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I like to wish all of my classmates and professor a happy new years.

Temika Mccann

I have come to realize that meaningful relationships are a vital part to one’s life and that each relationship carries a special significance.  I enjoy having different relationships from all walks of life. I enjoy talking about different issues and learning about obstacles people have faced and how those obstacles were overcome.  I also enjoy discussing likes and dislikes amongst a group of friends as well as sharing thought on fears and encouragement. Building close relationships is vital so when you are facing hard times, you can have that friend whom you trust to be there for you. We all need a friend who we can share our problems with. I would like to share a quote that caught my attention.

 A friend is one of the nicest things you can have, and one of the best things you can be.  ~Douglas Pagels (2013). I like this quote because it is a give and take quote and I feel that friendships are based on mutual respect.

I have an amazing relationship with my director. She is very knowledgeable in her field and I have learned so much from her. I have great respect for her because she loves what she does and always treats her staff equally and shows love toward each person. I also like the simple fact that she loves to send her staff to trainings in order to help them stay updated on the many changes that are taking place in the field of early childhood development. She is very patient and loves to visit the classrooms often to see how staff is getting along with the children. I am able to be transparent with her and I am so grateful to have her as my director.  She is someone I can learn from as I continue my journey in child development. She makes you want to continue to grow with all of her positive and constructive feedback. With all the different cultures that she has to deal with on a day-to-day basis, she respects each family for who they are regardless of race, religion, gender and she always says, “ families or first.”

I am so grateful to have a loving and caring mom who means so much to me. I am thankful that I can share just about anything with her. For example, I can always talk to her about things that may be bothering me in my personal life and fears I need to overcome. I am grateful that she is not only my mom, she is also my friend. My mom has always supported me and helped me with my children. She is there to help me  go through whatever I may have to face, even though it is out of her control, she is always by my side. I am grateful to have a Christian mom who loves the Lord and brought me up in church.  Just to see her still standing with all the battles she has experienced gives me much hope.  When I am faced with difficult issues, I think of her strength and know I can handle anything. I am grateful that she helped out in my classroom when I was younger. As I was growing up, she helped and supported me in every way she could.  I highly respect my mom and she respects me. Having this type of relationship with my mom, the love and respect we share will not only strengthen me as a person but will help me continue to strive for the best. I realize that no matter what I face in life, she will be there for me. My mom always shares with me how she is so proud of me.  This pride will help me continue along my journey in life.  

                I have a helpful, optimistic connection with my co-worker. She is someone I can share all my problems and work related challenges with. I am grateful to have this relationship because she motivates and empowers me. I feel that you should always have one person at work who can help you through different challenges that you might be facing. Relationships like this help each build mutual respect. A strong relationship with a coworker helps you handle whatever you might be facing on your job or in your personal life. I feel that in order to develop a mutual partnership, both partners must have respect for one another and accept the other person for who they are. Having this type of relationship with a co-worker is an awesome feeling!

I believe that we all experience some type of bias in a relationship. Because we all come from different backgrounds and perspectives, forming relationships can be difficult and challenging. Sometimes I feel that not speaking a particular language can make communication with families difficult, so I have to come up with creative methods to help me communicate effectively in order to keep that open and trusting relationship. One way I can do this is by having an interpreter come and translate for me. I feel that often times parents are always on the go and never have that much time to talk and spend quality time with their children. I have seen this to be a huge challenge as I have worked in the field of child-development.  After offering to send emails, I was told by some of my parents that they didn’t have time to check email.  As for me, I have found that the best way to communicate with my parents is to set up a meeting in advance so parents can plan to spend some time with me to discuss their child. 

I feel when staff members are faced with personal issues that come up unexpectedly, I feel we as educators need to be there to support them. For example, teachers should always step in when given a last minute notice to help out in another classroom. I feel when things need to be done around the school and when we have free time on our hands instead of complaining, lend a helping hand to a fellow co-worker, director or even a family. I believe in respect, trust and integrity.  I despise when educators talk about each other’s families amongst each other. I feel that is so unprofessional.  The old saying says if you don’t have anything good to say about someone don’t say it anything at all. I myself do not like tearing anyone I work with down. I would rather build them up. We have to realize when we are not happy at our work site this can affect the classroom flow and the learning of the children can be effected as well. I am so thankful that I have always been the peacemaker where ever I go. I have always led by example because actions speak louder than words. I believe we need to treat other how we want to be treated and that this will have a huge impact on relationships. 

Overall, I truly believe that the interaction between families, community and parents will have a positive impact in child development. I have discovered that when educators bond with families a better understanding is developed which can help each child excel to his/her full potential. I feel we as educators need to encourage parents and help them by sharing different resources so in difficult times, they have a place to turn.

Have a bless week!

Reference

Pagels, D. (2014).Friends are one of the nicest Retrieved from http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/46504-a-friend-is-one-of-the-nicest-things-you-can

the Author

Historian Ellen Holmes Pearson is an Associate Professor at the University of North Carolina, Asheville. She received her Ph.D. in Colonial and Revolutionary American History from The Johns Hopkins University. Her book, Remaking Custom: Law and Identity in the Early American Republic is forthcoming from the University of Virginia Press.

 

Native American Customs of Childbirth

Question 

How did Native American women give birth, or what were their practices or beliefs in giving birth?

