Consequences of Stress on Children's Development

Noise

I remembered one of the families I worked with had a very bad experience with noise. Little John (pretend name) and his mom who is single live in a small apartment on a busiest street in San Francisco, CA.  The street is famous with the bars, lounge and clubs. Every weekend is like a nightmare for little John and Mom because not only the music may echo to their apartment and the noise that those people who finished partying made are the most annoying stressor in their life. Mom works full time in a restaurant and they are barely having enough money to rent this apartment. Mom stressed to me that poverty is not a stressor to her, but the noise is really making her and her son’s life miserable. Little John sometimes has nightmare about monster chasing him when he was woke up by those noise.

Fortunately, we have a Family Advocate to support families in our program. The FA helped little John’s family found an affordable apartment listed on the housing list form Episcopal Community services –San Francisco. We are very fortunate that San Francisco have all these resources support the low-income families such as housing, emergency housing, food program etc.

When I reflected back to little John’s family, I realized that have people ever pay attention to the resident around the bar and lounge, have you ever think of how the noise we are making after a few drinks could affect to these residency? These questions were also came from a recent news from my home town.

 

 There is a street in Hong Kong closed after 6pm to 6am for citizen to present any kind of street performance like singing, dance etc. It is FREE! Many people and tourist love to come to this street to explore and enjoy the freedom to express self through art. What a nice place for people to express self through art! However, all these noisy became a serious stressor to the residents around this block. There was no voice level control on the street. Many seniors complained that they have a hard time falling asleep, children have a hard time to focus to complete their homework. There was also an incident where an senior injury at home and it took 30 minutes for the ambulance to get through all these traffic that the performance created. A week ago, the city finally restricted the street performance will only open in the weekend. Residents are so happy with this change. These made me reflect on how many time we are having fun and enjoying something while we may be affecting others life?

Reference:

Episcopal Community services –San Francisco : http://www.ecs-sf.org/programs/housing.html

Child Development and Public Health - Breastfeeding

Breastfeeding

Many studies and research found that breastfeeding benefits to both mother and the baby. Even some research said breast milk is the best food for baby! 

Benefits to babies :

1. Protects your baby against disease and infection.
2.  May reduce the risk of childhood obesity.
3. Helps prevent your baby from developing allergies.
4. It's free!

Mothers benefit from breastfeeding

1. Save time– when your baby is hungry, breastfeeding is the fastest and most accessible way to satisfy your baby. You will not need to purchase, measure and mix formula!In addition, you will not need to wash and sterilize bottles!

2. Save $$ – Formula and feeding supplies can cost well over $1,500 each year, depending on how much your baby eats. Breastfed babies are also sick less often, which can lower health care costs.( U.S. Department of Health and Human Services )

3. Help Bonding – Breastfeeding helps develop bond when mother has physical contact with her baby. The skin-to-skin contact can boost the mother’s oxytocin (OKS-ee-TOH-suhn) levels. Oxytocin is a hormone that helps milk flow and can calm the mother..( U.S. Department of Health and Human Services )

4.      Good for Mother’s health – Breastfeeding is linked to a lower risk of these health problems in women: Type 2 diabetes, Breast cancer, Ovarian cancer & Postpartum depression.

5. Mothers miss less work – Breastfeeding mothers miss fewer days from work because their infants are sick less often.

Breastfeeding vs. Taboos

As government and doctors encourage mothers to breastfeed, however, we don’t it rarely see a mother breastfeed in public. I remembered there’s a new a year ago that a mother was breastfeeding in a café, but the owner thinks that was disturbing to his/her customers and then they refused to serve her. The mother tried to talk about her rights of breastfeed and the importance of it, however, the owner still rejected her. This mother is so mad, but instead of arguing with the own, she posted this story in a mother support blog. The next day that mother and a group of mother say in the café to breastfeed. The owners senses the anxiety of the mothers and start to understand the reason of breastfeed. And this time, he didn’t refuse them, instead, he treats the mothers food and drink. Most importantly, he put a sign says “breastfeeding welcome here” in his café.

I am so proud of the mothers in this news that they are able to stand up to fight for their rights. Breastfeeding should not be a taboo in the public. It is the right of women and their babies!

I also noticed that in my hometown, Hong Kong, China, breastfeeding in public is not common in public. Regardless how government and doctor recommend breastfeeding, they suggest women to breastfeed in the women’s lounge or public nursing room. I believe it is because of the cultural difference. People are still very conservative in many ways, especially to women; they are shy and feel breastfeeding in public is rude, indecent or disturbing.  Although there is policy protects the rights of breastfeeding in public, government did not promote breastfeeding in public. 

Reference:

http://www.ccfc.ca.gov/parents/health-center/nutrition/?a=breastfeeding&t=1367450877406#/?a=breastfeeding&gclid=CO6Xlsv_1roCFVRk7AodwE8AUg

http://www.womenshealth.gov/breastfeeding/why-breastfeeding-is-important/index.html

http://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/family-education/article/1150949/issue-breastfeeding-hong-kong

Childbirth In Your Life and Around the World

I was born in Hong Kong, China, in a hospital. I believe the hospital system there was very similar to the current practice in the USA. My mom requested C-section because she wanted my birth date on a specific day because of religious reason. I don’t remember anything about being at the hospital, but I know in my culture has some norms on newborn. Newborn and their mother usually stay home or avoid going out for at least a month from the first day of the baby born. Chinese believe that newborn and mother are weak and still develop their strengths after birth or give birth. Therefore, they try to avoid going out to expose to germs or outdoor. And women try not to have alcohol, cold food or seafood during their pregnancy because they believe that is not good for the fetus.

I have some memory about my baby brother’s birth. He was born in the hospital too. I remembered me and my father went to the hospital to visit my brother. We stand in front of the window and trying to spot where his crib is. I also remembered my Mom told me that she was born at home. It’s very usual back in her days. They didn’t even need a certified physician to assist the procedure. They usually call some experienced woman called “delivery professionals” to help with the delivery.  My mom told me all these “delivery professionals” use are warm water and scissor to cut the umbilical cords.

In Hong Kong, China. I believe newborn stays in the newborn room with other newborn for a week and parents can bring them home after. It’s different than USA where newborn can go home with Mom in a day or so.