A deliberate and devastating violence against Children— Child maltreatment

It is startling when I knew that violence causes more deaths of children than do any other specific diseases. (Berger, 2012) Except for the injuries, child maltreatment is another reason that causes child deaths. Child maltreatment, including child abuse and child neglect, affects children’s multifaceted developments, namely, physical development, social and emotional development, and cognitive development, the two latter ones of which are more devastatingly influenced in children’s future life.

I still remember the boy in my neighbour named Hua, 5 years old, who underwent the suffering of child neglect in his early childhood. Both of his parents were businessmen. They worked in the same company and were quite successful in their field. Actually they lived in a wealthy life. However, in order to fulfil their own career aspiration, they were busy working and travelling around the world, leaving their child, Hua, to a nanny and paying little attention to Hua’s physical and psychological growth. All that the nanny could do was to ensure that Hua could have every meal on time; however, she could not help much on his social and emotional needs. When I met him in the leisure area for our community, I saw him play alone without interactions with his peers, and talk little and even be silent if verbal communication was not needed; I seldom saw him laugh and even smile. Instead, he cried a lot when he came across some problems. Once I saw him with his parents in the street, Hua refusing to hold his parents’ hand and parents having no idea about how to deal with this situation. I think this probably results from lack of time and communication with his parents and being neglected. I don’t think the parents would realise what their neglect toward their child brought him until a call from preschool reached them. I heard that Hua didn’t get along well with his peers and had a fight with one of his peers, resulting from toys being grabbed by his peer and resulting in this peer being hit hard with the toy and bit by Hua. With the help of the teachers and the parenting consultant from the preschool, Hua’s parents were aware that their absence in interactions with their child and their neglect toward their child had a negative impact on the child’s social and emotional development and even cognitive development. From then on, I saw the parents spend more time playing with Hua in the leisure area and heard that Hua’s teachers spoke well of Hua’s interactions at school. With the support of parents and teachers, Hua became more outgoing, confident in communicating with others, and showed his happy face more often.

Child maltreatment in developed and developing nations results from multifaceted reasons, but mainly from family financial stress. It is surprising to find that US, which is ranked first in gross domestic product globally, is ranked "25th of 27 among developed nations based on the rate of child deaths from abuse and neglect”. The statistics shows that "in 2011, 676,569 children in US were determined to be victims of abuse or neglect”, 78% of which were victims of neglect and 18% of which were victims of physical abuse. It is estimated that there are "1,570 child fatality victims per year due to maltreatment in the U.S.”. (First Star, 2013) I can not imagine the statistics of child maltreatment in other developing countries. As studied, child maltreatment affects children "now and later”, physically, psychologically, behaviourally and economically. (CDC, 2014)

Physically, it can cause improper formation and function of the brain, leading to negative long-term impacts on cognitive, language, and socio-emotional development, and mental and physical health of the child. Psychologically, maltreatment may "result in anxiety and may make victims more vulnerable to problems such as post-traumatic stress disorder, conduct disorder, and learning, attention, and memory difficulties”. Behaviourally, children who are maltreated in early childhood are more likely to have such behaviours as smoking, alcohol abuse and drug abuse, etc. in adulthood. What’s more, it is hard to build up a healthy relationship and maintain it between people who experience maltreatment in childhood. Economically, "the estimated average lifetime cost per victim of nonfatal child maltreatment is $210,012 dollars (in 2010), including childhood health care costs, adult medical costs, productivity losses, child welfare costs, criminal justice costs and special education costs, etc.. (CDC, 2014)

“The causes of child maltreatment are multifaceted, involving not only the parents but also the neighbours, the teachers, the medical community, the culture, and even the maltreated children themselves.” (Berger, 2012, p. 247) Therefore, it is everyone’s responsibility to take measures to prevent child maltreatment. 

In US, some effectives programs are offered to help parents and their parenting skills. 

• visits by nurses to parents and children in their homes to provide support, education, and information;
• parent education, usually delivered in groups, to improve child-rearing skills, increase knowledge of child development, and encourage positive child management strategies; and
• multi-component interventions, which typically include support and education of parents, pre-school education, and child care. (Retrieved from WHO http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs150/en/)

Children are our hope. Children are the future of our society. I, hereby, advocate for children, hoping for the reduction of child maltreatment.

