Poverty and African Children

Poverty in Africa is very prevelant but the effects are no different on African children than children amy where else. Poverty has causes and effects. The causes are many but in Africa, most are culturally influenced. Poverty in Africa is caused by lack of education, women who are segregated and not allowed to earn livings as men do, and cultural norms. The effects are poor treatment, lack of education, high crime rates, social exclusion, poor health conditions, and high stress home lives. Poverty creates a domino effect where almost every aspect of the family's life is affected. Over 62% of African children do not complete their education. This makes the cycle impossible to break....without education there is no way out. Statistics vary from site to site but one thing is certain.....the incidence of poverty in Africa has something in common with poverty in America and it is alarming. In both countries, the rate of children living in poverty has increased each year for the last 11 years. This is scary. In the Sudan, 90 of every 1000 children die by age 5. In Ethiopia the figure is 164 per 1000, compared with a norm of 4-6 per thousand in industrialized nations. For adults, lack of food and money means lack of health care, made even more dangerous by living conditions marked by lack of clean water and adequate sanitation.  1 out if every 3 African children suffer from starvation. This is alarming and unnecessary. THE CYCLE MUST BE BROKEN! The children are suffering.

Poverty and It's Effects

As an edcuator in an income based program, I can see first hand how stressful living in poverty can be. Life is tough but when you don't have the means to put food on the table or find reliable childcare so you can hold a job, it seems unbearable at times. Although I have never experienced true povery for myself, I do work with families who live their daily lives with the bare, bare minimum. The children sometimes suffer simply because of the stress that being poor brings. I will never, ever forget my first true dealing with a child who lived in poverty. I was teaching a unit in my classroom on Community Helpers and I arranged a trip to see several places in town. The stops included the veterinarian's office, the post office, the fire station, the hospital, and a stop at the greocery store that included a tour of a truck being unloaded and the bakery. The second stop was the grocery store. A little boy in my class was absolutly amazed at the grocery store......you see, at 5 years old, he had never been there before. His parents lived in poverty. They had no vehicle. Mommy had to hitch a ride to "town" to go shop and since she was riding with someone else, there was no room to bring children. I will never forget how I felt when I realized the whole story about his lack of this experience. It was the first time I had ever thought about anything like that. In 2008, we "chose" a daughter who had been in foster care and living in extreme poverty with her biological family. When she came to live with us, there were so many experiences she had never had. She had never been inside of a mall, a Pizza Hut, a clothing specialty store, or ordered any food item EVER from a menu. She was 13 years old. The instances of how poverty affected her life are still part of our lives today. We deal with situations and instances where she is not clear on how things work because of the lack of exposure simply due to the lack of adequate financial means. Poverty affects school life, home life, social life, and all other aspects of life. Self esteem for the family as a whole suffers and the lack of self worth is most often evident in children at a very young age. Poverty causes stress that affects the whole family as well.  I truly am not sure what the answer is to combat this horrible social crisis but we must comtinue to try to break the cycle of poverty and save the children.

Breastfeeeding

Breastfeeding is the most wonderful experience! I nursed both of my girls for many months. My oldest I nursed for 13 months and the youngest for 9 months. Both of my girls stayed healthy as infants and this benefit lasted well into their childhoods. Neither one ever experienced ear infections, colds, or other common ailments for most children. I recieved great support from my husband and family. Public support was, for the most part, positive. I only recall one instance that had negative feelings attached to it. I was in the dentist office nursing discreetly in the waiting room. The receptionist from the office came over to me and politely said, "Ma'am, there is the restroom" as she pointed to the bathroom door. I asked her if she ate her lunch if the restroom. She looked rather stunned and said ,"No". I giggled and replied, "Well, neither does she". She quickly left to share that information with her co-workers. Needless to say, we finished nursing in the waiting room without much more attention.

Nursing is natural! It is easy (after the first two weeks) and it is FREE! In today's expensive society, that seems like enough benefit for me! The benefits of nursing also include babies who are nursed usually suffer fewer sicknesses and stronger immune systems than their non-nursed counterparts.

I looked at breastfeeding in several different regions of the world. In countries like Kenya, Egypt, and Ghana, nursing is encouraged and the normal practice for feeding infants. In Ghana if you do not nurse your baby then people assume that it is not really your baby. Public opinion is supportive in all three of these countries and all across Africa.

