Childhood Stressors

Personal:
All through out my moms childhood she had to deal with poverty. My grandmother was only 16 when she had her and never finished high school. Once my aunts came along several years later when my mom was 9, my mom had to make sure they were fed and taken care of while my grandmother was at work or off with her boyfriend at the time. There was many times when my mom had to make what she could with what was left in the cabinets to feed my aunts. She would save every bit of money she ever was given and usually spent it on food, never on something for herself. The only time she was able to be a kid was when she was with her aunt who was would give her the world.
Since my mom was a teen mother as well, she made sure that even as she got older she saved every penny since she knew it would be difficult for herself and my dad to provide for 2 kids at 18 and 20 years of age. My siblings and I have never had to go with out food in our belly's or anything we needed. My mother is also always giving money to the homeless and helping out those less fortunate around our neighborhood. And like her aunt, she tries to spend as much time with her nieces and nephews to let them be kids and experience all the great things the world has to offer.

Africa:
It is sad to see any child around the world have to deal with stress that can impact their development. In Africa children have to go through so many harsh times to even survive til adulthood. Most child hood stressors are  poverty, war, traumatic stress, absence of a parent, malnutrition is one of the largest stressors, malaria and other diseases. These are only a few of the things that impact the lives of African children, with so much more out there that are not recorded.
Many agencies are trying everyday to raise funds to send medicine and adequate food to every child in Africa. As for some of the other stressors, only the countries government can protect the children from the effects, but little to none is being done.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/36666785/Traumatic-Stress-in-South-Africa

Public Health: Sudden Infant Death Syndrome

I selected Sudden Infant Death Syndrome or SIDS as most people refer to it because it is something that can occur to any child between the ages of one month to a year. SIDS can occur in any socioeconomic standing or culture and is defined by a child under the age of ones death that is not explained after investigation.

SIDS is the leading cause of death among infants. It can be caused by the child sleeping on their tummy, sleeping in an adult bed or being around second hand smoke. Ways to prevent SIDS is by sleeping the child on a firm mattress, keeping the child's body temperature level and if possible sleep with a pacifier which has been shown to decrease the chances of SIDS.

Across the world, SIDS can be defined differently. Some countries consider SIDS to happen between birth and one year and up to one month and one year. Also difference in investigation and autopsy can establish differences in the cause of a child's death. But in every nation there is several cases of SIDS every year, that occur the same here in the United States.

I found public health information on SIDS highly important because it is a common fear of parents of infants because there is no way to predict it or firmly stop it from happening. The more information that is out there, the better suited parents will be to protect their babies from SIDS. I also selected this because it can happen to any family and any part of the world, it is unfortunately a common death around the world that everyone is impacted by.

Resources:


Cj foundation for sids. (2012). Retrieved from http://www.cjsids.org/resource-center/what-is-sids-suid.html

Hauck, F. (2011). International trends in sudden infant death syndrome: Stablization of rates requires further action. Pediatrics: Official journal of the american acadmey of pediarcs, 303(5), 430-437. Retrieved from http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/122/3/660.long

Child Birth

This blog post is certainly difficult for me because I do not have a personal story of a child birth. I have never had a child or even seen one personally been born. The only information I have about child birth is from what family members have told me, from books and television programs. I understand how this can limit how insightful this blog can be, but that is all I have to go off of.
As for birth in another country, I selected Sudan, Africa. Countries in undeveloped regions continue to have children like they have for centuries, unlike here in America where almost every child is born inside of a hospital. In Sudan most children are born in the home by the village midwife unless they are wealthy or civil servants. The fathers are not present at birth and do not provide any care for the child until they are older. Women are to take a 40 day rest after giving birth when female members of the family will provide meals and do the cleaning. Mothers will spend this time at their family home and return to the husbands village after the child is weened.
Child development in the prenatal stages for America and Sudan are probably different due to the medical care the mothers receive. The birthing experience on the child is probably the same developmentally because not much happens to the child right away, unless their is religious reasons.

http://www.health.qld.gov.au/multicultural/health_workers/sudanese-preg-prof.pdf
http://www.africanoz.com/af_study/sudanchild.pdf