Consequences of Stress on Children's Development

Natural Disaster: Hurricane Katrina

The devastation of Hurricane Katrina claimed the lives, homes and loved ones during its landfall.  There were a lot of misleading perceptions of the people of New Orleans, but they all were merely trying to survive during this trying time of their life.  With the lack of food, water and other resources, it leads families to do things they had never even thought about before.

A story that comes to mind is one that my family went through.  My sister had just been discharged from the hospital after giving birth to her healthy 8 pound 2 ounce son, only three days prior to the storm hitting landfall in New Orleans.  Of course, like most families throughout the New Orleans Metro Area decided to wait the storm out, especially after just giving birth, however to this day, she will say that her staying in the city was the worst thing she had ever done in her entire life.  When she explained her story to me, it was truly heartfelt. All she could remember was hearing all the water from the levees gushing in, wrapping her son up in blankets and heading into her parent’s attic of their house.  Her family stayed in the attic for a total of 5 days before being rescued, by breaking a hole in the roof of the house and her brother standing on the roof waving to the helicopters to get some assistance. Finally, upon getting assistance, they were then transported to the Superdome. She said it was so many people actually living in the Superdome, she said she had to take matters into her own hands so she was finally able to contact a family member in Montana, whom sent her and the rest of her family train tickets to get out of New Orleans. She explained this time to be extremely stressful and she would not want to wish that experience on anyone.

Disasters in Other Countries

I have never had to go through such a devastating event, such as a Tsunami before, but I’m more than sure that it would be just as stressful. I would like to know what during both devastations there were people from all over the world pitching in to help out through making donations to the American Red Cross, sending  money to local public entities and also here in the surrounding areas of the New Orleans region, citizens were even offering their homes to families. This was extremely welcoming rather than having to sleep on high school gym floors or cots. I can remember watching the news and seeing the aftermath of the Tsunami that occurred Japan. Of course, it was a stressful, challenging and devastating time for the adults of the country, but watching the children in that area walking around, I’m sure was stressful for them as well. There were so many children whom wondered the streets looking for their parents and loved ones during this time, it was just depressing. Save the Children reports that as many as 100,000 children were uprooted from their homes, some of whom were separated from their families because the earthquake occurred during the school day (McCurry, 2011). Regardless the type of disaster, it may have made more of an impact on them if they were old enough to understand what had taken place, while the younger children were just as they were prior to the disaster.

Reference:

McCurry, Justin (15 March 2011). "Japan earthquake: 100,000 children displaced, says charity". The Guardian (London). http://www.webcitation.org/5xD8JCtef. Retrieved 15 March 2011

The Silent Killer among Infants...

Sudden Infant Death Syndrome known as SIDS and the lack of answers is part of what makes this “crib death” so frightening. It's a frightening prospect because it can strike without warning, usually in seemingly healthy babies. Most SIDS deaths are associated with sleep and infants who die of SIDS show no signs of suffering. This topic is extremely dear to my heart because one of my good friends lost her baby boy to SIDS. Like the definition simply explains this syndrome attacks innocent infants in their sleep without anyone knowing until the next morning and of course by then it’s too late.

Although there is no number amount of risk factors leading up to SIDS, several risk factors combined may contribute to cause an at-risk infant to die of SIDS. The Immunization Safety Review Committee was established by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) to evaluate the evidence of possible causal associations between immunizations and certain adverse outcomes. This year they focused on sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) and sudden unexpected death in infancy (SUDI) (Almario and Stratton, 2009).

The issue of association between immunization and SIDS is based on the fact that vaccines are routinely given during the period of the highest incidence of sudden infant death syndrome, which is between 2 and 4 months of age (Almario and Stratton, 2009). In this situation it is necessary to answer the question if the use of vaccines contributes to an increased risk of SIDS or if it is just a coincidence.

