Stress on a Child's Development: Violence

I picked violence even though I was not exposed to it as a child, as far as I can remember. However I do feel as if it is an important subject. I am a part of an organization called NOVA, which is Network for Overcoming Violence and abuse, so this subject is near and dear to my heart. NOVA is a network of public and private agency partners connecting a community of trained adults to children and youth exposed to violence — for trauma counseling, parenting support and other family assistance (NOVA 2012). I am a part of this organization not just because it is my job but because I care about the welfare of our children and know the damaging effects of what this exposure can do to them. I am a CSEFEL Specialist (center on social emotional foundations of early learning) at LeBonheur Children’s Hospital in Memphis, TN as a part of their Community Health & Well Being division. My job is to train childcare providers on dealing with and identifying children that have behavior problems or that have been exposed to domestic violence. I train them on teaching children social emotional skills and dealing with children that have behavior problems. I am the support system for teachers so that their teaching can go beyond school work and teach children ways to deal with problems faced in their lives.

The Network for Overcoming Violence and Abuse (NOVA) is a Shelby County system of care being initiated in Memphis neighborhoods in the Raleigh-Frayser and Hickory Hill areas that connects children exposed to violence and abuse - and their families - to counseling and other support services. Too many families in our communities - and far too many children - have experienced the trauma that comes with seeing or experiencing violence of all kinds. The good news is help is available.

NOVA is a response to the problem of trauma that happens after exposure to violence. NOVA offers all the help that children and their families need to put the hurt behind them, to heal, and to live their lives with hope. Real hope.

Get more info at: http://www.shelbycountynova.net/about.htmls

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I found an article on violence in Iraq and its impact on the children that witness it.

Children of war: the generation traumatized by violence in Iraq

Growing up in a war zone takes its toll as young play games of murder and mayhem

Michael Howard in Baghdad

The Guardian, Monday 5 February 2007

 

 

Iraqi boys in a refugee camp in Baghdad play with toy guns. Photograph: Namir Noor-Eldeen/Reuters

The car stopped at the makeshift checkpoint that cut across the muddy backstreet in western Baghdad. A sentry appeared. "Are you Sunni or Shia?" he barked, waving his Kalashnikov at the driver. "Are you with Zarqawi or the Mahdi army?"

"The Mahdi army," the driver said. "Wrong answer," shouted the sentry, almost gleefully. "Get him!"

The high metal gate of a nearby house was flung open and four gun-toting males rushed out. They dragged the driver from his vehicle and held a knife to his neck. Quickly and efficiently, the blade was run from ear to ear. "Now you're dead," said a triumphant voice, and their captive crumpled to the ground.

Then a moment of stillness before the sound of a woman's voice. "Come inside boys! Your dinner is ready!" The gunmen groaned; the hapless driver picked himself up and trundled his yellow plastic car into the front yard; the toy guns and knives were tossed by the back door. Their murderous game of make-believe would have to resume in the morning.

Abdul-Muhammad and his five younger brothers, aged between six and 12, should have been at school. But their mother, Sayeeda, like thousands of parents in Iraq's perilous capital city, now keeps her boys at home. Three weeks ago, armed men had intercepted their teacher's car at the school gates, then hauled him out and slit his throat. Just like in their game.

"That day they came home and they were changed because of the things they'd seen," said Sayeeda as she ladled rice into the boys' bowls. "The youngest two have been wetting their beds and having nightmares, while Abdul-Muhammad has started bullying and ordering everyone to play his fighting games. I know things are not normal with them. My fear is one day they will get hold of real guns. But in these times, where is the help?"

The boys live with their widowed mother and uncle in a modest family house in al-Amil, a once peaceful, religiously mixed suburb in western Baghdad that is yielding to the gunmen, street by street. Similar tales of growing up in the war zone are heard across the country.

Parents, teachers and doctors contacted by the Guardian over the past three months cite a litany of distress signals sent out by young people in their care - from nightmares and bedwetting to withdrawal, muteness, panic attacks and violence towards other children, sometimes even to their own parents.

Amid the statistical haze that enshrouds civilian casualties, no one is sure how many children have been killed or maimed in Iraq. But psychologists and aid organisations warn that while the physical scars of the conflict are all too visible - in hospitals and mortuaries and on television screens - the mental and emotional turmoil experienced by Iraq's young is going largely unmonitored and untreated.

In a rare study published last week, the Association of Iraqi Psychologists (API) said the violence had affected millions of children, raising serious concerns for future generations. It urged the international community to help establish child psychology units and mental health programmes. "Children in Iraq are seriously suffering psychologically with all the insecurity, especially with the fear of kidnapping and explosions," the API's Marwan Abdullah told IRIN, the UN-funded news agency. "In some cases, they're found to be suffering extreme stress," he said.

Sherif Karachatani, a psychology professor at the University of Sulaymaniya, said: "Every day another innocent child is orphaned or sees terrible things children should never see. Who is taking care of the potentially enormous damage being done to a generation of children?"

There are well-founded fears, he said, that the "relentless bloodshed and the lack of professional help will see Iraq's children growing up either deeply scarred or so habituated to violence that they keep the pattern going as they enter adulthood".

The country's overstretched hospitals cannot cope with psychological trauma and many of the best doctors have either fled the country or been killed. The problems are compounded by the stigma that psychological and psychiatric care carries. "They don't bring their children in for treatment, fearing they will be labelled as mad," Dr Karachatani said.

