Stressors of Poverty

 We define poverty as not being able to afford food, clothing, or shelter but the definition of poverty is defined depending on where you live. Here in the United States, poverty can be defined as not being able to afford to tend to your health, medicine, transportation, not being educated, or finding a job. For example, what if a summer camp was preparing for an end of the summer trip and it required for families to pay $25 a month per child? A family that is not able to afford this can be considered as being in poverty. By this definition of poverty I and others that were in my community experienced poverty growing up as a child.

There are many programs that help families in need such as WIC, Food stamps, Medicaid, and Subsidized Housing. These programs help you with nutritional necessities for children, food, insurance, and sometimes rent. These are all great resources for help but there is also a downfall to these. A family can make $1 or 25 cents too much and do not qualify for these programs. Families who need help with things these programs provide sometimes just have to do the best they can. One common resource that a lot of people I know used growing up was the Free Health Clinic as a child for health and dental checkups or let alone just didn’t go to the doctor at all unless an emergency occurred.

Growing up, we did have transportation, food, and shelter but we could not afford to keep up with the fashions, participate in many extracurricular activities, or have many family outings including trips. As a child I would always say that when I grew up I would work hard so that I could have more. Being the oldest of three, I would always dream about taking care of my mother and two brothers. Experiencing not being able to have certain things as a child, I see that it still has effects on me. I now still try to take care of my mother and my brothers. As a mother, I buy so many things for my children because I don’t want them to ever go without wanting or needing anything.

Poverty can affect an entire family and their health. Poverty can cause children to “have stunted growth, iron deficiency, and severe asthma.” (Driscoll and Nagel 2010). Not only does poverty effect a child’s well-being but also a child’s education. “A study conducted by the U.S. Department of Education found that for every year a child spends in poverty, there is the chance that the child will fall behind grade level by age 18.” (Driscoll and Nagel 2010).  A child being bullied for the things that they don’t have can cause them to avoid going to school and going out to steal what they want and can’t afford. Some children may have to quit school and work jobs just to help their families out with costs which can cause the future to repeat itself and live just like the past meaning that the children will follow in their parent’s footsteps and grow up continuing the cycle of living in poverty.

Due to poverty in Brazil, the society lack education, housing, health care, and nutrition. One hundred and fifty thousand children under five die every year because of hunger. Thousands of children live on the streets and are abandoned by their parents because they are unable to afford to raise them. In result, these children have turned to drugs, prostitution, and commit crimes in order to survive. In order to help these children, the government has developed programs through the Ministry of Social Assistance to combat the poverty and starvation.

References

Driscoll, A., Nagel, N.G. (2010, July 20). Poverty and the effects on children and families. Retrieved from http://www.education.com/reference/poverty-effects-children-parents/

Kadmiel. (n.d.). Facts & statistics about poverty in Brazil. Retrieved from http://kadmiels.hubpages.com/hub/Poverty-in-Brazil.

Breastfeeding Infants

The public health topic that I chose for this week was breastfeeding. The reason I chose this topic is that I have experience with breastfeeding. Breastfeeding has many pros but there are also some cons.  I have experienced both the good and the bad. Breastfeeding is something that is

The best thing about breast milk is that it’s free. It doesn't’ cost you anything and it is readily available.  . Breast milk is very nutritious for the baby, helps fight against diseases, easy for infants to digestive, decreases the infant risk of SIDS, and helps to promote brain development. Not only is breastfeeding good for the baby but also for the mother. Breast milk helps you to bond better with your baby and also helps you to lose weight no matter what you eat.

Breastfeeding also has its downside. It is very time consuming because infants tend to feed every 2 to 3 hours throughout the day and night. Breastfeeding can be inconvenient for working mother because in order to keep your milk supply you have to pump and some jobs may not offer enough breaks to do so. Mothers do not always produce enough milk so this can become very stressful. When babies don’t feed properly the results can be painful and you may develop things such as sore nipples, mastitis, clogged milk ducts, or engorgement.

