Monday, September 26, 2011

IF YOU ARE HUNGRY, THEN I WILL FEED YOU!!!

I can sit all day and listen to my mother tell us the heart felt story of the things that she has had to suffer as a child. The one story that fits this assignment is the story about her being hungry. My mother's mother died when she was 4 years old ans she and her three siblings were being raised by her father, but it came a time when her father had to go away for a while so that he could work. My mom, her brother(one brother died), and her sister had to go and live with her father's mother. My mom told the horror story about her grandmother. She told us that her grandmother would not feed her, her brother, and her sister. She did not know exactly why, but my mother told us that her grandmother hated them and would not feed them. They went to bed many of nights hungry and had not had anything to eat for days. My mother told us that she would sometimes have to help her grandmother in the kitchen and she would hide food from the kitchen and her brother and her sister would be under the porch and she would throw them the food up under the porch so that they could eat something. My mother is 67 and she continues to struggle with all that happened to her in her childhood. My mom always made sure that her children and grand children always have enough food to eat and she never lets any of the children go to be hungry. If one of them happens to fall asleep and not eat she will wake them up so that they can eat. That story really moves me and every time my mother tells that story I sit and listen in amazement, because I could not imagine how someone would starve their own grandchildren to almost death; which is what happened to my aunt, she had gone many days without eating and she passed out almost to death and when she came too , my great grandmother(worried at the time because my aunt almost died, and she would go to jail) had my mother to soak some bread in water and feed it to her.


My Mom







We sometimes think of hungry children outside the US, but hunger is a big problem today in the US.
In high school, Katherine Foronda trained herself not to feel hungry until after the school day had ended. She wasn't watching her weight or worrying about boys seeing her eat.
She just didn't have any food to eat or any money to buy it.
"I thought, if I wasn't hungry during class I'd be able to actually focus on what we were learning,'' said Foronda, now 19.
Every day, children in every county in the United States wake up hungry. They go to school hungry. They turn out the lights at night hungry.
As many as 17 million children nationwide are struggling with what is known as food insecurity. To put it another way, one in four children in the country is living without consistent access to enough nutritious food to live a healthy life, according to the study, "Map the Meal Child Food Insecurity 2011."


The story of what happened with my mother and her siblings is still occurring today, there are millions of children who just do not get enough to eat.

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

In The Beginning

I chose the topic of nutrition/malnutrition because I have been fortunate enough to be able to provide myself with the nutrition that I needed during my pregnancies, but unfortunately there are people all over the world that have under weight babies because they are unable to eat properly during pregnancy.


A pregnant woman should get plenty of fruits, vegetables, whole grains and lean protein. In addition to making healthy food choices, taking a daily prenatal vitamin — ideally starting three months before conception — can help ensure you're getting enough of this essential nutrient


The nutrition of a pregnant woman directly influences the course of the pregnancy and normal fetal development, and also the long-term health of the mother and child. In the first half of pregnancy, nutrition requirements mainly concern quality, while in the second half, quantity is also an issue, to ensure fetal growth. Proper nutritional habits should already be established at the start of this second life - if possible even before conception.

 India has exceptionally high rates of child malnutrition, because tradition in India requires that women eat last and least throughout their lives, even when pregnant and lactating. Malnourished women give birth to malnourished children, perpetuating the cycle.

Quotes About India's Mothers

You can tell the condition of a nation by looking at the status of its women.
- Jawaharlal Nehru


However much a mother may love her children, it is all but impossible for her to provide high-quality child care if she herself is poor and oppressed, illiterate and uninformed, anaemic and unhealthy, has five or six other children, lives in a slum or shanty, has neither clean water nor safe sanitation, and if she is without the necessary support either from health services, or from her society, or from the father of her children
- Vulimiri Ramalingaswami, "The Asian Enigma"



The women who participate in and lead ecology movements in countries like India are not speaking merely as victims. Their voices are the voices of liberation and transformation. . . The women's and ecology movements are therefore one, and are primarily counter-trends to a patriarchal maldevelopment.
- Vandana Shiva


Tuesday, September 6, 2011

8lbs3oz and 6lbs6oz

I can remember it like it was yesterday that I gave birth to my first son. He was a big baby, as a matter of fact he was the biggest baby in the nursery. I was awaken by the pains of birth around about 2:34 am. I knew that it was time, so I took a shower grabbed my bag and awoke my husband so that we could go to the hospital. The pains were unbearable so I asked for an epidural, and on August 16, 2011 at 1:34pm my son Travius was born and he weighed 8lbs3oz.



 Eight years later I found myself back at the hospital going into labor. It was different this time the baby was just lying in the birth canal awaiting me to dilate. The pains were hard to bare, I asked for an epidural and by the time the doctor arrived and positioned the epidural into my back the baby was coming, I pushed one time and he was here. Joshua was born at 7:01a.m.




These are two great moments in time that I will never forget, and I wanted to share my birth experiences with you. After you have gone through the pains of labor and hold your child for the first time you forget about the pain that you  just experienced and you begin to focus on that little bundle of joy that you are holding in your arms for the first time. That same love and warmth that I felt that day I took it along with me from the hospital and I use that love, and care to make sure that my babies were given all that they needed to develop into a strong healthy child. I am still providing that nurture to my children and I do not think that that care will ever end for a parent. Child development is key in making sure that children will have a standing chance to grow up to be a vibrant adult.

In China the annual number of births in 2009 was 18294.

China has proclaimed that it will continue its one child policy, which limits couples to having one child, through the 2006-2010 five year planning period.
China's one child policy was established by Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping in 1979 to limit communist China's population growth. Although designated a "temporary measure," it continues a quarter-century after its establishment. The policy limits couples to one child. Fines, pressures to abort a pregnancy, and even forced sterilization accompanied second or subsequent pregnancies. It is not an all-encompassing rule because it has always been restricted to ethnic Han Chinese living in urban areas. Citizens living in rural areas and minorities living in China are not subject to the law. However, the rule has been estimated to have reduced population growth in the country of 1.3 billion by as much as 300 million people over its first twenty years.

Now that millions of sibling-less people in China are now young adults in or nearing their child-bearing years, a special provision allows millions of couples to have two children legally. If a couple is composed of two people without siblings, then they may have two children of their own, thus preventing too dramatic of a population decrease.

I really did not know there was such a law to prevent people from having children. I am glad that I live in the US because I have always wanted to have two children and I have them. I do not want anymore children, but there are other people who would like to have more than just two children. China went to drastic measure to make sure that its population did not grow out of control, but the US being the country of freedom have not implemented such a law.