachs churned and would induce an instant upset stomach.  The stresses of living in this type of environment impacted the development of my mother and her siblings in different ways.  I believe this was due to the age of the children, their own personalities, birth order and the roles in which each of the children took on with in the dynamics of the family in order to cope with the situation.  My mother was the third of three girls, then had a younger brother.  There were three years between each of the girls and then seven years from my mother and the brother. 

The oldest took on the role as an overachiever.  She threw herself into her studies at school.  This was her escape of the her home life.  She also lived in shame and embarrassment.  As she grew up she strived for nothing but the best.  She had a career, the big house and fancy car.  She provided every opportunity for her own daughter.  But many times her expectations were so high, it made it hard for those to live up to.

The middle child took on the role as the rebellious one.  She would be defiant and stood her ground.  She would not back down and butted-heads with her parents.  I feel this was how she could control something in her life.  As she grew up she was very strong and an independent person. 

My mother took on the role as the peace-keeper.  She would play a lot with her dolls and not doing anything to cause trouble.  She was obedient and did what was expected without being told.  As her middle sister would stand-off with her parents, she would try to convince her sister to just listen and do what she was told.  This was just to keep the peace.  As my mother grew up she maintained her role as a peace- keeper as she was flexible and would adjust to what others wanted. 

The youngest child was always wound-up and had poor social-emotional skills.  As he grew to be older he did not exhibit a strong sense of self and had a period in which he turned to unhealthy behaviors to diminish his pain. 

Even though each child took on different roles to help them cope, they also created a network among themselves and took care of each other.  This has carried on throughout their lives as they have provided much support to their own children as well as to other in the family during a crisis or in a time of need.  They all have a strong sense of family and would be there for anyone. 

The impact of war on young children:

In researching the impacts of war on young children I found not to my surprise that war impacts every domain of their development.  Children are being physically wounded, maimed and even die from results of gunfire, bombs and mines.  The economic impact that war has on a community is devastating.  It destroys the infrastructure, jobs and housing.  Children's basic needs are not being met.  Children go without shelter, food and clean water.  This impacts their nutrition and in turn their physical and cognitive development.  The psychological effects on children is many suffer from post traumatic disorders.  This can impact their social and emotional development and their future relationships.

 I did research on what is happening in Afghanistan.  This county has been in turmoil due to war for numerous decades.  As such it has left Afghanistan as one of the most dangerous places for women and children.  According to the organization War Child, one in seven children will not see their fifth birthday.  War Child has assisted children in Afghanistan by establishing childhood development centers in which children ages four to six can attend an early learning school environment, socialize with other children, have snacks, while being in a safe place.  Other programs have been established in order to provide education and work skills to older children that will need to work in order to help support their families financially.

Reference:  http://www.warchild.org.uk/about

Child Development and Public Health

All of the topics of choice are very important to the healthy development of children.  I chose the topic of nutrition/malnutrition.  I feel that proper nutrition is so important for prenatal development and development of infants and children.  Proper nutrients provides the body with the nourishment it needs to develop the brain, organs, and the overall health of a child.  Without proper nutrition children are at risk for not growing properly, not developing cognitive skills, and are more at risk for being sick.  Children that are not healthy will struggle in school which could cause them to lag behind.  Children that are often sick are more susceptible to more life threatening diseases due to a weaker immune system.  Children that experience poor nutrition are also more than likely to carry the side effects into adulthood.  Those of us in the early childhood field need to be aware of the effects of  nutrition has on child development.  It is important for the programs that offer meals during the day to the children that are in their care to know what foods promote healthy growth and development.  These programs must be responsible in  providing healthy well-balanced meals to the children they serve.  USDA provides guidelines on the proper serving sizes and components that are required for a healthy meal.  However, there is much debate over the school lunch programs which follow USDA guidelines.  Early childhood programs that are encompassed with school systems have to rely on those resources.  Michelle Obama's initiative on reforming school lunches has brought much awareness due to the rise in childhood obesity.   I also keep in mind that for programs that work with low income families, for some of these children the meals that they have at our programs may be the only meals they have that day or be the better of the meals they have that day.


