Dealing with chaos

I have not experienced, nor known anyone who experienced any of the stressors.  So I decided to research what happened to children who experienced the Hanshin-Awaji (Kobe) earth quake which occurred in Japan in 1995, where 6,434 people died and 43,792 people were injured. I found a story about a boy referred to as Kazunori who lost his father when he was 12 years old because of the disaster.  He experienced much more stress because he was the oldest child in his family and he had to take over his father’s role in the house for his mother and three younger siblings.  He says he couldn’t cry for his father’s loss in front of his family.  Instead, he felt he had to teach what he had been taught by his father.  He also shared that he hid the fact that he lost his father to his friends until he was in high school.  He told them that his father was on business trips because he felt nobody understood his feelings.  He coped with his tragedy by being responsible. Now that he is 21 years old, he is trying to study abroad in Brazil.  He says he wants to work for people dealing with difficulties outside Japan. 

I think many children in Japan now are experiencing stresses similar to those that Kazunori went through because of the Higashi Nihon Daishinsai (East Japan Earthquake/Tsunami/Nuclear Event) last March that killed 15833 people died and has left 3671 people missing.  Even though Kazunori did a great job for his family and grew up to be an ambitious man, I feel that a lot of children who experience such huge stress and grief will have more negative outcomes. They might have troubles which come from stresses such as lost appetite, stomach problems, headache, and trouble sleeping.  Those are directly related to children’s biosocial development.  In addition to these issues for biosocial development, the lack of a sense of safety, and less time with parents will slow the cognitive development in these children.  I think these children will also suffer from long-term issues in psychosocial development such as indifference, depression, and a lowered ability to cope with future stressful situations.

Reference

NHK Online. Fukushi Network. Retrieved on November 26, 2011, from http://www.nhk.or.jp/heart-net/fnet/arch/thu/40115.html

Immunization

I chose this topic because I found out that children die in developing countries where immunizations are not available in enough supply to protect the population. It is meaningful to me because it guided me to the question, "Shouldn't public health be universal over the world?"
"Cholera has killed over 6,500 Haitians in the past year, and nearly half a million people — about 5% of the country’s population"( Zimmerman, 2010, para 1). During my research, I visited the Partners In Health website. Their program called "Stand With Haiti" is helping Haitians to build medical centers and bring their sanitation levels up and so on. The videos we can watch at http://www.standwithhaiti.org/haiti/one-year/care-in-the-camps are shocking. Their houses have serious sanitation issues and a woman in the video says that once there is a Cholera outbreak, people run away from their homes because they are afraid to get infected.
What I have learned may impact my future work because I might want to work for or with an organization like PIH personally and I certainly would like to teach my future students what we can do to help each other’s public health.

References

Rachel Zmmerman. Wbur.org. One Year Later: Cholera Keeps Rising In Haiti, Vaccine On The Way.2010.Retrieved on November 2011, from http://commonhealth.wbur.org/2011/10/one-year-later-cholera-keeps-rising-in-haiti/

Partners In Health. Retrieved on November 2011, from http://www.standwithhaiti.org/haiti/one-year/care-in-the-camps

about birth

I am in a unique situation because I had my first daughter in Japan and second daughter in the US.  What I remember the most for both is that I held the baby to my chest just after I gave birth.  I chose this example because it was a big event that made me feel “ I am your mom”.  I think this kangaroo care is important for both mothers and babies development because the moment I held my baby made me a “mom” who is strong and responsible and I could see that my first baby, who was full term, was reassured by staring into my eyes even though she looked a little lost and trying to find out what was going on. 

The biggest difference between the ways to give birth in Japan and the US is whether we use painkillers or not.  In Japan, we have a choice to use it but most don’t because people think the pain must be overcome to become a mother and if we avoid this, we are likely to be seen  as a kind of failed mother or weak.  I actually heard a doctor say a negative comment about a mother-to-be implied that she wanted the painless way.  My friends and I have discussed that we also afraid that anesthesiologist may hurt us fatally by mistake because we do not trust them since they are not commonly used there.

One difference is that clinics which take care of pregnancy to birth are common in Japan.  We could go to the hospitals but we usually do not change clinics or hospitals unless people need to go to ones in different prefectures to stay with their parents so that the grandparents can take care of new-moms after they give birth. Another difference is that mothers stay in the hospital longer in Japan. I stayed for 5 days in Japan and only 2 days in the US.  But this makes sense because mothers who made birth without drugs are so tired and mentally fatigued that they need longer stays to recover.  The other difference is that we are supposed to visit a doctor as soon as 5 or 6 weeks into a pregnancy in Japan but we wait until 12 weeks to see a specialist doctor in the US.

Other things are pretty similar. We go through many tests for abnormalities during pregnancy, even though I feel ones America are more detailed. Both countries have parent classes, though my husband was required to attend the one in Japan.  Both countries also use similar high technological devices to monitor both the mother and baby’s health.

I personally think using painkillers is better for mothers and babies because easier birth enables a mother to take care of their babies sooner and puts less of a burden and stresses on mother and, I think, babies too.  To me, the procedure of having birth in Japan was hell and one in the US was the heaven.  It could be the same to my daughters, because my elder daughter was born a little purple and the nurses needed to suck liquid from her airway but my younger daughter was OK and cried out pretty quickly.