Child Development

I think that Asian cultures are very specific and incomprehensible for European and American people. For example, Chinese culture is very old and it has some very interesting customs.
Some of them are about pregnancy.
In Chinese culture, they function to protect the pregnant woman and child from ‘malign influences’ and to avert problems with pregnancy and birthing such as miscarriage, stillbirth, death of the mother and imperfections in the newborn.
Many customs relate to the behavior and environment of the pregnant Chinese woman. Working with glue or other adhesives may cause birthing complications and hammering nails is thought to cause deformity in the fetus. Restraint in day to day life is also required of the mother: the use of foul language must be avoided as this may cause the baby to be cursed. So may torturing, striking or killing an animal: anthropomorphic results may occur- e.g. if a rat is struck the newborn child will look like a rat and behave like one! (Actually I don’t understand it!)
Consequently, traditional Chinese society blames the mother of a child that is physically disabled or ‘deformed’ for the ‘imperfections’ of the child, as it is believed that this has resulted from the mother’s actions during pregnancy. In former times, infanticide often occurred in such circumstances, to spare the mother shame, public humiliation and ostracism by in-laws. Well I don’t think it’s right. Probably sometimes it is a mother’s fault if she smoked or drinked a lot during the pregnancy. But what about different genetic deviations and other reasons?
A pregnant woman is expected and encouraged to continue working, as it is believed that this will ease labour and delivery. Arguments and disputes are to be avoided as the baby may be disturbed by them. Nutritious foods and herbal soups should be eaten, and ‘sharp’ foods such as pineapple and some other fruits avoided as they may cause miscarriage. Eating squid and crab are discouraged: the former is believed to cause the uterus to ‘stick’ during delivery, the latter to result in a mischievous child. Overeating may cause an overlarge baby and thus a difficult labour and delivery. A pregnant woman should not walk around barefoot.
Rubbing the abdomen too often is thought to result in a spoilt and overdemanding child. No! I hope not! I’m doing it really often. I just want my baby know I love her so much!!!
Old traditions believe that the sex of a baby can be determined by the shape of the pregnant woman’s abdomen, especially after the first three months. If the appearance of the belly is pointed, then the child will be male, if rounded, female. Actually people from many countries think the same way. For example Russians.
It is considered insauspicous to give a name to an unborn baby, as this displays and eagerness on the part of the parents for a child of a particular sex, and may cause disappointment if the child is of the different sex. Probably it’s true. You never know exactly who is in there!
The major responsibility for care of the pregnant woman is taken by her mother-in-law, not her husband. I don’t understand why? Probably because long time ago woman usually lived in husband’s family after the marriage. But what about him?
The production of a male heir is of paramount importance in Chinese culture; indeed some Chinese may seek the help of a holy man or shaman if male offspring do not appear. Superstition has it that a couple should eat certain types of food for the seven days leading up to conception to conceive a certain sex baby: tofu, mushrooms, carrots and lettuce for a male child, pickles, meat and fish for a female.
Male descendents are essential to ensure the continuance of ancestor worship and the continuity of family lineage and name. Females cannot inherit, and in the Chinese family system wife lives with the husband’s family and is deemed as no longer part of her own family, but the property of the husband’s family. Female offspring are thus thought of as being only ‘temporary’ family members, while male offspring ‘belong’ to the family for their lives. Yeah, that’s why they all will have a big problem very soon. Chinese are allowed to have only one child by the government. And everybody wants a boy. So who is going to give a birth to children in twenty – thirty years?

One of my pregnancies problems is varicose veins and spiders. I had some spiders on my right leg before pregnancy, but it became much worse now. So I decided to find some information about this problem. Look what I found.
Many women first develop varicose veins or find that they get worse during pregnancy. Because during pregnancy there is a huge increase of amount of blood in the body. This can cause veins to enlarge. And your progesterone levels rise, causing the walls of your blood vessels to relax. Also as your uterus grows, it puts pressure on the large vein on the right side of your body, which in turn increases pressure in the leg veins. Veins are the blood vessels that return blood from the extremities to your heart, so the blood in leg veins is already working against gravity.
Doctors say that pregnant woman more likely to get varicose veins if other members of her family have had them. Actually I don’t have anybody in my family with such problem. If you have varicose veins, they tend to get worse with each successive pregnancy and as you get older. That is not good news! Being overweight, carrying twins or higher multiples, and standing for long periods can also make you more susceptible.

But the good news is that varicose veins usually improve within 3 months after delivery!