Answer 

In the seventeenth century, Dutchman Adrien Van der Donck described a woman’s preparation for childbirth among the Mohawk and Mahican Indians in what is now known as New York. He stated that pregnant women would “depart alone to a secluded place near a brook, or stream of water . . . and prepare a shelter for themselves with mats and coverings, where, provided with provisions necessary for them, they await their delivery without the company or aid of any person. . . . They rarely are sick from child-birth [and] suffer no inconveniences from the same.” Many similar descriptions of solitary, painless births exist among European observers of the Native Americans, but because most of these observers were men, and men rarely attended the birth of children, these descriptions are probably inaccurate. Although each indigenous culture had its own unique beliefs and rituals about childbirth, scholars believe that many First Peoples shared certain practices involving the participation of close family members and select others within the community.
During their pregnancies, women restricted their activities and took special care with their diet and behavior to protect the baby. The Cherokees, for example, believed that certain foods affected the fetus. Pregnant women avoided foods that they believed would harm the baby or cause unwanted physical characteristics. For example, they believed that eating raccoon or pheasant would make the baby sickly, or could cause death; consuming speckled trout could cause birthmarks; and eating black walnuts could give the baby a big nose. They thought that wearing neckerchiefs while pregnant caused umbilical strangulation, and lingering in doorways slowed delivery. Expectant mothers and fathers participated in rituals to guarantee a safe delivery, such as daily washing of hands and feet and employing medicine men to perform rites that would make deliveries easier.
As the birth grew closer, women and their families observed other rituals to ensure an easy and healthy birth. Nineteenth-century anthropologist James Mooney recorded one Cherokee ritual intended to frighten the child out of the mother’s womb. A female relative of the mother would say: “Listen! You little man, get up now at once. There comes an old woman. The horrible [old thing] is coming, only a little way off. Listen! Quick! Get your bed and let us run away. Yu!” The female relative then repeated the formula, substituting “little woman” and “your grandfather,” in case the baby was a girl. Van der Donck described a Mahican concoction made of root bark that the mother drank shortly before labor began. Many indigenous peoples used similar remedies. Cherokee women drank an infusion of wild cherry bark to speed delivery.
Despite numerous descriptions of solitary births, other accounts describe births attended by a midwife and other close family members. Men were rarely allowed in the birth room, and they were never allowed to see the birth. A woman in labor stood, knelt, or sat, but she never gave birth lying down. Usually no one bothered to catch the baby, who fell onto leaves placed beneath the mother. Van der Donck and Mooney described post-delivery rituals in which the mothers ceremonially plunged the infant into the river, an act they repeated daily for two years. British Lieutenant Henry Timberlake, an envoy to the Cherokee in the mid-eighteenth century, stated that this ritual made “the children acquire such strength, that no ricketty or deformed are found among them.”
European descriptions of Native American women’s quick recovery from childbirth may have been exaggerated. But generally, Indian women’s excellent physical conditioning certainly aided in their recovery from childbirth. Barring any serious complications – which, of course, did happen occasionally – Native American women returned to their regular duties in a very short period of time. 

Temika Mccann

Group 2

January 11, 2014

I would like to share my personal birth story experience. On the day  of my due date  April 18, 2006 , I went to the post office and did not realize that I was in labor until I went to the hospital and Dr. Hendricks checked me and she said, “ You are about 7 centimeters.” I was very shocked to find out that news after walking around and not knowing that I was in labor was hilarious! I remember just like it was yesterday and still to this day I think back on that special day my baby is now 7 years old- look how time flies.

I chose this example because this birth experience was so precious to me. I had an aunt that passed away, and  until I got to the hospital that I was an realize that , I was going to have my daughter on her birthday that meant so much to me. Having my daughter on my aunt’s birthday brought tears to my eyes after realizing she was not able to celebrate the new additions into the family with me left me feeling sad! I will not ever forget this special day, and will cherish not only my daughter but my aunt’s birthday as well, and she will always have a special place in my heart.

The impact on child development is vital because some parents do not always have a child that is developmentally stable. Some women discover birth defect that they had not known about after giving birth that never realized through their 9 months This have influence on developmentally challenged, because when a mother finds out that she may have a child who is developmentally challenge she can suffer denial, anger fear and feeling like she will not be able to take care of her child properly. I believe that parent should be educated before planning to have children because this will allow them to be able to expect what could happen during and after birth child birth.

South Africa is today a country of many cultures, languages and traditions. Kung has shown most women will give birth alone in a squatting position, occasionally , but not only in this country to other  women give birth they also talk amongst each other on how they have to face their fear and they do this by allowing other women to see them give birth.

What I have learned is that each delivery happens and takes place in a different way and sometime without the women’s husbands been present. I can remember with my first pregnancy that I saw a similarity with the African women: my child father was not present with me as I gave birth to my child. As I read about how other countries women give birth I was shocked when I read how African women give birth alone without their husbands. The similarities that I discovered are that everyone has the same feeling when the baby is about to come how we can, feel something pushing that we have no type of control over.

What I have gained from this comparison.  Is the insight that we all have the same birth experience that, we all have the same thing in common? I have gained that no matter where you are, place or time, when the baby is ready to come he/she will, and nothing can be done about that but staying calm as possible. I also gained the  impact on birth experience on how it is vital that women make sure that they get educate before and after child birth for their child can become a well-rounded adult.