The field is left to small local and foreign NGOs and to hard-pressed Iraqi psychologists, who are not immune to bloodshed. In December, Harith Hassan, one of Iraq's most prominent child psychologists, was shot dead as he drove to work. A regular commentator in the Iraqi media known for his ruthlessly honest comments about the Iraqi mindset, Dr Hassan had worked with victims of trauma. And he had been determined to wean Iraqi youth from their obsession with the gun.

Impact of Domestic Violence on Children

Impact of Domestic Violence on Children

Public Health: SIDS

I picked the topic of SIDS because I had a little cousin whose death was caused by it. I had heard of SIDS before but it wasn’t until this happened that I really looked into it. SIDS is the sudden and unexplained death of an infant who is younger than 1 year old. There are many factors that could possibly contribute to a child dying of SIDS but the real cause is still questionable. There are things that you can do to prevent a baby from succumbing to this horrible disease.

The following have been linked to a baby's increased risk of SIDS:

·         Sleeping on the stomach (Back 2 Sleep)

·         Being around cigarette smoke while in the womb or after being born

·         Sleeping in the same bed as their parents (co-sleeping)

·         Soft bedding in the crib

·         Multiple birth babies (being a twin, triplet, etc.)

·         Premature birth

·         Having a brother or sister who had SIDS

·         Mothers who smoke or use illegal drugs

·         Being born to a teen mother

·         Short time period between pregnancies

·         Late or no prenatal care

·         Living in poverty situations

Most deaths due to SIDS occur between 2 and 4 months of age. 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.

International Look at SIDS

I researched the comparison of SIDS in other countries versus the USA and I found that in 2005, the U.S. rate ranked second highest (after New Zealand) among 13 countries in a research study. The lowest SIDS rates among these countries were in the Netherlands and Japan.

International SIDS Rates, Ordered from Lowest to Highest SIDS Rate in 2005

Even though there had been a decline in the rates of infants dying from SIDS, the number is still too high. We as a society must work on so many different factors to help reduce this number significantly. We have to try and decrease teen pregnancy, making sure that mothers are taking care of themselves when pregnant and putting our babies to sleep on their backs. There are many other factors we can work on but it will have to be a worldly effort. Education is the key to success in any situation and we need to get the word out more, so that we can save the lives of our babies.

References:

Task Force on Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. The changing concept of sudden infant death syndrome: diagnostic coding shifts, controversies regarding the sleeping environment, and new variables to consider in reducing risk. Pediatrics. 2005

Committee on Fetus and Newborn. American Academy of Pediatrics. Apnea, sudden infant death syndrome, and home monitoring. Pediatrics. 2003

Childbirth In Your Life and Around the World

My Birthing Experience:

I remember it like it was yesterday even though it was over 4 years ago almost. We were sitting in Popeye’s line getting some food and I heard low crying in the back seat. I turned to see what was wrong and my friend was crying and I forgot to mention that she was 9 months pregnant!! She told me she thought she was in labor, so we finished getting our food and rushed off to the hospital. We arrived at the hospital and they started getting her a room and hooking her up to IV’s and monitors. The next day we woke up to her being in pain and the baby was coming!! I remember being grossed out by the blood and other stuff but I continued to watch. Jahbari was born and I got to cut the umbilical cord because her mom was frozen solid. I don’t think I will ever watch another live birth, even though it wasn’t that bad and it was a great experience. I had watched plenty of birthing shows on TLC but nothing could have prepared me for the real thing. I got to hold him and feed him and even stayed the night with her again. I chose this example because I do not have children of my own and I don’t remember my birth. The only impact I can see that birth has on development is for a premature baby or from maybe the mother having certain conditions such as high blood pressure or maybe some type of disease. These factors can cause a baby to have developmental delays or damage.

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Childbirth Traditions Around the World: China

 by Leah M. Brown

According to Chinese custom, a husband should carry his bride over a pan of burning coals when entering his home for the first time to ensure she will pass through labor successfully.

Once pregnant, a woman guards her thoughts. It is believed everything she does and sees will influence her unborn child. According to old Chinese tradition, what affects a woman's mind will also affect her heart and connect with the baby in utero. A pregnant woman reads good poetry -- she doesn't gossip, laugh loudly, sit on a crooked mat, look at clashing colors, or lose her temper. Many Chinese women will read beautiful stories before drifting off to sleep. And, sex is absolutely forbidden during pregnancy.

There are many ancient taboos regarding the food Chinese women eat during pregnancy. It's believed that if a pregnant woman eats food that's not properly cut or mashed, her child will have a careless disposition. Or if she eats light colored foods, the baby will be fair-skinned. Many also believe that no construction work should be done in the house of pregnant women because hammering and sawing could lead to a miscarriage or fetal deformities. Also, pregnant women should never attend funerals and to scare away evil spirits, Chinese women may sleep with knives under their bed. For the same reason, a piece of paper cut to resemble a pair of scissors is sometimes hung from bed curtains and tiger skins are hung over the bed.

Many believe it is unlucky to throw a baby shower for an unborn baby. In China, the parties come after the little one arrives. The expectant mother's own mother buys the child's entire layette. A month before the baby is due; the maternal grandmother sends a package of clothing for her expectant daughter called tsue shen, or hastening the delivery. There is a white cloth inside the package with which to wrap the newborn. The maternal grandmother waits three days after the baby arrives before she visits the newborn bringing all her clothes and baby equipment.

Chinese women will often drink a strong herbal potion to ease the strain of labor. Custom dictates that women not fear the laboring process, since birth is considered a women's career to the ancient Chinese. Chinese women traditionally labor in an armchair or futon. Once the baby is born they will often pray to the goddess who helped them conceive with an offering of sweet meats and incense.