Week One: Birth and Its Importance to Child Development

• Write about a personal birthing experience. It can be your own birth, your child's birth, or one you took part in. What do you remember about the event? Why did you choose this example? What are your thoughts regarding birth and its impact on child development?
• Choose a region of the world or a country, other than the U.S., and find out how births happen there. Write about what you learned, and the differences and similarities with your experience (in the personal example you provided). What additional insights, if any, about the impact of the birthing experience on development, did you gain from this comparison?

  
I am the mother of two and I can remember BOTH of my birthing experiences like they occurred yesterday.  Before I gave birth to my three year old son, I was in so much pain. The doctor would not admit me to the hospital until I was four centimeters. It was PURE TORTURE! So I walked and walked and walked and WALKED. I was in severe pain until I finally went back to the hospital. I was admitted and the medical team gave me some medicine to help me relax and rest. Epidurals are a pet peeve so I did not want that. However, I was only at the hospital for an hour when I was told it was time to push. I pushed for half and hour and my little fella made his debut. 

When I gave birth to my one year old daughter, the experience was really different than it was with her big brother. I was annoyed, frustrated, and TIRED of being pregnant so I really wasn't as cooperative as I should have been. So this experience was quite difficult. I felt EVERYTHING. It was really painful! I was admitted to the hospital at five centimeters and it took me 10 whole hours to deliver my daughter. It was really tiring and all I thought about was seeing her face and getting some rest. I pushed almost two hours before my ladybug made her debut.

I chose these two experiences because they are a part of me and my life. What other experiences to discuss but my own? Birth is important to child development because it is indeed part of this process. The child has to develop in the womb as well as outside the womb with the help of its mother. Children aren't born knowing what to do so mothers and fathers have to teach them and allow them to experiment in order for them to develop properly.

In China, women believe in herbal remedies and ancient customs to help them conquer birth as well as go through pregnancy with ease. Women must drink herbal potions during labor and they are told to not be afraid during labor. They also find it unlucky to throw showers or take up other customs that associate with pregnancy. In the US we believe in baby showers and medicine and doctors. This would be a nice way to attempt to experience pregnancy but I don't think I could do it.