In researching nutrition in other parts of the world, Unicef has provided some interesting findings in a document titled Improving Child Nutrition, the achievable imperative for global progress.  The document provides information on nutrition and malnutrition around the world.  "Poor nutrition in the first 1,000 days of children's lives can have irreversible consequences.  For millions of children, it means they are, forever, stunted" (Unicef, 2013).  The effects of stunting for children are overall poor health and development delays in growth and learning.   Africa is still an area of the world in which malnutrition still exists at high rates.  Though there has been improvement, many children die of malnutrition.  However with that said, with the efforts of Unicef, there have many nutrition programs supporting prenatal nutrition as well as child nutrition in these under developed parts of Africa. 

A Birthing Experience

It was Christmas Eve in 1988 about 7pm.  I was at my parents house, nine months pregnant and the house was full of family.  Dinner was just about ready.  I went over to rearrange some gifts under the tree, my aunt told me not to be doing that or I'll go into labor.  Not long after that I felt a pain and then my water broke.  I opened gifts really quick and ate a few bites of the holiday dinner.  Off to the hospital I went  mixed with the emotion of being excited and a little scared, this was my first baby and didn't know what to expect.  After getting checked in and getting settled in a room I was examined and to my surprise even though my water broke, I hadn't dilated.   So every so often I would get checked and minimal progress had happened.  So in the wee hours of Christmas Day it was decided I needed to have pitocin to assist with progressing my labor.  Since my water broke I had a time limit of 24 hours to deliver or have a C-section due to the risk of the infection due to what was called a dry birth.  Whoa, those contractions were intense.  Unfortunately I wasn't able to have any pain medication until I had dilated to a certain point.  Finally I was able to get an epidural to relieve the pain.  Finally at 5:01pm on Christmas Day my beautiful daughter was born. She was 8lbs and 2oz  and 20 1/2 inches long.   Even though I had pain medication she was alert and very healthy.   I will never forgot when the doctor handed her to me.  It was the most amazing feeling in the world, to hold your child.   My hospital experience was good.  The doctor and nurses were nice. My doctor was from the old school and no extra family members were allowed in.  Since it was Christmas the babies in the nursery had little stockings laying over their blankets, it definitely was the best gift! 

Four years later I was expecting my second child. Again it was December but early in the month.   I was at the doctor's office for my routine exam and I was told I was 2 cm dilated.  I was so excited, I always heard the second baby comes quicker.  So after a 22 hour labor with my first go around I was thinking this will be much easier.  My doctor and I went ahead and set the date for me to be induced. My doctor was getting concerned that the baby might be too big.  So around 6am on December 4, 1992 I was induced.  Since I was already dilated the doctor thought the baby would be here in the afternoon.   Well my labor wasn't progressing like they thought  so I was given pitocin.  Again this made the contractions so intense that I needed an epidural.  The doctor now thought the baby would be here by dinner time.  Well dinner time came and went and still no baby.  Finally at 11:38pm my second beautiful daughter was born.  She did come quicker that her older sister but a long, intense labor still occurred.   She was 8lbs and 4oz and 18 1/2 inches long.  She was healthy but was a little jaundice but everything ended up being alright. I will also never forgot when the doctor first handed her to me, it was the best feeling in the world!   I was lucky to have a great hospital experience.  I felt this experience was probably better than my first.  I had a different  doctor and he was great and all the staff made me feel very comfortable.   My mom was allowed to stay and that was an amazing experience for her.

I read about the birthing experiences in South Africa.  I was very alarmed to the fact in how rude, unprofessional and unsafe the birthing experience can be.  It has been reported for many years about the maternal death rates during childbirth.  In Eastern Cape Province, there are numerous reports of abuse to pregnant mothers by the health staff, low standards of care and women actually being denied access to the hospital.  Once admitted to the hospital, patients report conditions that are unimaginable.  Women report being verbally and physically abused for bleeding during labor.  After delivery mothers and their babies are left unattended for hours.  Some women in need of medications are not given them and those needing serious treatments experienced delays in receiving such treatment.  Many women were released from the hospital with no care plan.  The worse was if a woman or child died during childbirth the family was not given a reason.  It was also noted that the filing of complaints in South Africa does not seem to have any impact as the process does not function properly.  There has been a call for the government to take action but little seems to happen.

Reference:
Nordqvist, C. (2011,August 8).  "The Shocking Truth About Giving Birth In South Africa." Medical News Today. Retrieved from http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/232413.