Stressors and Children

Natural Disasters

I remember when I was 9 years old there was a flood in my community. I didn't know how bad things were until I went to take a bath and there was no water. We would have to go and get water jugs from the national guard for about a week just to have clean water to use. This was the first moment in my life that I realized how it felt to go without something that you needed.

In Haiti, frequent natural disasters devastatingly affect school aged children and their development. Natural disasters and their effects on the community leave families struggling for necessitites and children stop going to school because their families don't have the means to send them. The circumstances in Haiti are very detrimental to these kids. There are many organizations governmental and non-governmental that are trying to help the communities get food and rebuild their farms so that families can eat, earn money, and children will not starve and also get a chance to have an education.

Global Press Institute. Frequent natural disasters devastate farmers, limit food supply in Haiti. 2012

        Retrieved from:http://www.groundswellinternational.org/sustainable-development/haiti/frequent
 
       -natural-disasters-devastate-farmers-limit-food-supply-in-haiti/

Mental health of mothers, fathers, and families in general

There are so many misconceptions about mental health and so many stressors in the world we live in today. I think mental health is very important for parents to be able to maintain a healthy living environment for their children and to nurture them. The mental health of children is vital because it affects their ability to learn and develop. I learned that mental health diseases are hard to diagnose not only in America but worldwide. Difficult diagnosis leads to a large number of people who need help that aren’t being treated. I also discovered in places like Brazil it is difficult to institutionalize people with severe mental health problems. Ignoring mental health issues can lead to violence and crime in any community and treatment is the very important, although, I think mental health can strongly be overlooked in any society because it is so hard to diagnose or recognize. I plan to definitely keep what I have learned in mind and look for warning signs in my family members and others who I come in contact with professionally, so that help and intervention can occur as soon as possible.

The Day I Became a Mom

       The birth of my first born took place in a hospital in my hometown, I went in at 6 in the morning and I was given medicine to induce my labor, it was a very long process and by 7 my body wasn’t making enough process so the medication was stopped to prevent overstressing the baby. The next morning the hospital staff and I began with the same routine and this time it worked. I received my epidural and about 2 hours later it was time to push, within 3 minutes I had given birth to my first daughter and my life was changed forever. I chose this experience because it was a huge milestone in my life and I was blessed with my first child. I think that I was very blessed to have a medical staff monitor the entire process and make sure that my daughter and I were safe from complications. Unfortunately, there are many women in third world countries that give birth with no doctors or nurses in unsanitary conditions and they risk the survival of themselves and their babies.  I think that stress during the birthing process and complications can lead to a loss of oxygen for the fetus and increase the risk for brain damage that can affect the child’s development negatively.