Consequences of Stress

I am a social worker in child protector services and I have to go out to homes to investigate.  On a Wednesday afternoon, I received a report that there were 4 children in a home and that there was no food in the home.  The report stated that the father did live in the home but he moved out of the home 2 months ago.  Report stated that the father handles everything and that the mother could not take care of the children.  The report stated that the mom is a citizen but she does not speak any English.  I traveled to the home with an interpreter to see if the allegations were children.  After interviewing all the children it was clear that the children were hungry and that the only time they eat food was when they were in school.  The children stated that they go to bed hungry every night.  The children stated that they had food to eat when there father lived in the home.  Mom and children stated that dad left to stay with another family.  This was a stress factor for the children because it effected their nutrition and there behavior at school.  The mother depended on the father to do everything and did not know the first thing to do for her family to survive.  Not only was food an issue but she was about to be evicted from her home because she did not have any income.  Of course it was my job to help her and get some services in place.  Before I left the house that evening, I made sure the children had food to eat that night and the next day I went grocery shopping for the family.  I closed the case after putting some services in place.  Two weeks later the school calls me and make another report.  The children were having some issues in school and that there were several concerns that were going on in the children's home.  I choose to share this example because because these children on my case load were stressed and it effected their lives deeply.  I found the family housing and showed the mother how to use resources that were available for her and her family. 

Our text book, talks about how Asian and Hispanic children have a higher proportion of children having dangers of mal-nutrition.  Hispanics have an at risk population and has been cited as being a poor health care, high death rates,low life expectancy, and low sense of well beings.  Hispanics families experience stress by virtues by their social culture and their identification. 

Resources

The Developing Person Through Childhood, Kathleen Stassen Berger, 5th Edition
http://www.springerlink.com/content/q15h101665101v20/

Immunization

Immunization is aprocess that stimulates the body immune system to defend against attack by a
particular contagious. 

I chose immunization because it affects the children’s health, their parents, siblings
and people that they come in contact with. It is important that children get their immunization because more thanthe child may be exposed to disease that may cause death.  I intend to use this information in my career by counseling my parents on the importance of their children immunization.  I work with families now and it is part of my investigation to ask if children shots are up to date.  If a parent tells me that the child’s shot are not up to date, it is my job to make sure that the child gets their shotsbefore I close out the case.  Now I will
be able to counsel my families on why immunization is important for their child
and the family.  I always knew that immunization were important but never really understand the possible outcomesif the children did not get their immunization. In our text The Developing Person Chapter 5 states that benefits of vaccination ranks among the foremost achievement in modern public health.(Dershewitz, 2002)

I chose to explore children’s immunization on yellow fever in sub-Saharan Africa and tropical South America.  Researching yellow fever I found out that there are three transmission cycles for yellow fever: sylvatic (jungle),intermediate (savannah), and urban. 

The sylvatic(jungle) transmission cycle involves transmission of the virus between nonhuman
primates and mosquito species found in the forest canopy. The virus is
transmitted via mosquitoes from monkeys to humans when the humans encroach into
the jungle during occupational or recreational activities.

In Africa, an intermediate (savannah) cycle involves transmission of YFV from tree
hole-breeding  to humans living or working in jungle border areas. In this cycle, the virus may be transmitted from monkeys to humans or from human to human via these mosquitoes.

The urban transmission cycle involves transmission of the virus between humans and urban
mosquitoes, primarily

In Africa the transmissionin rural West Africa is seasonal, with an elevated risk during the end of the rainy season and the beginning of the dry season (usually July–October). However
it may be episodically transmitted during the dry season in both rural and
densely settled urban areas.

In South America the risk for infection for is highest during the rainy season (January–May, with a peak incidence in February and March). Given the high level of viremia in humans
and the widespread distribution of many towns and cities are at risk for a
large-scale urban epidemic.

Resources

The Developing Person Through Childhood, Kathleen Stassen Berger, Chapter 5

wwwnc.gov/travel/yellowbook

Woman in Africa Labor & My Labor Experince

Pre-term births in Africa is very high.  According to the body's first global overview of births, which is published in the Bulletin of the WHO, of the 13 million preterm births that take place across the globe annually, 11 million occur in Asia and Africa where there is limited access to appropriate healthcare.  Woman are not as educated and do not have the choice of going to receive prenatal services to help monitor their babies development.  Over 400 years ago woman in tribes in South Africa was expected to have their babies on their own.  The birthing woman attended completely to her own needs and those of her newborn infant. She cut the umbilical cord and disposed of the placenta herself. During the birth, the only other person present was an older woman, who aided the mother in the case of absolute necessity. The Fulani woman of Africa also birthed without expecting any assistance, catching the infant as it was born in her own hands.

I am a mother of 3 boys and each labor was different and very difficult for me.  The first time I experience labor was at the age of 19 and I had no idea of what was happening.  I went to all of my prenatal appointments and took my prenatal vitamins when they did not make me sick.  My first little boy arrived at 32 weeks.  My labor came early and was unexpected.  If I had to guess I would say that it had a lot to do with stress factors in my life.  Everyone in the hospital facility was panicking and trying to keep me calm at the same time.  I had no idea what was happening because the baby was not due to another month.  I was giving shots in my thigh for the baby’s lung to develop faster and soon after that I was transferred to a different facility.  My husband was there with me but he did not know what was going on either.  He was not able to ride the ambulance with me.  He had to drive to the hospital and wait for me to arrive.  Labor was very painful to me and I do not know how I would have made it without the epidural.  My first born weighed 4lbs and 6oz and had to be monitored very closely.  He could not suck out of a bottle and had to be fed through a feeding tube.  I was not able to take him home until he gain weight and learn how to suck on the nipple of the bottle.  I shared my first labor experience because I could not have imagined giving birth without any help.  Even though I had prenatal services you never know if something is going to happen and you are not prepared for it.    In Africa woman are not giving the options that we are and they are basically on their own without any medical equipment or medicine to help the mother or the baby.