Child Development and Public Health

Child Development and Public Health

Nutrition/Malnutrition

Nutrition is an important topic to me because nutrition is an important part of development. Nutrition affects everything from bones to emotions/mental function. More people suffer from malnutrition than people may think.1% of children in the US suffer from (Johns Hopkins Children Center, nd). The statistic did not mention the percentage of Adults that suffer from Malnutrition. Many people think that just because a person is not extremely skinny (one of the symptoms) that he/she is well nourished. However, Overweight people may suffer from malnutrition as well.

Malnutrition is defined as: “Malnutrition is the condition that develops when the body is deprived of vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients it needs to maintain healthy tissues and organ function” (Johns Hopkins Children Center, nd). Johns Hopkins explains that malnutrition includes undernutrition and overnutrition.  Undernutrition is when there are not enough of the essential nutrients. “Overnutrition occurs in people who eat too much, eat the wrong things, don't exercise enough, or take too many vitamins or other dietary replacements. Risk of overnutrition is increased by being more than 20% overweight or consuming a diet high in fat and salt” (Johns Hopkins Children Center, nd).

Malnutrition is an issue that affects many of developing countries. “1 in 4 or 143 million under-five children in the developing world are still underweight” (UNICEF, 2005). Nutrition issues are being addressed, but there is still room for improvement. Progress has been made with the provisions for Vitamin A, but there are still issues with other micronutrients.

In the future, I plan to open a school. The information that I have learned will be very helpful to me. I know that proper nutrition is essential to healthy development, so I plan to make sure to focus more on nutrition when preparing meals.

Child Birth Experience

 I do not have any real experience with child birth. I do not have any children and I was not at the hospital when my sister had her boys. The closes I have been to a birth experience was when I was in college. It was my second semester and my sisters first as a transfer students and my best friend and unofficial roommate was pregnant, but no one knew. I had a date one night in January, so my best friend and my sister were hanging out in the room watching television. I will never forget the night. I walked in from my date and noticed that the mattress from the top bunk was on the floor and my friend was laying there with the trash can next to her. Before I could ask what was going on, my sister panicky told me that my friend was in labor. I was in total shock with a million questions. The reality that my friend was in labor registered the moment I heard the pain in her voice and the tears run down her face. I then held her hand timed her labor pains (I knew to do that from watching movies). I told my sister to stay with my friend while I ran down stairs to tell the RA about my friend’s labor, but the RA did not believe me at first. I ran to get to our other friends while we tried to figure out what to do next. In the mean time, my friend was in so much pain. This was the first time that I had ever seen anyone in labor. It was more than I could handle after only seeing my friend as the strong ROTC leader. She was the one who out worked the men in class even pregnant (I did not know it at the time). My sister, friends and I did everything that we could to make sure that my friend was comfortable and not alone. We noticed that the labor pains were coming closer and closer together, so we sent a different friend to get the RA. She thought we were “pranking” her, so she did not come to the room. The labor pains had gotten five minutes apart, so three of us ran down stairs banged on the RA’s door and started yelling for her to come and check on my friend. The RA finally came to the room, realized we were telling the truth and ran back down stairs to call security to take my friend to the nurse’s station. I rode  to the nurse’s station with my friend, but was not allowed to ride with her to the hospital. I begged the nurse to keep me updated. I then had to go back to the dorm and call my friend’s mother and explain to her that her daughter had been pregnant and was in labor at the hospital. Her mom had no idea that my friend was pregnant; everyone thought that she had just gained weight: the normal freshman 10. Less than an hour later the nurse called the RA to inform us that my friend had a healthy baby girl. Maybe an hour later, my friend called me to ask me the little girl’s name that I made up the past semester (As part of a writing class, I made up a name for a little girl. At the time we laughed about it and said the name was beautiful and when I have children I would give my baby that name.) I told her the name. She then told me that she was using the name, but she wanted to change it a little. We created the perfect name for the baby. I had the chance to meet Zakwan for the first time two months later. My friend had not had any prenatal care at all, but we were all grateful that the baby was  a healthy 8 Lb little girl. The experience with my friend was very scary. I am glad I was able to be there with her because she was five hours away from home and would have been alone; however, seeing the pain my friend was in scared me to the point that I decided not to have children. Children are beautiful and bring joy to life.

 

Child Birth in Sierra Leone

                        Child birth in Sierra Leone is different from the United States of America. In the USA, almost 100% of women give birth in a Hospital or Birthing Center. There are approximately seven hospitals in Sierra Leone which are not enough hospitals. Many of the villages are without proper health care or health care facilities. The lack of hospitals or proper facilities put mothers and babies at risk. One in eight women dies from child birth in Sierra Leone while in developed countries, such as the USA, the rate is 1 in 4,000.  The hospitals and clinics that are available were set up by the government to provide free services for pregnant women and children under five years old; however, many of the hospitals still charge women and their families for medicine and surgeries. The pregnant women who are close to the hospitals are afraid to go to give birth because they are poor and afraid that they cannot afford treatment. Most of the deaths are caused my postpartum bleeding. The women that are at the hospital are allowed to die if they cannot afford to pay for services. Many others cannot reach hospitals because the hospitals are so far away. The hospitals that are available to some of the women are understaffed. Under stocked and many simply does not have the necessary essentials such as water and electricity. Many of the women in Sierra Leone receive care from local women who act as midwives. Many of these women are not trained as midwives. 

            Women in the USA have access to proper prenatal care and if there are complications pregnant women in the US are treated regardless of the inability to pay because hospitals cannot deny emergency services. Most of the States in the US provide governmental medical services, such as Medicaid, to pregnant women without medical insurance or the ability to pay. Children and the birth of children are normally viewed as joyous and beautiful, but in many underdeveloped countries child birth is frightening because of its high mortality rate. The joy of being an expecting mother is overshadowed by the fear of death. 

 

 

                                                    

               

 

References

Amnesty International. (2009, September). Maternal Death Rate in Sierra Leone is A Human Rights Emergency. Retrieved from http://www.amnesty.org/en/news-and-updates/report/maternal-death-rate-sierra-leone-quothuman-rights-emergencyquote-20090921

Sullivan, K. (2008, October 12). A Mother's Final Look at Life. Retrieved from http://www.washingpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/11/AR2008101102165.html