Violence and Natural Diasters

Working in the public school system I have come across a lot of different situations. The first situation I want to talk about gun violence and children. While doing my student teaching in a pre-k classroom I came across Gregory. He did not speak much and seemed very attached to the teacher. Everyday it was a fight to get Gregory on the bus to go home. I also noticed strange behaviors of pulling his shirt up and touching his chest. After several weeks of strange behavior from Gregory the teacher did not know what to do. One day his grandmother came to pick him up and we asked her about his behavior. She told us that while he was playing in the yard in front of his home there was a drive by shooting. Gregory was shoot several times in the chest. He could still feel the places in his chest where the bullets went in. The family still stayed in the home where this happened and that is why he did not want to go home everyday. When the grandmother told us this information we were finally able to understand why he acted the way he did. The teacher was able to get him help and help him cope better. The ICARE counselor at the school began talking to him and was able to talk to his mom to help him cope.

The stress of gun violence for Gregory is like the stress of a Tsunami that hit Sri Lanka in 2004.
According to the article in Child Development magazine. A study was done by researchers at California State University, Los Angeles, looked at more than 400 Sri Lanka youths ages 11 to 20 who survived the tsunami. Specifically, the study found that while war and disaster have had a direct effect on the youths' psychological health, poverty, family violence, and lack of safe housing also represent major sources of continuing stress.Eighty percent of the children interviewed after the tsunami had been directly affected by the tidal wave, with many telling tales of struggling in the water. Sixty to 90 percent of the children also reported war-related experiences, such as witnessing bombings or seeing dead bodies.The study found that all of the adverse experiences contributed significantly to the children's difficulties adapting. Particularly stressful were very severe exposure to trauma, loss of family members, and domestic violence. Many religious organizations and others such as the red cross have been offering counseling to the children and to all that were affected by what happened.

The tusami reminds me of what Louisiana went through when Hurricane Katrina hit. So many families were broken. Homes were destroyed and has to adapt so quickly. I was in college when it happened and it affected me with so many of my family coming from New Orleans. My mother had a house full of people for a few weeks until they were able to go out on their own. No one in my family had small children at the time. I love though that through this time people came together and it made communities stronger because of it.

References
Fernando, G.A. (2010) The impact of disaster related and daily stressors on the Psychological and Psychosocial Functioning of the Youth in Sri Lanka. Child development, Vol. 81, Issue 4.
.

Breastfeeding

According to www.mumsweb.com Breast milk is perfectly suited to the baby it's made for. If a baby is born prematurely, that mother's milk will be higher in iron than it would have been had the baby gone to full term. As each baby grows, mother's breasts produce milk which changes in volume and composition to meet the baby's changing needs.
Breastfeeding is meaningful me because I breastfeed my son for the first 4 months. I felt that it was a bonding experience. I feel closer to my son because of it. I have also noticed that he does not get sick as much as other children. I found that people in the United States do not breastfeed as much as people in the other countries. In India breastfeeding is a necessity for the poor people who live in the slums, but in the middle and upper class breastfeeding is becoming less common because the women are being consumed by being working mothers. I find that more women need to breastfeed. I will use this knowledge to tell more women about breastfeeding. I will do my part by breastfeeding any future children I have. I want more women to protect their children like I did against illness.

Giving Birth

The birth of Brandon. I went into labor on Wednesday, July 18 at 8:36 p.m. While standing in the kitchen I felt a sharp pain hit me. I grabbed the back of a chair to hold myself up while going through the contraction. After it passed I began to walk, when another one hit me. I then looked over to the clock on the stove to began timing the contractions. After my contractions got closer together I yelled to my husband that I needed to go to the hospital. My husband was so nervous he was laughing. (It was not funny to me.) When we got to the hospital I was wheeled to the maternity ward. The doctor came in and checked me. She said "You are not that far along. We will keep you for a while and if you are not further along we will send you back home." After about an hour and a half the doctor came back in and while she was checking my cervix my water broke on her hand. "I guess your staying," she said. Around 8:00 am the next morning the doctor came in and said that his heart was not beating correctly and they needed to take him. My husband who faints at the sight of anyone's blood but his own asked my mother in law to go into surgery with me. They wheeled me into surgery and at 9:56 am I gave birth to a 8lb 9oz, 19 inch long baby boy.

I choose this birth experience because it is the only one I have experienced. My husband and I are the oldest of our siblings and no one else has had children. I think giving birth to a child made me realize how proud I am to be a mother. It is amazing how you feel an automatic connection to someone you just met.

I saw the movie Babies. In this movie they follow babies from their birth to about 4 years old of four women from around the world. In the beginning of the movie they show how each woman gives birth. A woman in Africa is in a hut crouched down on the dirt floor giving birth while a midwife stands on the side. As the baby comes out she reaches down a grabs the baby.When he is all the way out she pulls him up and puts him on her chest. The woman gets no medical care or anything. It is funny how in America we rush to the hospital when we give birth, but in other countries they can just give birth in a corner. This woman needed no drugs or anything. It makes you think if all the things we go through to give birth are necessary?

Even though this woman and I had almost completely different birthing experiences we both still felt automatic connections to our babies. I don't think how a child is born, natural or with drugs, makes a difference on the development of a child. As long as their are no complications during birth I think all children will develop at an appropriate rate.