Child Development and Public Health (Immunizations)

I am currently working as the administrative manger in a private child care facility and I am in charge of keeping the records for each child. I handle their paperwork for enrollment, developmental history and most importantly their medicals. Our child care facility is inspected by the city and state departments every year to determine if we are update with each child's immunizations records. Immunization is important to me because, I can see how important it is to helping a child live a healthy life. I believe, if you can prevent a child from contracting any disease why wouldn't you. I am a mother and I believe in vaccination even more now because I do not want my little guy contracting anything. 

During my day to day interactions with parents, I come into contact with many different religious, philosophical and political views concerning the well-being for children. We as  a school have to respect the choices of parents and they need to provide us with documentation that states why they do not want to immunize their child. We are not allowed to discrimination or deny entry to children due to that fact, but it does come in to play when we have sickness going around because those children miss out on many school days. The parents of children that are not immunize get really frightened when our school has a virus or any bacterial conditions going around.  

Lack of immunizations is a major contributing factor to the world wide death count in Africa, India and Afghanistan. People are not provided with the medical attention that is needed to prevent diseases among their nation from spreading. UNICEF is a global leader in making a a difference in the world of immunization. Since 2010 they have provided 2.5 billion doses of vaccines to 99 countries and help to lessen the death toll in these countries due to diseases. UNICEF has helped to drop the rates of death for children 5 years and younger. They would love to drop the number to zero, if they could reach everyone in time.

UNICEF has created facilities in different countries to carry out their programs. For example:
Child Health Days (Prevent Childhood Diseases in Somalia)
GAVI Alliance (United Republic of Tanzania)

These programs help to reach the children that may not have had a chance for survival. UNICEF should be supported as much as possible because their are helping children to see a healthy future and and show them that they are important. My future is set because I am a strong believer in all children being vaccinated. I respect everyone beliefs, but when it comes to children unless you can place them in a disease free bubble, I will always choose vaccinate.

Personal Birthing Experience

I gave birth to my son Kaden on February 6, 2012 via c- section. I was in labor for three days and I was not dilating. I tried everything I could to have a natural birth. I was so excited to see my son and finally get to hold him. When I was in the hospital for so long and listening to doctors and seeing all the machines, my happiness was being replaced by fear! I kept thinking something is wrong or something will go wrong, I was very nervous and scared. My mom and my husband were with me throughout the time and they supported me and held my hand. Finally , the doctor said we can wait anymore we need to do a cesarean and it was set up for a few hours later.

Immediately I began to cry followed by my husband and my mom. I felt as if I had failed because I could not deliver my baby that I carried for nine months. I was so emotional and broken-down. The doctor came in and was confused as to what he was seeing with all the tears. He held my hand and told me some women can not even get pregnant so savor this feeling because you will be a mother soon. I began to think of every story you hear about adoption and miscarriages and  I smiled and said doctor your right and I began to relax. After my selfish moment was over, everything went absolutely smooth.

This sweet little boy let out the biggest cry and he made me know that everything was okay and that he had arrived! 

I choose to share my personal experience because I never felt so happy, excited and scared at the same time. To go through such an emotional time really puts your emotions in check. It showed me how connected I was to my child and how I feared that I would be a disappointment to him by not delivering him naturally.

Birth in Guyana,  South America

Guyana is the only English speaking country in South America and even though technology has improved drastically over the pass decades, most birth are occurring in homes. I should point out the statistics are affected by location and finances. Women are given their circumstance by birth themselves. It is only after marriage or migration that they may change their paths. Most families attempt to migrate to the United States or at least marry their daughters off to a wealthy family. 

I am very fortunate that I was able to give birth in New York because, I was already so scared and emotional unstable during my time. If I could not afford to have all the luxuries that I had during my time, I do not know how I would have felt if anything had gone wrong and the doctor could not explain anything to me. 

My mom actually gave birth to me and brother at home and she says to me all the time that the midwives are professionals and they know what they are doing. They prepare for everything. My brother and I were delivered safely and I am glad for that but I am still nervous to know most of the world is subjected to home births because they don't have access to all the technology that the other half of the world has to offer.