Week 4 Consequences of Stress on Children’s Development

Growing up in a war zone

My ex- mother in law is French. I asked her to tell me what it was like growing up during the Occupation. She sat back in her chair, drawing a crocheted afghan up and tucking fit snugly across her body and under her legs. “Oh, I don’t like to be cold,” she shivered. “I was so cold all the time during the war. There wasn’t a warm building in all of Paris during the Occupation, even for the German soldiers. I’ve never forgotten how hard that was.”

At eighty three years of age, her French accent is as distinct as it was when she arrived in America as a war bride so many years ago - and her memory of those bleak years is still strong and colored with vivid detail.
Jacqueline's early life was greatly affected by the rapid advance of the German army in WWII through France. As the German war machine spilled westward beyond Paris, young Jacqueline was sent to stay on a relative’s farm outside of Paris. It wasn’t too long, however, before the German soldiers began to show up at such farms. Jacqueline remembers her first view of the feared Boches. "One day some German soldiers came to the farm and commandeered a team of my uncle’s Percheron horses for the German army. That was my first sight of a German soldier in uniform. One of the soldiers gave my cousin and I some candy - which we promptly threw on the manure pile. After all, we had been told that, in World War I, the Germans poisoned little children this way!”

There was no heat in the bedroom that Jacqueline and her brother shared. They quickly discovered a way to get warm at night. "We each had a bed, and there was a barrel of Calvados (apple brandy) at the foot of Jean Claude's bed. We would sneak sugar cubes from the kitchen at night and let some of the Calvados drip from the tap onto the cubes. This is called ‘petit canard’ (little duck) by the Normans. We would suck on the sugar cubes and it didn't take long for the Calvados to warm us as we crawled into bed. “

As the German soldiers began roaming the countryside, demanding food and liquor from the Norman farmers, it became apparent that life on the farm was no safer than living in the city. Jacqueline and her brother were reunited with their family in Paris.

One thing that stands out in Jacqueline's recollections of Paris is how so much of her life was influenced by the German occupation and then the liberation. It is difficult for anyone not experiencing the daily presence and always ominous threat of the hated Germans to understand what it was like. There was no “freedom of speech" or any of the other freedoms that we take for granted and no civil liberties except as permitted by the German occupiers. Everything was geared to what the Germans demanded.

Jacqueline remembers one aspect of the occupation very distinctly - "la Gale du Pain". “The only bread available at that time was a dark brown, very coarse bran-filled loaf, with many bits of straw baked in, some pieces almost one inch long! Because of chronic food shortages and the tight rationing, this coarse bread was a large part of a typical Parisian diet,” she recalls. “Because of this excessive roughage, many, many Parisians, and I mean by the thousands, developed this itchy skin condition which they called "the bread rash" (la gale du pain).”

Jacqueline described the treatment. "We would be taken to l'Hospital Bicétre. There, we would be separated, males and females, and then told to strip. First we would be thoroughly washed, and then the nurses would brush us with rough bristled brushes which would open all of the sores. Then they would use large paint brushes to apply an ointment all over our bodies. Thousands of people went through these 'mass production' treatment lines every day. After we got dressed again, we would go home, riding on the subway. In the subway we could tell who else had just been to the hospital. Everyone smelled of this strong la gale ointment odor!"

Rationing, food shortages, coffee made from chicory and maybe even sawdust, filth and disease -- there was no one to complain to about all this. But somehow, like all the other French, Jacqueline and her family survived. “When I hear young people these days complain about not having enough money or toys,” she smiles “I often wish they could go back in the past for just one week to live during the Occupation, and then they would realize how lucky they are.”

Child Development and Public Health

Immunization is meaningful to me because vaccines are among the safest medical products available and can prevent the suffering and costs associated with infectious diseases. It’s not only important to stay healthy to protect yourself, but also to protect your children, your grandchildren, coworkers, and the older people in your life, too. Without, immunization, I would have to miss work leaving those unable to care for themselves and depend on me in everyday life. Vaccinations from birth through adulthood provide a lifetime of protection against many diseases and infections. During the 20th century, many infectious diseases-that killed thousands of people each year-were either eliminated or controlled by immunizations in the United States.

Unlike some countries, immunization is not mandatory, in Canada; it cannot be made mandatory because of the Canadian Constitution. Only three provinces have legislation or regulations under their health-protection acts to require proof of immunization for school entrance. Requiring proof of immunization for school entrance serves two main purposes. First, parents who have forgotten to have their children properly immunized will be reminded and can rectify the situation. Second, parents who do not wish to have their children immunized must actively refuse and sign documents attesting to that fact. In some provinces and territories, the public health-care system administers immunization programs; infants and children receive their vaccinations at public-health clinics. In other provinces and territories, vaccinations are primarily given by private physicians who order vaccines from local public-health units.

This information has a great impact on my future work because an unvaccinated person is a threat to people. Diseases do not stop at the borders. People can bring vaccine preventable diseases into our country and spread them to people who are not vaccinated. Our society depends on everyone working together to ensure that all of us can be safe. One of the ways we can play our part is to make sure that your family gets the right shots at the right time. Shots may hurt a…little, but the disease they can prevent can hurt a lot more.

My Personal Birth Experience

A personal birthing experience for me was the birth of my son. This was my first child. I remember lying in the hospital bed having contractions. Everything was going fine. In the final stage of labor, I begin to bleed heavy. I was in a lot of pain. I was nervous and afraid. Doctors and nurses came with different types of machines and equipment. The doctors were able to see and monitor my baby. My baby was stuck in a transverse position. The baby’s side was trying to come instead of the baby’s head for delivery. My baby was stuck! Thank God I was in a clinical setting. The doctor said the baby had to be delivered by cesarean section. My blood pressure was very high and my body was going into shock. I was taken to the Operating Room for emergency surgery. I was scared and concerned about the baby’s health. After the baby was born and I came out of recovery, I had no interest in my baby. I was in a lot of pain. I did not want to see or hold my child. I only wanted something for the pain and was tired and sleepy. Later that day, I noticed a change in my appetite. These were signs and symptoms of postpartum depression. I feel that first time births should be done in a clinical setting because, I never had any complications doing my pregnancy or delivery until the baby was ready to be born.

If I had not been in the hospital, I probably could have died and my baby also. In Netherlands delivery at home attended by a registered midwife or nurse has been the norm for quite a while. Deliveries are considered a natural part of life. The United States is medicalized. Netherlands has one of the lowest infant mortality rates of the world. Netherlands has a large network of certified midwifes, who guide almost all pregnancies. Only when serious problems occur during pregnancy or delivery an obstetrician is involved. The family doctor is almost never involved in pregnancies / deliveries. Like the United States, women do have checkups every month. Your blood pressure is measured, your weight, and they feel your belly: first the size of the uterus, later the position of the baby. The only difference with a delivery at home is that you use a labor room in a hospital. In the United States, a delivery room is also available.