Violence

A close friend of mine grew up in Compton, California. Her neighborhood was the center of gang violence. She shared with me many stories about killings that she had witnessed as a young child. She said that after awhile she became immune to the violence and that the sight of people getting hurt did not affect her one bit. From the outside looking in, that sounded horrible. She also shared that young children migrated to join these street wars and soon the gangs took over the community. At age 17, she moved to Virginia, which was a totally different atmosphere for her. She began volunteering at local boys and girls club and working with youth. While working there she had so many stories to share, she began speaking to large groups of youth about gang violence. She soon got the opportunity to travel around the world to different communities encountering the same issues she grew up around. Her harsh environment turned her into an advocate against gang violence.

In Central America, 85% of young children and youth make up a street gang. The factors related to the street gangs are high-income inequality indices in the world. Other regional trends that may worsen patterns of gang violence in many

Countries include extreme poverty; highly urbanized populations; growing youth populations facing stagnant job markets; and an absence of political will to fight crime in a holistic manner.

Breastfeeding across the world....

Breastfeeding has always been an important factor in child development. I choose this topic to research because I wanted to know the different veiwpoints of mothers, doctors and child development that stemmed from breastfeeding. I ran across this article from a mother from Mexico , she stated:

"I'm from Mexico and breastfeeding timing goes along with income and education. Lower income and less educated breastfeed longer than 2 years since moms don't have money to buy formula or to provide with any other healthy foods for their children. Moms that are more educated and have better finances tend to breastfeed for only 6 months since they believe that breast milk starts losing it's health benefits after that age when babies start solids. Some will breastfeed up to 12 months just for bonding but after that babies are weaned gradually. The ability of buying healthy foods compensates for the lack of use of breast milk.

Families in Mexico have very close family units and it's not uncommon to live with your parents when you're 30 or live with wife and kids and all your immediate family in the same house. So although children don't get the long bonding period of breastfeeding as in the US, they seem to be unaffected and still have very strong bonds to their family and grow up very healthy too. Children that were breastfed for 2 years or more were not necessarily healthy since their mothers weren't. I think this just shows the other side of the coin :) It's great that moms in the US can be healthy and choose to breastfeed as long as they want! "                

Reading this article, I found several contributing factors to breastfeeding. Income and education were vital factors that I had never considered important in deciding to breastfeed.

A Saudi Birth Story

As I browsed the web for birth stories. I ran across a blog that a woman published in Saudi Arabia about the birth of her 8 children. They were not born all at once. Each child had a different method in which they were born. Here is the link http://saudibirthstory.blogspot.com/p/my-personal-birth-stories.html

Birthing Experiences...

I have not had the opportunity to experience a birthing experience. I have had many planned but it seemed as if I was never there on time or I could not get it the room. I have had the opportunity to watch hundreds of baby stories on television. I often hear stories from my peers who have given birth. What all of these stories have in common is that these mothers say it was an indescribable experience but are able to share all the details. I can share the knowledge of the preparation period before giving birth. I believe 9 months is significant amount of time to adequately plan for a child's birth. Developing a proper diet and exercising all have been important factors in delivering a healthy baby and having a successful birth.