Reference:

Berger, K. S. (2012). The developing person through childhood (6th ed.). New York, NY: Worth Publishers. Chapter 8, "Early Childhood: Biosocial Development”.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). (2014). Child Maltreatment: Consequences. Retrieved March 25th, 2014 from http://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/childmaltreatment/consequences.html

First Star. (2013). Child Abuse and Neglect Statistics. Retrieved March 25th, 2014 from http://www.firststar.org/library/national-statistics.aspx

World Health Organization (WHO). (2014). Child maltreatment. Retrieved March 25th, 2014 from http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs150/en/

Breastfeeding

Breastfeeding

When it comes to the topic about the healthy development of children, physical health is the greatest concern because it is the foundation of biosocial, cognitive and psychosocial development of children. Concerning the health of infants, adequate nutrition is very important to infants’ growth and breastfeeding is one vital way to ensure the overall growth, development and health of infants as well as other supplemental food and vitamins.

I chose the topic of breastfeeding because of my personal experience. My mother died of breast cancer, which is an alert to my sister and me because we are in high risk of getting this cancer. Therefore, we focus on this and look for some practical ways to prevent this disease. Breastfeeding is the very first and profound way to reduce the high risk of breast cancer for the good of both the mother, and most importantly, prevent the infant from some adult illness including cancer. My sister breastfed my niece for at least three months and it turned out that every physical check of my sister is normal and my niece has been growing well and luckily no evidence in malnutrition so far. After reading Berger’s (2012) textbook, I realised that breastfeeding is enormously beneficial to the baby, the mother and the family. Here I would like to attach the table 5.2 from Berger’s textbook, to remind us of the importance of breastfeeding.

Breastfeeding to the largest extent reduces infant disease and health. As worldwide doctors recommend, breastfeeding for six months will achieve its maximum impact on infants. However, the statistics vary globally according to culture and economic status in each nation. Here below I would like to share some information in an article Breastfeeding Around the World from InCultureParent, retrieved from http://www.incultureparent.com/2012/03/breastfeeding-around-the-world/.

Information 1: “The Philippines is one of the leaders in international efforts to promote and protect women’s right to breastfeed. The country has implemented laws to control aggressive marketing by formula companies and their false claims that formula makes babies smarter. The WHO estimated that the nation’s total lost wages from caring for formula-fed children with diarrhea and acute respiratory infections during the first six months of life was 1 billion pesos ($23.4 million). Eighty-eight percent of Filipino babies are breastfed at birth and 34% are exclusively breastfed up to five months of age.”
Information 2: “Perhaps best remembered for the commotion around Selma Hayek breastfeeding one of its children, Sierra Leone has some of the highest infant mortality rates in the world, as well as the lowest rates of exclusive breastfeeding. There is a deeply held belief among many that colostrum, or first milk, is poisonous and that breastmilk doesn’t provide enough food for a baby, resulting in the introduction of solid foods often too early. While 51% of infants are breastfed at birth, only 11% are exclusively breastfed in the first five months of life.”
Information 3: “Historically, milk bonding relationships were very common in the Muslim world and extended family or neighbors would share in breastfeeding children the same age. In Islamic law, children suckled by the same woman (say, a wet nurse) are viewed like siblings, making them ineligible to ever marry one another. Despite the deep history of breastfeeding in the Muslim world, only 31% of babies are exclusively breastfed from birth to five months in Morocco (although 95% of babies have been breastfed at least once). Of those who do nurse, 57% are still breastfed at 12 to 15 months."
Information 4: “A majority (88%) of Canadian mothers breastfeed their babies at birth, if only for a short time. Over half (54%) of these mothers continued breastfeeding for six months or longer and half (24%) of those women breastfeed exclusively. Almost sixteen percent breastfeed for more than one year. Of the 13% of new mothers who did not attempt to breastfeed, 28% cited medical factors as the main reason for not breastfeeding, 25% said that breastfeeding was ”unappealing” or ”disgusting” and 19.5% claimed bottle feeding was easier. Women with a postsecondary diploma or degree were more likely to breastfeed than those without.”

From the statistics and the attitudes of different nations, we can see that in  some nations, such as The Philippines, Namibia, Peru, Poland and Canada, etc., a higher rate of babies in those nations are breastfed at birth and exclusively breastfed by four or five months or up to six months of age. The reasons for higher rate of breastfeeding mainly lie in their believing in the benefits of breastfeeding to the mother and the baby and the encouragement from the World Health Organization (WTO) and the support of law in those nations. However, due to culture diversity and feeding practices, the statistics of breastfeeding indicate a lower rate in some nations, such as Sierra Leone, Italy, Morocco, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Australia and the US, etc.. For example, the belief that colostrum is poisonous and the early introduction of solid food reduce the rate of breastfeeding.

Information 5: “Exclusive breastfeeding is the perfect way to provide the best food for a baby’s first six months of life, benefiting children the world over. But breastfeeding is so much more than food alone; breastfed infants are much less likely to die from diarrhoea, acute respiratory infections and other diseases: a non-breastfed child is 14 times more likely to die in the first six months than an exclusively breastfed child. Breastfeeding supports infants’ immune systems and helps protect from chronic conditions later in life such as obesity and diabetes. Suboptimum breastfeeding still accounts for an estimated 800,000 deaths in children under five annually (about 13% of total child deaths), according to the Lancet 2013 Nutrition Series. Data from 2011 indicate that only 39 per cent of 0-5 month olds in low-income countries are exclusively breastfed.” Retrieved from UNICEF: http://www.unicef.org/nutrition/index_breastfeeding.html.

