Stress of Hunger and Poverty on a Young Child

A student of mine this year has experienced many of these stressors. Some of the stressors this student experiences are poverty, hunger, and chaos. This student came to school 2 weeks after school had begun. I soon learned that I would have my hands full with this student as he was very active, very low academically and his basic needs at home were not being met. He had been to 6 different schools the previous year, and was currently living out of his car. His mother was a single mother with five other children. At one point, his mother shared they had twenty dollars left for the month. They were in the process of finding a shelter and were able to get one room in a hotel. This mother shared that they were all sleeping in one bed in a one room hotel. It was obvious that when this student came to school he was hungry and tired. The school was able to provide breakfast to this student, and as much support as we could. This mother had a lot of stress on herself trying to find a place to sleep each night and that her children were not receiving the attention they needed. This student would often come to school late and would miss several days in a week/month. Unfortunately, this student moved about 2 months into school. Hopefully this student and his family were able to find a more stable environment.

Puerto Rico just experienced a major natural disaster, being hit with a hurricane that destroyed much of their environment. However, even before this disaster, Puerto Rico experiences much poverty that greatly impacts young children. “The effects of poverty, combined with the trauma of living through a natural disaster, will not fade away easily: The experiences that Puerto Rico’s young children have now directly influence their long-term physical, cognitive, and emotional development” (Novoa, 2017).  

            For example, Puerto Rico imports most food, in recent years, they have made many efforts to increase the production of their own food, but hurricane Maria destroyed many of these crops. Since Puerto Rico does not have a lot of agriculture, and importing food causes many possible problems, as there is concern this food is not “safe” based on how the food is handled once arriving. This problem results in lack of food and a longer process of receiving food which results in hunger (Novoa, 2017).

            In response to the hurricane, USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) is making food assistance by sending food packages that address the immediate need of food. This program is also providing a special supplemental nutrition program for women, infants, and children in order to get the nutritional support they need (Novoa, 2017). With these supports, there are still many areas of need in Puerto Rico, and it will take a large amount of time to get them back to where they were.

References

Novoa, C., (2017). Center for American Progress. Hurricane Maria’s Effects on Young Children in Puerto Rico. Retrieved from: americanprogress.org

Public Health: Immunizations

The public health topic I chose to study this week is immunization. This topic is meaningful to me because as a child and even as an adult I never had to think about whether there was supplies available for me in order to get the latest immunization allowing me to grow up without any complications. In developing countries, prior to the “expanded program on immunization” the children in developing countries were not as fortunate as me (Chan, 2014).  The purpose of this program was to deliver multiple vaccines to multiple children through a schedule (Chan, 2014). This was a challenging process because of where these children are located, there are many difficulties like a financial burden of who is paying for these immunizations. The CDC (Center for Disease Control) as well as The World Health Organization are pushing for more vaccines in the developing countries. Still with all of this support, 6.6 million children still die each year. About half of that number could have been prevented by vaccination (Greenwood, 2014).

This information may impact my future work because the population in the United States is becoming very diverse. Due to this diversity, children from other countries may be coming to the United States, and these children may not have received immunizations.  This could impact other children within the community by potentially spreading disease. In addition to this, there is the possibility that I could have a child from another county in my classroom who may have a complication from a prior illness that could have been prevented if that child was immunized.

References

Chan. M. (2014) The Contribution of Immunization: Saving Millions of Lives, and More. Public Health Reports, 129 (Suppl 3). 7-8

Greenwood. B. (2014). The contribution of vaccination to global health: past, present and future. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: http:// doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2013.0433

My Birth Story

My Personal Birth Story:
On May 3, 1993 while my Mom was at work, her water broke. My father picked her up and drove her to GBMC hospital. At the hospital she was hooked up to pitocin to ensure I was delivered within 24 hours of her water breaking. Labor lasted for 6 hours and I was born at 4:11(6 pounds, 6 ounces)  in the afternoon by a natural birth. During labor, my Mom was not given an epidural, but was given a drug for pain management. Due to the fact that it was given while she was in transition, once I was born, I had some difficulty breathing. The doctors vigorously rubbed my back, and in return I was fine. My Mom and I were sent home from the hospital within 24 hours of my brith.

I chose this example because this is the only birth experience that I have (my own). Birth is very important and has a huge impact on child development. Everyone's birth experience is different and can impact everyone differently. If there is a complication during birth, that complication can truly impact the development of a child. 

A study from Brisbane Australia on African refugee women giving birth in Australia show that women were fearful and felt alone during their birth experience. This study explains that these women had little or no knowledge of their rights that related to their experience in the hospital (Murray, Windsor, Parker and Tewfik, 2010, pg. 463). This sense of "not knowing" was often because of a language barrier. The lack of knowledge also lead to fear, distrust, and suspicion when it came to their child's birth. The longer these women lived in Australia they became more comfortable because the language barrier was not as big (Murray et al. 2010, pg.463).

The African refugees experience compared to my Mother's experience was very different. Living in the United States and speaking English, there was not a language barrier. In addition to this, my Mother was well educated throughout her pregnancy of what was to come. These refugee women were unsure of the process and the steps that took place in order to birth their child. These women did not trust their doctors until their child was born, but my Mother had trust in her doctors from the time she found out she was pregnant. These African refugees have a very different experience from my mother and it is hard to determine a similarity between these experiences other than both the African refugees and my mother gave birth in a hospital.

After reading this article, I can imagine how terrifying this experience must be for these women, and how not knowing, or trusting the process could truly impact the child development of their new born. Not having trust in the doctors could result in complications with the birth, which could result in complication with the child's development. My Mother's birthing experience in the U.S was smooth without any unforeseen complications. She was aware of what was happening and what was to come.

Reference

Murray, L., Windsor, C., Parker, E., & Tewfik, O. (2010). The experiences of African women giving birth in Brisbane, Australia. Health Care For Women international, 31(5), 458-472. doi:10,108/07399330903548928