South Africa : Consequencesof Stress on Children's Development

I looked into growing up in South Africa and discovered cross cultural/cross national research could deepen my understanding of the relation between social environment and child development. I learned that children there are not strangers to stress. One of the stresses there that plays the biggest part is violence. There have been wars there that left children orphaned, and displaced from thier families. This is a very strong stressor. Even though children appear to be strong and holding it together, as you can imagine it's very hard to keep it together. There is so much violence going on in South Africa, this due to many different reasons.

Violence....Consequences of Stress on Children's Development

As a child I had a good friend who suffered the stresses of violence in the home. She lived with her mother who had a boyfriend who was very nice until he consumed alchohol. Once he had his fix he became very violent emotionally and physically. He would do a lot of loud talking and profanity. This he would do toward her mother and the kids. He would even be in such a rage that sometime he physically abuse her mother. He never hit the children though. She had three other siblings. This really effected my friend negatively. She would come to school she couldnt concentrate, she was always sleepy, and she barely ate anything. This went on for a couple of years until we got to middle school and I could really see a difference in her. She said that she was now living with her grandmother and things were great. Her grades started to improve, and she began to be very outgoing and happy again. She stayed with her grandma up until we graduated and went on to be a very successful teacher in North, MS. There were stressors in her life, but she pushed on and eventually was able to overcome them and move on with her life in a positive way.

Breastfeeding....

Breastfeeding is a very pasionate subject for me. I have two children and I am expecting now. With my previous two children I did not breastfeed. My oldest child turned out just fine, but my daughter has quite a few medical issues. She has eczema, asthma, allergies and etc. My doctor once indicated to me that if I had breastfed she wouldn't have these illnesses. Well this time I am breastfeeding. From my understanding this is the healthiest thing you can do for a child. The milk that the body produces is the most nutritional, and it's exactly what a child needs. The question at hand is how long should a child be breastfed?

I looked into breastfeeding in China and discovered it was slim to none. Approximately only 20% of mothers in China breastfeed (Xinhua, 2009). These rates are very far behind World Health Organization targets, that suggest infants six months are younger should be breastfed. A study of 2,160 Chineese infants, between 1998 and 2004, showed that breastfeeding could help develop of the neural system and dramatically lower the rate of eczema(Xinhua, 2009). In the United States 75% of women breastfeed. This number superceeds the number in China. Breastfeeding is very popular in the U.S. and very promoted.

When I open my childcare facility I plan to promote breastfeeding as well. I want children to be as healthy as possible, and I dont want anything to get in the way of thier development.

Xinhua, Y. (2009). China Lagging Behind Breastfeeding Targets. Retrieved from http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2009

Childbirth - In your life and around the world.

The birth of my daughter was extraordinary. It was the most beautiful and emotional event I had ever experienced. I chose tis birth because everything about it was natural down to delivery. I had no medication what so ever, it was not even painful because it was over so fast. I think more women should have natural chilbirth because I had never felt better. I felt energetic and healthy. I was so aware of everything going on with my baby. I think it played a huge part in her development and how fast she has advanced through life also.

I chose China to find out how births happen there. Childbirth is influenced deeply by one's culture. In China childbirth is seen as women's business and most of the health care providers are women. In China women give birth with no medicines so that they can experience the journey to motherhood. They are not aloud to cryout in pain and discomfort either. In my opinion, childbirth for them is very stressful, because of all the rules they have to follow during pregnacy, childbirth, and after delivery.