A Touching Story

About 2 years ago, my husband and I attended a network marketing meeting that dealt with financial services. The speaker was a multi million dollar earner. We sat in the second row at the meeting and we took copious notes while he spoke. There was a little girl on the front row that I saw with one of his staff. She was a pretty little girl who I assume was about 9 years old. Well the speaker began to speak about this little girl that he met in the elevator with her mom. He said that he told the little girl hello and she didn't respond to him so he said hello again, still no response. Then he whispered hello in her ear. Still he got no response so he thought she was ignoring him. One of his staff told him that the little girl was deaf and he was very hurt because he didn't know. The part that was so touching to me was that there was a surgery that the child could get but the parents couldn't afford it so what he did was paid for the entire surgery and hired someone to teach her sign language so now her hearing is coming back and she has her own teacher. When I heard this story, it brought tears to my eyes because he was so grateful to the little girl and her family and the mom was so happy.

Quotes

We as professionals in the early childhood field have an opportunity to shape a child's life for the better so that's what makes me passionate about this field.
~Sandy Escobido~

I think my passion comes from wanting to make a difference.
~Raymond Hernandez~

We worry about what a child will become tomorrow, yet we forget that he is someone today.  ~Stacia Tauscher

Stressors

What is a stressor?

According to the medical-dicationary.com, stress is defined as an organism's total response to environmental demands or pressures. When stress was first studied in the 1950s, the term was used to denote both the causes and the experienced effects of these pressures. More recently, however, the word stressor has been used for the stimulus that provokes a stress response. One recurrent disagreement among researchers concerns the definition of stress in humans. Is it primarily an external response that can be measured by changes in glandular secretions, skin reactions, and other physical functions, or is it an internal interpretation of, or reaction to, a stressor; or is it both?

During my childhood years, I went through a time when I had a stressor inmy life. When I was in the third grade, I was bullied by an older boy on my bus. He would ask me for candy everyday and I would bring it because he was very mean. He never hit me or anything but it was just emotional abuse. It was a while before I told my mom but when I did, it all stopped because she talked with the bus driver and let her know what was going on and never bothered me again. He just said that he was just playing with me but it didn't seem that way. That was the only stressor that I went theough as a child.

I had a friend in middle school who had a stressor called poverty. Poverty can have several different meanings. It's having little or no money and few or no material possessions. She struggled financially but me and my mom would always go and get her and spend lots of time with her. My mom would also buy her clothes and shoes and give her money. My mom was like a second mother to her. She even started calling my mom "mom. She wanted attention and she would cry out for it. In the 8th grade, she got pregnant and she stated that "now I'll have someone to love me" which was sad. She had a baby girl and her attitude got better and my mom still continued to help her. She is now doing great! Her daughter is now in middle school making good grades and she is doing a great job as a mom.

Educational Resources

NAEYC. (2009). Developmentally appropriate practice in early childhood programs serving children from birth through age 8. Retrieved May 26, 2010, from http://www.naeyc.org/files/naeyc/file/positions/dap

NAEYC. (2009). Where we stand on child abuse prevention. Retrieved May 26, 2010, from http://www.naeyc.org/files/naeyc/file/positions/ChildAbuseStand.pdf

NAEYC. (2009). Where we stand on school readiness. Retrieved May 26, 2010, from http://www.naeyc.org/files/naeyc/file/positions/Readiness.pdf

NAEYC. (2009). Where we stand on responding to linguistic and cultural diversity. Retrieved May 26, 2010, from http://www.naeyc.org/files/naeyc/file/positions/diversity.pdf

NAEYC. (2003). Early childhood curriculum, assessment, and program evaluation: Building an effective, accountable system in programs for children birth through age 8. Retrieved May 26, 2010, from http://www.naeyc.org/files/naeyc/file/positions/pscape.pdf

NAEYC. (2009, April). Early childhood inclusion: A summary. Retrieved May 26, 2010, from http://www.naeyc.org/files/naeyc/file/positions/DEC_NAEYC_ECSummary_A.pdf

Personal Childhood Web

This is my Personal Childhood Web. In this blog, you will read about the 3 people that had the greatest influence in my life.

1. My Mom- She wasalways  the person who inspired me to do my best no matter what. She always spent time with me and exposed me to all great things. She raised me to always be a leader and not a follower and that has stuck with me today. She stayed home with me until I went to childcare at age 3 because she was very protective. She remains that way today with me and especially my brother. She is the best mom in the world. She is part of the reason why I'm continuing my education today.

2. My Stepfather- He came into my life when I was 8 years old and has been a father to me since then. He has always been there for me. WHen I couldn't go to my mom and talk about certain things, he would always be a good listener to me. Even though he is my stepfather, I never have looked at him like a stepfather because he has always treated me like his own daughter. I have a brother who is his biological child but he treats us the same. I've always loved that trait in him because I never felt like he treated me different because I wasn't his biological child. He is the best father in the world. He is part of the reason why I'm continuing my education today.