Breastfeeding is natural but to us American mothers it becomes kind of uncomfortable for us, discouraging, or embarrassing when baby wants to feed in public. In our society we hide, cover up, or make sure we have enough privacy when breastfeeding our little ones. In Ghana, the women just breastfeed right in public without rushing the baby to hurry up and feed. This is something so common that the public doesn’t even react to it. In Ghana this is just the norm. If a mother in Ghana decides to wait to feed her crying baby because of the fear of exposing herself to breastfeeding, she is looked upon with frowns. I applaud these women and their society of having so much courage by responding immediately to their children  and making sure that not them but their babies are comfortable when feeding.

Reference

Shlonda. (2011). March14. Breastfeeding in Ghana. Retrieved from  http://silentyetleading.blogspot.com/2011/03/breastfeeding-in-ghana.html

My Childbirth Experience and Births Around the World

For this assignment, I chose to speak on the birth of my oldest child. He is my oldest out of the two of my children and will be celebrating his second birthday on the 28^th of this month. I chose him because his birth was my first experience and I didn’t know what to expect. I remember how nervous I was when being admitted in the hospital because all I could think about was that I was about to become someone’s mother and was just hoping that I would do my best at being the best mother possible.

My labor was induced because I was about 3 days overdue having a lot of contractions but wasn’t dilating that much. First, they inserted a strip with medication called Cervidil. This is something that is inserted into your cervix to help soften it and prepare it for child birth. I was still experiencing contractions but they were now sometimes lasting for 3 to5 minutes at a time but I was too stubborn to get an epidural until my mother mainly forced me into getting one because she hated seeing me in pain.

I had to turn and lay on my left and right side all through the night until the baby started to get upset about me laying on my right so the nurses decided for me to lay only on my left. Once I was given Pitocin, a medicine that helps you to dilate, he got upset because he didn’t like the medicine so they stopped it. After a couple of hours he was in distress and had his first meconium inside of me so the doctor decided to do an emergency C-section because the meconium could have become poisonous to the baby.

 When having a C-section only one person is allowed in the operating room so we chose my children’s father. He was so slow and kept procrastinating when putting on the operating clothes until he finally admitted that he was too afraid and nervous to see the minor operation so he decided to let my mother go in his place. She was very supportive, comforted me, and kept me calm the entire time. Once they were pulling him out of my womb, he still wasn’t ready to come so he held on pulling to stay in while they were pulling to get him out. After a few minutes I was blessed with an 8lb 9oz beautiful, serious, and very hungry baby boy.

This was one of the most amazing experiences that I have had in my life and I was able to experience it again a year later with my baby girl. My pregnancy had an impact on his child development because we are both stubborn. I was stubborn during my pregnancy because I never wanted to go to the hospital when experiencing pains and when it came to being injected because I am very nervous when it comes to needles and he was so stubborn during the birthing process and still is to this very day.

“Most nations have fewer cesareans then the United States, but some-----especially in Latin America----- have more. In every nation, both the safety and the incidence of cesareans have increased over the past two decades, with the most dramatic increases in China.” (Berger 2012). According to the article: Why Does China Have the Highest C-Section Rate, Mara Hvistendahl stated that most women in China choose to have cesareans because they are able to pick their due dates, they are afraid that vaginal births will have an influence on their sex life, or just the simple fact that everyone else is having surgery.

C-sections get more complicated the more you get. My first seem as though it was quicker than the second and I healed faster with less pain. My doctor informed me that with each C-section they tug more and it is not as easy as they previous when taking the baby out, I’m guessing from getting cut in the exact same spot. It was so true because I was in so much pain that had had to take pain meds every 6 hours. This is not something that women in China have to worry about because of the one-child law. “Ultimately, the one-child policy’s most significant contribution to China’s high C-section rate may lie in having erased any fear of the complications cesareans create for later deliveries. After all, the cesarean’s most significant risks to the mother—like a ruptured uterus or hemorrhaging caused by abnormalities in the placenta—only arise with later births.” (Hvisrendahl  2012).

References

Berger, K. S. (2012). The developing person through childhood (6^th ed.). New York, NY: Worth Publishers.

Hvistendah, M. (2013) January 3. Why does china have the highest C-section rate? Retrieved from http://www.slate.com/articles/double_x/doublex/2012/01/cesarean_nation_why_do_nearly_half_of_chinese_women_deliver_babies_via_c_section_.single.html