Although the rate of SIDS is declining dramatically, about 2,500 infants still die each year from SIDS in the United States. And there are those who believe that vaccinations are responsible for some of these deaths, the theory still has not yet been confirmed. Most deaths due to SIDS occur between 2 and 4 months of age, and incidence increases during cold weather. African-American infants are twice as likely and Native American infants are about three times more likely to die of SIDS than Caucasian infants. More boys than girls fall victim to SIDS (American Academy of Family Physicians, 2012).

There are some other potential risk factors that parents should use safety measures to prevent high risk of their children dying of SIDS, which are smoking, drinking, or drug use during pregnancy, poor prenatal care, prematurity or low birth weight, mothers younger than 20, tobacco smoke exposure following birth, overheating from excessive sleepwear and bedding and, of course, stomach sleeping (American Academy of Family Physicians, 2012).

Even though this is a syndrome every parent dreads of ever having to deal with – a responsible parent would definitely take the precautions to prevent this from happening to their child. SIDS does not discriminate of race, ethnic or part of the world the child lives in. Parents must take all necessary preventative measures.

References:

Almario, D. and Stratton, K. (2009). Immunization Safety Review: Vaccinations and Sudden Unexpected Death in Infancy.  Institute of Medicine, Immunization Safety Review Committee, Board of Health Promotion and Disease Prevention. Retrieved on March 6, 2012 from http://sids.org

American Academy of Family Physicians. (2012). Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). Retrieved on March 6, 2012 from http://kidshealth.org

Childbirth - In My Life & In Africa

The hardest yet most rewarding childbirth that I have experienced was that of my only son, of course.  Like most, I was extremely afraid. I didn’t know what to expect and of course all of my friends and family members were giving my “unwanted” advice and horror stories of when they gave birth. I can remember going into the hospital around 6 in the morning thinking to myself, “this is going to be a breeze!”  The first event that went wrong was the fact that they couldn’t get my IV started, due to the fact I have small, rolling veins and I hadn’t  eaten  anything  since about  7pm the night  before. They had to call in several nurses, including the triage and ICU nurses to attempt to get it. It took about 2 hours, but they were finally able. After about 4 hours I started to feel excruciating pains, but considering I have a sort of high tolerance for pain, I just assumed the pain was coming from my baby lying on one side of my body for too long. After 5 hours of dealing with such pain, I started to scream for epidural. To make a long story short, the pain I was experiencing were from contractions obviously, and after being in labor for about 12 hours our healthy bundle of joy was finally welcomed into the world.

Childbirth as it relates to other countries around the world is extremely different.  For example, in other countries, mothers tend to give birth in the comfort of their home rather than in a managed care setting. They also usually give birth naturally as here in the US epidural is used more often.  Another fact in other countries such as Africa, mothers tend to have multiple births back to back without allowing the body to heal and deplete the mother's essential nutrients, putting her at higher risk for anemia and other complications such as uterine rupture, which in turn puts babies at risk of low birth weight and preterm birth (Russell, 2011). In Niger, a woman gives birth to an average of nearly eight children. Uganda, Mali and Somalia are close behind, with an average of six to seven children per woman. Each pregnancy increases the risk of complications and death. The most common causes of maternal deaths, according to UNICEF, are hemorrhaging, infection, obstructed labor, hypertensive disorders during pregnancy and complications from an unsafe abortion. "The root cause," according to UNICEF's annual State of the World's Children Report, "may lie in women's disadvantaged position in many countries and cultures and in the lack of attention to, and accountability for, women's rights (UNICEF, 2009)."

"Saving the lives of mothers and their newborns requires more than just medical intervention," said UNICEF Executive Director Ann Veneman. "Educating girls is pivotal to improving maternal and neonatal health and also benefits families and societies (UNICEF, 2009)."

I agree with Ms. Veneman in her last comment in regards to educating girls in the schools system. This will help eliminate possible teenage pregnancy and make them into strong respectable young women.

References:

Russell, K. (2011). Childbirth in Developing Countries. World Press. Retrieved from http://www.worldpress.org/Africa/3834.cfm

UNICEF (2009). UNICEF launches flagship report on maternal and newborn health. Retrieved from http://origin-www.unicef.org/sowc/index_47192.html