Childhood Stressors

The childhood stressor that I have been most in contact with through working at a homeless women and children's shelter is poverty. I have seen many children living in poverty and the effect it has on them. I have also seen mothers that grew up in poverty that are now raising their children in similar circumstances. The main way I have seen children coping that are living in poverty is to pull close to their siblings. I am thinking of a particular family of three children that at times were living with a violent, drug using and neglectful mother. The children ranged in age of 6, 4, and 2. The children in this family were so bonded to each other and cared for each other. The oldest child acted so much older than he really was. He cared for the younger children and treated them in a way a parent would. I saw these children surviving by relying on their relationship as siblings. This family also relied on government assistance for food and clothing and non profit services for shelter and schooling.

I am interested in researching childhood poverty in the United States. I would like to know more about poverty in our own country because I feel it connects with my first hand experience with this stressor. In 2011 it was reported that 23% of American children (roughly 16 million) are living below the poverty line and their family's annual income is less than $22,00.00 for a family of 4. 1 out of every 4 children are living in a family where they can no longer afford to live in their home. The poverty rate among African American children in the US is 38.2%, which is higher than any other race in the country. One last affect that I found shocking was that only 3 other countries (Mexico, Chile, and Turkey) in the developed world have a higher childhood poverty rate than the US. Some of the things being done to support children in poverty include government assistance like food stamps, and housing assistance. We also provide free and reduced meals in our schools for children living in poverty to reduce the harm of this stressor. There are also countless non profit organizations that provide mentors, food banks, clothing and supply drives and counseling to children living in poverty. The US government also provides monetary support for schools that have a certain number of low income children attending.

References
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/social-issues/poor-kids/by-the-numbers-childhood-poverty-in-the-u-s/

http://onpoint.wbur.org/2013/06/25/child-poverty-America

The Impact of Healthy Water in Child Devleopment

   I chose to research this topic because I read that so many people and children are affected by not having clean drinking water throughout the world. I was shocked to read that up to 1 billion people in the world do not have access to healthy drinking water. When I read that statistic, I realized this was a relevant topic to research for anyone in the early childhood field. 
   Because this topic is so widespread throughout the world, I decided to research world-wide facts about drinking water and also to focus on facts from Africa. Not only is clean water a problem in Africa, but so is a consistent, stable water supply in general. On average, women and children in Africa have to walk 3.7 miles to collect water. That water is not guaranteed to be clean water or to be free of parasites that could cause sickness or death. I also learned that not only do people around the world have a lack of water supply but they are much more likely to become sick and even die from the water they do consume. One statistic that I found shocking was that "about 1.8 million child-deaths a year are due to diarrhea". which can be caused by un sanitized water and the death can also be caused by dehydration. Africa and Asian countries seem to be suffering from a lack of clean water greatly. "In a typical year in Africa, 5-10 times the number of people die from diarrhea than of war" and "In a sub-Saharan country a child is 500 times more likely to die from diarrhea than a child from Europe".
   The more facts I read about the lack of clean water for children in other parts of the world, the more sad and shocked I was. I wondered why this is such a big problem for so many parts of the world, yet in America we use and waste water because we have no restrictions or lack of supply. I wondered why there is such a huge disparity between my life and a child's life in other countries. As I was reading, I also found many organizations that offer help to people living in these water conditions. One example of an organization is The Water Project. Their projects work with communities to build clean water wells and educates people about how to create clean water. The Water Project also encourages people to drink only water for 2 weeks (to save money from not drinking other products) and to donate the money they saved ($23) to provide one person to access to clean water. Another organization that donates packets of cleansing chemicals to communities that purifies their water (P&G Children's Safe Drinking Water and PUR).
   The information I have learned in the very least will make me more cognizant of over using and wasting water in my home and every day life. I would also be interested in donating or running fundraiser through The Water Project. They have a free packet on their website with a lot information packets and posters that would make it very easy to start and run a fundraiser in a school or church setting.
Reference
Scott, M. 2009. 40 shocking facts about water. Retrieved September 14, 2013 from http://matadornetwork.com/change/40-shocking-facts-about-water/.

 

 

A Birthing Experience

I have never been able to witness a birth first-hand, so I am going to reflect on what I have been told by my parents about my own birth. I am the second child of my mother's and was carried full term. My older brother was born via cesarean after almost 12 hours of labor. My mother wanted to have a natural childbirth free of medications or surgeries if possible. I was born in a hospital in Baltimore, MD after almost 12 hours of labor. The main story my mother has told me over and over again is that she was very upset and scared towards the end of her labor because her doctor had to use forceps for me to be delivered. I also know that my mother was relived to find out I was "only" 10 pounds because my older brother was 12 pounds. My personal thoughts on childbirth are that everyone has a different experience. I think that every woman has to decide what is right for her body and her baby and should feel accepted by the people around her for her decisions. I think that childbirth a lot of times is the first glimpse into how a person will parent their child. I know for myself, my mother had as natural a childbirth as she could in the early 1980's and her parenting styled mimicked her births in that way.
I explored childbirth in the Philippines. I was interested in this country because I lived there for 3 years when I was in elementary and middle school. I always love to learn more about that country through adult eyes. What I read said that there is often a lot of superstition practices throughout a woman's pregnancy and also tied to the use of birth control in this country. There were two main options for the actual childbirth. The first was government run hospitals for the nearly 40% of urban poor or at home childbirth. I also read that childbirth can be seen as a family event and there is not much privacy for a laboring woman. Every female relative is usually present at a birth and throughout the labor. What I read of the government run hospitals for much of the urban poor is that you need to have cash and family members to care for you during your labor. The cash is so that you can pay for the materials that are needed for you labor or baby. I also read that in some government run hospitals, sanitary practices are not the same as those in the United States. One midwife described a doctor running surgical instruments under tap water before using them on a mother and having 4-5 mothers laboring in a group bed at the same time. Researching births in other countries is interesting to me because even though people birth different ways and may not have all the luxuries we have in the US, woman still have beautiful experiences that end with beautiful children.