Consequences of Stress on Children's Development

  I am fortunate to have no friends, or family to have experience any consequences from stress in their development. Children are resilient, many experience stress, or even toxic stress and with help are able to reverse the effects.
  I selected Syria not because of any affinity, but because that country has been in the news for awhile. McKirdy(CNN, 2017) says that 3 million children under 6 know nothing but war. " Syrian children are overwhelmingly suffering "toxic stress" from the country's brutal war".  The possibility of long-term effects on their psychological and physical health is almost inevitable.  These children are losing limbs, seeing friends and family members killed. The most violent way to kill, beheading, and these children have witness this inhumane travesty.

   Toxic stress leads to a number of problems, bed-wetting, self-harm, suicide attempts, aggressive and withdrawn behavior. One child in the article wakes up screaming and runs out into the street. These children are bombarded with verbal and physical abuse, exposure to violence, fear of abduction and deprivation. Bombarded with bombs, looking for shelter, and clean water are all toxic stress on children. There is child marriage, recruitment into armed conflict for boys, and sexual exploitation for girls. The wars are terrible, but the innocent  children  who suffer, poverty, malnutrition, and a host of other maltreatment is heartbreaking.
 
There are researchers trained in mental health trying to help some of these children, but in some places held by ISIS, or the government access to the children is not possible.  There are more children than help for them, and that is a travesty.

                                           Reference
McKirdy, E. (2017 March 7). War's 'toxic stress' on Syrian children detailed in       report. CNN.Com  Retrieved from
 www.cnn.com/2017/03/07/middleeast/save-the-children-syrian-children-mental=health/index.html

Africa's Hunger

 I have seen pictures of children starving in Africa probably my whole life, the empty large stomachs of children whose eyes plead for substance. Starving children around the world has always touched my heart.  And yet, the problem has not gone away decades later.  According to the African Union Education Outlook Report there are a 130 million children in Africa and most do not have access to Early Childhood care or education.The deprivations: poverty, food insecurity,stunting, malnutrition, health risks, violence and war all take their toll on these children.  If a hungry child went to school, how would they concentrate, their minds would be on food. Many of the children who do go to school are doing poorly, and fail to acquire numeracy and literacy skills.  They think it may be a possible consequence of lack of early education. In America we know the importance of nutritious meals, and the importance of building a foundation in early childhood. The Africans have also realized early childhood education benefits, but they are slow to make it happen. They are having discussions on how to achieve this worthy goal,although, HIV, Malaria, and Malnutrition will have to be addressed too.I realize how blessed we are in America and it makes me thankful.  The fact that we are educating our children, feeding them, monitoring their health encourages me to believe that we should never take it for granted.  For each opportunity that I have to contribute to early childhood education I will be thankful.

Childbirth in my life and around the world!

 I have no first hand personal  experience of birthing. My sisters and sister-in-laws birthed children, but I was mostly for support, or babysitting. Although, we have had conversations of their discomforts during pregnancy, the relief of having healthy babies, I never asked any more than what they shared.

From this weeks reading I learn that America births are done in a controlled atmosphere. So I selected  Nigeria to see how their births are done in Africa.  I found an article in the Global Voices written in 2015 written about a village called Bomadi in the Nigerian Delta State.  The article states:" Despite the dangers, many women shun trained medical help during birth". According to Eske(2015) they prefer a "traditional birth attendant", one reason is the cost, and a matter of trust.  The birth attendant Didkandkide Joseph sees pregnant women in his very small hut.  His hut is so small on one pregnant woman at a time will fit, and it has no modern amenities. Not even an air condition.  Mr. Joseph says:"He never received formal training from anyone"except God". He makes the pregnant women stand in line out side his hut, many who are in labor. When he has complications he just speak to the complication and it obeys his voice. There are a lot of traditional birth attendants that use incantations, herbs, even the river.  The Nigerians who use these birth attendants are in rural areas, but it is not limited to urban areas.  Their culture is using birth attendants, and the government has not made much effort to change this. The facilities the government have are clinics without much medicine or equipment, and they close up in the evening.  There are no night births done in them.
The difference in America and Nigeria is to great a disparity to compare.  Everyone I know used a hospital of their choosing. And would not be able to imagine not having a choice.  We were talking about epidurals at work on Friday in the birthing process, the women in Nigeria would probably not use it, if they have ever heard of it.  Nevertheless, they are still producing children in these huts using birth attendants.  Not always successfully.  If an American was ever pregnant in Nigeria"s rural area she would think she had step back in time.

                                    Reference
Eske,C. (19 February, 2015). Traditional birthing still flourish in Nigeria.Global Voices Africa. Retrieved from https://iwpr.net/global-voices/traditional-birthing-practices-still-flourish