3. My Aunt Prince- She is my mom's oldest sister. She has always taught me that education is the key to success. When I was younger, my cousin and I would go and stay with her for the summer and she would make us write a paper on a topic of choice before we could go. She is a retired teacher who has a great love for kids and education. She is also a great cook. She always cooks great meals when we go to visit her in Florida. She is one of my favorite aunts. SHe is part of the reason why I'm continuing my education today.

Childbirth Experience

Before I start, I want to say that it wasn't a surprise to me that in the United States almost 100% of births take place in a controlled and/or clinical setting. When I realized that people outside of the United States the majority of births occur at home, that was a little scary to me because of the complications that could occur. I gave birth to my first child about 2 weeks ago so this week's blog will be about me and my baby. In this blog, I will share my thoughts regarding birth, the procedure that I had to go through and the complications that I had and the the differences of labor and delivery in the US and other countries.

First, I would like to share my thoughts on birth. Birthing my child was a real experience that I will always remember. During my first trimester, I got sick everyday. I lost 7 lbs because I wasn't eating a lot. I couldn't deal with smells because they would make me nausea. After that trimester, I was fine up until my 8th month. During my 8th month, I got preeclampsia which put me in the hospital because my blood pressure was elevated, liver enzymes were abnormal and I had severe swelling in my feet and legs. I stayed in the hospital for 16 days until the birth of my baby. On Christmas Day, I was in the hospital but I'm glad they kept me because it snowed and I live about 35 minutes from the hospital so it would've been difficult to travel.

The day of my delivery, I was taken down to labor and delivery and was prepared to deliver. At 12:00 noon, I was given Petocin then at 4:00 pm, my doctor broke my water. I delivered my son at 1:14 am. I was in pain off and on because my epidural wore off. From what I had to go through, I don't want to experience that again. From all of that, my adorable, healthy baby boy came and I wouldn't trade him for anything. My doctor mentioned postpartum to me but here I am going into my second week and I'm doing great.. My son is also doing great.  

  

One of the questions was what do I think of births occuring at home. I don't agree with that because of the complications that could occur. The reason why I chose the hospital that I chose was because if me or my baby had any complications, we would get the care we needed at that location so I took that very serious. .

Another question was to choose a region of the world or a country, other than the U.S., and find out how births happen there. One thing I learned is in Western and other cultures, some families view the placenta as a special part of birth, since it has been the child's life support for so many months. Some parents like to see and touch this organ. The placenta may be eaten by the newborn's family unlike in the US, we don't eat the placenta.

What other stressors that surround birth might influence a child’s development? Taking drugs could influence a child's development in many ways according what the drug is.

What kinds of support and/or intervention surrounding a child’s birth may foster healthy development? Support from the spouse, family members and friends play a big support role. My spouse was very helpful from the beginning to the end and I also had supportive family and friends that were right there.  

SIDS

I chose SIDS as the topic that is meaingful to me because I have a newborn and I've heard some scary stories about SIDS.

One of the stories that I heard recently was a parent put her 6 week old baby in daycare and the baby died the first day at the center. They called this SIDS. When I heard this, it was very scary because at the time I was about 6 months pregnant with my first child. Now that my baby is here, I tried to get as much information on this topic.

According to American Academy of Pediatrics, "SIDS is Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. Its the unexplained death of a baby younger than 1 year". It also states that the safest way to sleep: place the baby on his back, babies who sleep on their stomachs are at a higher risk for SIDS, side sleeping is not as safe as back sleeping and is not advised.

The infant mortality rate is the number of infant deaths per 1,000 live births. The neonatal period extends from birth through day 27. The post-neonatal period extends from day 28 through day 364. SIDS Rates In 1996, there were 2,051 reported infant deaths in Canada. Of these deaths, 168 (8.2%) were attributed to SIDS.Since 1980, the overall rate of SIDS deaths in Canada has been steadily declining from 1.2 per 1,000 live births in 1980 to 0.5 per 1,000 live births in 1996 SIDS Rates Canada, 1980-1996 Source: Statistics Canada. Mortality: summary list of causes, 1980-1995. Statistics Canada. Canadian Vital Statistics System, 1996.In 1996, SIDS was the leading cause of post-neonatal mortality in Canada, accounting for 26% of all post-neonatal deaths. Birth defects, the second leading cause, accounted for 23% of post-neonatal deaths. As both the post-neonatal mortality rate and the SIDS rate have declined, the proportion of post-neonatal mortality attributed to SIDS has remained steady since 1980In comparison to other developed countries, the 1996 Canadian SIDS rate of 0.5 per 1,000 live births is lower than the rate in Australia (0.9 per 1,000 live births), USA (0.8 per 1,000 live births) and England/Wales (0.7 per 1,000 live births). However, the Canadian rate remains higher than rates reported in Japan (0.4 per 1,000 live births) and the Netherlands (0.3 per 1,000 live births)

This information has taught me ways to prevent SIDS. I was already familiar with some of the ways but not all of them. It will help me with my newborn and I can share this with upcoming mothers.