In the UK. breastfeeding is frowned upon in most regions. Only 3% of women in the UK nurse beyond 5 months. This is a very shocking fact! There are support groups for women in the UK who choose to nurse. One of the organizations that encourages breastfeeding in the UK and around the world is UNICEF. The website for breastfeeding facts and support is http://www.unicef.org.uk/BabyFriendly/About-Baby-Friendly/Breastfeeding-in-the-UK/UK-Breastfeeding-rates/
I hope you find this link to be helpful.

Nursing my girls was the most normal and natural thing for me. I cannot imagine feeding my babies any other way. It was not necessarily the easiest choice in the beginning but I am confident it was the best choice for the health of my daughters.

Personal Birthing Experiences

The birthing experience I chose to share is that of my first born child. I was 29 years old and extremely excited! I had always wanted to be a mom. Because I had a very complicated pregnancy, I was followed closely by a group of specialists in addition to my own obsetrician. The result of a routine blood test early in my pregnancy indicated that it was a possibility that our child may be born with a genetic defect such as Down's Syndrome or other chromosome related abnormality. My husband and I chose to follow up with amniocentesis so that if there was a problem, we could have the best doctors on hand to care for our newborn child. The results of the further testing indicated that the probability of an abnormality was very low. We rocked on through the pregnancy with a few more complictions like gestational diabetes and pre-eclampsia. I was monitored closely by the doctors and my husband! A few days before my actual due date of November 11, 1995 my doctor ordered one final ultrasound to check the weight of the baby. It was in this ultrasound that a tumor growing inside my precious unborn daughter was evident. The tumor seemed to be on her ovary but the doctors could not tell if it was connected to her kidneys or gall bladder because of the position she was in. The decision was to do a C-section the following day!! WOW! Was I in shock. I really never thought about a C-section. My thoughts of birth were always of breathing and concentrating on my body and my baby. My husband and I had gone to Lamaze classes and I had made the personal decision not to have any drugs administered to me in labor. This news came as a shock and I had not much time to prepare myself. I had exactly 18 hours until the time I was scheduled to be there for surgery and I still had some last minute prepping to do for the arrival!!
     My husband took me to the hospital an hour away at 4 a.m. the next morning ,November 8,1995. Everything went as scheduled. The only glitch was finding scrubs large enough to fit my football player sized husband in! They had to get real cloth scrubs from a doctor's personal closet in the hospital to fit Scott! The doctor waited patiently for him to get in the delivery room...As soon as Scott arrived by my side, the doctor began describing each move he made to us....the "small bikini cut" turned out to be much larger than I expected but that is another blog post!! :) A few minutes later I heard the cries of my precious 9lb. 8oz. baby girl!! She was perfect in every way to this mommy! She was not born with any genetic defect and the tumor they saw was an ovarion cyst that was a response to my strong hormones during pregnancy. We followed up diligently with specialists and the cyst dissapated in its own by the time she was 2 months old. I recovered nicely and went on to have another precious child 4 years later via C-section.
     On Tuesday, Karsen McCall Kreps will be 16 years old. I will never forget how she entered this world on that cold, sunny November morning. She is beautiful, smart, funny and everything a mother would want her daughter to be. The birth was not what I was expecting but life is like that sometimes. Many people asked me if I felt cheated out of a "real" birthing experience....I just laugh and say that surgery is very real. I experienced much discomfort after the surgery but it was worth every ounce of pain. I never felt any less of a woman or a mom because of the way she was delivered. I am thankful that medical advances allow us to catch potential traumatic situations before they happen and thankful for the care we recieved throughout my difficult pregnancy!

I read about birthing experiences in several other countries. The one that was interesting to me was the experiences of the mothers in Taiwan. The experiences are similar to that of American women but the women from Taiwan are encouraged to stay in the hospital for up to 10 days or so! The Taiwanese women also have 6-8 weeks that are paid from their jobs to recouperate and heal from their birthing experience. The research I read said that Taiwan values their pregnant women and the status of the woman changes when she becomes pregnant. She becomes very important and the family caters to all of her needs especially nutrition and health needs. They pamper pregnant women and new mothers. I like that idea!! It is hard to be a new mom both physically and emotionally for some women. I like the fact that a government recognizes that! USA take note!!