Child Birth

    My sister was just one week into her fifth month of pregnancy with my nephew, when she went to the doctors and had an ultrasound, they told her everything was good but they did mention that he was low. One week later, she was having contractions and had to be rushed into the hospital. Within thirty minutes of getting to the hospital, she gave birth to a two pound baby boy. A little while after he was born, he lost one pound. The medical team worked on him for hours and then he was rushed over to a different hospital that had a NICU unit. He spent the next five months in the hospital.  We named him Keion. Keion had many ups and downs, along with many surgeries. Each day that he was there, it seems like something different happened he would be doing good one day and the next day he would take three backwards.

   One thing that I remember so clear, is one of the nurses came to us and said Keion was a fighter, he was always pulling on the wires that were hooked up to him. She said that he would make it because he was a fighter. She was right he did make it. His first year was hard he was in and out of the hospital a few times. He was smaller than kids his age and for that, it put him at a disadvantage. My sister didn’t let him stay at a disadvantage for long, she worked with him to help him meet the milestones that he should at the age he was. I do believe because of his birth he has had more obstacles to overcome.Today, he is in the seventh grade above level in history and math.

In North America, we take child birth as an everyday occurrence, but in Africa, child birth is difficult and mother and child can be in troubled. It is stated that one out of every six children dies before the age of five and many die before they have a chance to live. (Hunter-Gault, 2006)  Africa women die in child birth more frequently than any other industrialized country. Many children are born by midwives, and in Zambia, mothers are young and they have an average of six children, which is different from here in the US where, where the average is family size is 2.59. (United States Fact Finder, 2010). In Africa women are being more educated on prenatal care and they are being encouraged to go to the hospital to have their babies instead of trying to have them at home this will give both the mother and child a chance to live.

References

Hunter-Gault, Charlayne. (2006) In Africa, Overcoming the Risks of Childbirth. Retrieved from http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5628726

United States Fact Sheet American Fact Finder. (2010) American Fact Finder. http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/SAFFFacts