Actually as a Chinese, when hearing a baby of more than 6 months and even a year is still exclusively breastfed, I feel a little bit strange, thinking that why they are still breastfed since they are old enough to eat other food, though I am believing in the good of breastfeeding. After reading Berger’s textbook and the resources I have found, I realise that exclusive breastfeeding will bring optimal benefits to the infant. Therefore, I build up a belief and will take action when I have a baby, I will breastfeed my baby for the both good of my baby and me. Meanwhile, I will try to encourage the people around me to breastfeed by showing the resources I have gained to them.


Reference:

Berger, K. S. (2012). The developing person through childhood (6th ed.). New York, NY: Worth Publishers. Chapter 5, "The First Two Years: Biosocial Development”.

InCultureParent. (2014). Breastfeeding Around the World. March 5th, 2012. Retrieved March 14th, 2014 from http://www.incultureparent.com/2012/03/breastfeeding-around-the-world/.

United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF). 2014. Nutrition: Infant and Young Child Feeding. Retrieved March 14th, 2014 from http://www.unicef.org/nutrition/index_breastfeeding.html.

Childbirth in my life and around the world

Childbirth in my life and around the world

To be frank, I have no experience about birth so far. I did not know about any information of my own birth because my mom didn’t mention about it or record a video of my birth due to our conservative characteristic to some extent, I think. Unfortunately, now I can not still know about my birth from my mom since she has passed away when I was in Senior School, not even from my dad because he was kept away from the delivery room. I am not married yet and I don’t have a child or take part in any birthing experience. However, I heard about some information from my sister, who has a daughter at the age of four now. My niece was born in a hospital weighing 3.4 kilograms in good status. My sister told me that she stayed at home until her amniotic fluid broke early in the morning at around seven. She was then transported to the hospital  and stayed in the delivery room until midnight at around eleven. My sister chose to deliver naturally through the vagina instead of via cesarean section. Since the family members were kept away from the delivery room, my sister depended all on the midwives.    She was told that she couldn’t walk around but just stayed on bed since the amniotic fluid broke, otherwise it would impact the health of the baby and might lead to asphyxia. The midwives instructed my sister to take deep breaths and relax at the beginning to save energy in spite of the great pain. Then she should push the fetus hard out of her vagina. Regarding birth, though I don’t have personal experiences, it is risky but great. Seeing the nature and nurture of next generation brings us hopes, gratitude, love and care, especially for my families. A new life, which doesn’t come easy to this world with regard to the long time of pregnancy and caution, is added to my family, which seemed drear to some extent after my mom’s death. This new life brought us joy and laughter, and kept reminding us of our mom’s inspiring words, which is valuable to us to nurture and educate our own child.



Actually I was not that surprised to read that in US almost 100% of births take place in a controlled and/or clinical settings. In such a developed country, I am sure that US has a much maturer medical systems to offer a much safer and cleaner environment for births and reduce the rates of maternal and stillborn or newborn death. What surprised me is that outside of the United States the majority of births occur at home. For example, about 30% of births in the Netherlands are planned home births, which is considered as a normal procedure in low risk pregnancy. (Berger, 2012, pp.103) In Hans’ rapid response (2011) to the article Commons committee calls for more choice over home births, he stated that “in the same low risk population of pregnant women, the hospital delivery group had more interventions.” In this developed country, home births is as safe as hospital births, and even better than hospital births because of less unneccesary medical interventions which might cause unexpected harm on the mother and baby, and the supports of medical professionals. (Berger, 2012, pp. 103) Compared with my sister’s experience, I don’t think the medical systems and professionals in China so far would allow her to have a home birth and could compete with the Netherlands regarding home births. From Berger’s (2012) text, I learned that China has a higher rate of cesarean sections than other nations. Seeing this, I search on the net and found out that even cesarean sections can bring the mother and baby a higher rate of safety; however, it also brings more expenses and more complications like postpartum haemorrhage of the mother, hypoimmunity of the newborn, Sensory Integrative Dysfunction (SID), and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), etc. Therefore, depending on the conditions of China, I think the best way to deliver a child is to deliver naturally in hospital in the delivery room instead of in the operation room for two main reasons: one is that natural deliver can to some extent avoid complications and better a child’s development; the other one is that if an emergency happens in birthing, it saves time to transfer the mother from the delivery room to the operation room rather than from home.