What I remember most about the birth of my sons was they were both a bundle of joy, but they also had me in 22 hours of labor for each! Whew! It may have been shorter if I had not had an epidural. I also remember the scary responsibility of bringing a precious gift from God home to care for. After EDUC 6101 Week 1 reading, I think about the advantages I had during pregnancy. I had affordable prenatal care, access to nutritious food, transportation to the hospital, no known exposure to teratogens, and a supportive husband. I chose these examples because they are in stark contrast to most women in the world. My advantages had a significant impact on the early childhood for my boys, because different circumstances may have set them up for birth complications or developmental abnormalities. From what I can tell, they are normal teenagers now. (This is an older picture of when they were much younger.)
In Haiti, more women die before and after childbirth compared to anywhere else in the Western Hemisphere. High poverty and a non-existent healthcare system is a deadly combination for many women and their babies. It is common for women to have their babies on a hospital floor, if they arrive at the hospital at all, and many of these women bleed to death due to inadequate staffing and training. What is the impact of these conditions on child development? Haiti has one of the highest under-5 mortality rates across the Americas (Chatterjee, 2008). I, on the other hand, had everything I needed for a safe birthing experience and developmentally healthy children. This comparison makes it very clear that many children begin life in a hole, due to no fault of their own, making it harder to have a healthy childhood. The “pull yourself up by your boot-straps” adage does not work when you have no boot-straps or boots.
Reference:
Chatterjee, P. (2008). Haiti’s Forgotten Emergency. The Lancet, 372(9639), 615 – 618. Retrieved from http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(08)61259-3/fulltext
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ReplyDeleteYou are so right. Like you, I had the opportunity to receive quality prenatal care and the access to the right foods and tests to help detect problems early on. Reading your post makes me realize how forunate I was and how less forunate a lot of women are. I was an eye opener for me. I alway enjoy your post. Keep them coming
ReplyDeleteJoyful,
ReplyDeleteI am also thankful for the quality care I received when I was delevering my daughter. I had many complications, but survived them all! I just read an interesting article published by the International Development Research Center. This article states that many African women feel that birth complications have evil roots. C-Sections are looked down upon. A women having complications often waits until the very last minute to go to a hospital, because of the negative stygma, and often will die because of the delay. Until society can accept the educated theories of childbirth and the related complications, women will continue to receive inadequate care. The article was a very interesting social aspect of childbirth.
Mary L.
Flanagan, C. (1998) Promoting Safer Childbirth in Africa. Retrieved from http://www.idrc.ca/en/ev-5058-201-1-DO_TOPIC.html.
Hi Joy it is wonderful to be working with once again. I have never had children so I can't say I know what you went through cuz I don't, in some way i feel bad that it took you 22 hours of wait time to get the most wonderful gift from God there is. Babies are awsome & they tell a story when you look at them. Thank you for sharing.
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ReplyDeleteJoyful, I am always moved by the conversations of women who have experienced childbirth. I have never experienced delivery, yet I enjoy the wonderful blessing of a child. I can only testify to what I have been told by women who have had children--they tell me that they have everything they need at their disposal. Yet, in my experience (White, 2011) I have witnessed a mother having suitable medical care available at her disposal and refusing to take advantage of the resources. There are so many women who do not have the resources available to them (Walley, 2008), and suffer death because of it. I am grateful that my son has had the plasticity (Berger, 2009) to overcome much of the damage that was caused by the negligence of a parent who would not take advantage of something that people in developing worlds would die for (Walley, 2008).
ReplyDeleteWhite, C. (2011). Childbirth—In Your Life and Around the World [Blog message]. Retrieved from http://eleazar-lazaros.blogspot.com
Walley, R. [Web Article]. (Dec. 16, 2008). Who cares about third world mothers? Retreived March 4, 2011, from http://www.mercatornet.com/articles/view/who_cares_about_third_world_mothers/
Berger, K. S. (2009). The developing person through childhood (5th ed.). New York, NY: Worth Publishers