There are some steps to prevent varicose veins and spider veins from getting worse:
Rest frequently. The less you exert your body, the less pressure you will put on your veins.
Exercise to increase blood flow and circulation.
Sleep on your left side. Wedge a pillow behind your back to keep yourself tilted to the left. The largest vein in your body is the vena cava and carries the largest amount of blood through your body. Because it is located on the right side of your body, lying on your left side will decrease added pressure on the vein.
Elevate your feet often to increase blood flow. When your legs become fatigued and sore, sit with your feet propped up on a table or chair. Don’t cross your legs or ankles when sitting. Don’t sit or stand for long periods without taking breaks to move around
Do not stand or sit for long periods of time. If you must stand for a long time, shift your weight from one leg to the other every few minutes. If you must sit for long periods of time, stand up and move around or take a short walk every 30 minutes.
Eat a low-salt diet rich in high-fiber foods. Eating fiber reduces the chances of constipation which can contribute to varicose veins. High fiber foods include fresh fruits and vegetables and whole grains, like bran. Eating too much salt can cause you to retain water or swell.
And I understood that the best way to keep our legs beautiful is to wear special support hose. Prescription-strength hose, known as graduated-compression stockings, work best and are available from medical supply stores and pharmacies. These stockings are twice as thick as normal pantyhose. Tight at the ankle, they get looser as they go up the leg, making it easier for blood to flow back up toward your heart. As a result, they help prevent swelling and may keep your varicose veins from getting worse. Put them on before getting out of bed in the morning, while you’re still lying down, to prevent blood from pooling in your legs, and keep them on all day.
I got this special support hose for myself. I am wearing it the whole day. Yeah, it really helps. Now I don’t have any ache and heaviness in my legs, feeling of heat and tenderness over my veins. And there is one more good thing. I don’t see my legs during the day because this support hose is black and very thick. When I go to the bed and put it off my legs look not so bad. That calms me down!!! And it is very important for me. But, my God, how difficult to put it on in the morning! And the summer is coming! It is gonna be so hot to wear it! What I’m gonna do?
Besides, doctors say that I should wear support hose at least 6-8 weeks after giving a birth to my baby. My God! I’m not sure I can do this. Too hot!

After I stop to feed my baby I decided to make sclerotherapy. This is the most common treatment when the doctor injects a solution into the vein that causes the vein walls to swell, stick together, and seal shut. This stops the flow of blood and the vein turns into scar tissue. In a few weeks, the vein should fade. The same vein may need to be treated more than once.
This treatment is very effective if done the right way. Most patients can expect a 50% to 90% improvement. Microsclerotherapy uses special solutions and injection techniques that increase the success rate for removal of spider veins. Sclerotherapy does not require anesthesia, and can be done in the doctor’s office.
Possible side effects include: temporary stinging or painful cramps, temporary red raised patches of skin, temporary small skin sores, temporary bruises where the injection was made. I think I can handle it and have nice legs again!!!!

I am very happy that the medicine has reached a big progress at present time. Medicine can easily overcome now a lot of unsoluble before problems.
One of my friends got pregnant and recognizes by blood test that she is in a big trouble. She got a Rhesus factor problem.
Usually it happens if a husband has a positive Rhesus factor, and a wife has a negative one. In this case baby will receive in a half of all cases a positive Rhesus factor. This means that if mummy’s blood comes into contact with her baby’s, she’ll develop antibodies to it. Nature has already taken care of that and the blood of mum and a baby is not mixed. That is why there is no danger for your first positive Rhesus factor baby (in a case if you didn’t make an abortion before, didn’t have a miscarriage or termination).
But when woman is giving birth some of baby’s blood may get into her circulation.
If it does happen, the woman will produce antibodies to the Rhesus factor positive blood and they’ll stay in her blood and if she becomes pregnant again, problems can arise.
During the second pregnancy these antibodies will attack Rhesus factor positive baby’s blood, causing it to breaking down the red blood cells of the baby and anemia will develop. In severe cases this hemolytic disease can cause illness, brain damage and even death.
So mummy’s organism behaves like he is not her native child. He is an enemy who needs to be destroyed. It is even terrible to think about it!
However problems at repeated pregnancy can be avoided now. Women who are Rhesus factor negative are usually given an injection of a special substance right after the baby is born (or after a miscarriage or termination). This helps the Rhesus factor negative mother by suppressing her ability to react to the Rhesus factor positive red cells. Reactions to the medication are generally minor, including soreness at the injection sight and sometimes a slight fever.
Sometimes an injection is given to Rhesus factor negative women during pregnancy.
So it is not a problem anymore!!!!! And any Rhesus factor negative woman and Rhesus factor positive man can have as many children as they want!!!!!!!!!!!!!

There are a lot of different signs and superstitions about pregnancy in different countries. A lot of people believe in them, but I think that the majority of them are absolutely senseless. People made up them many years ago. They wanted to have healthy babies, but they didn’t have professional medicine help and modern equipment. Here are the most popular of them.
Pregnant woman shouldn’t cross her legs when sitting. Child will have curved legs.
Actually: Yes, it is better for pregnant women not to cross her legs when sitting. But it has nothing to do with curved babies legs. Blood circulation in legs can cause varicose and spider veins at such position of a body.
It is necessary to satisfy all pregnant woman desires in food. Even if this food is not very healthy.
It is considered, that each unsatisfied pregnant woman desire can complicate giving a birth. And the more there were such desires, the more struggles the woman will have during delivery. Actually: During the pregnancy it is really better to satisfy all your desires in food. But it does not influence the character of delivery. Organism of the pregnant woman knows better what is necessary for her right now. Yeah, some products are categorically forbidden by the doctors and it is probably better to follow their advices. But some gynecologists have come to conclusion long time ago, that if you REALLY want a “forbidden» product you can eat it in small quantities (for example, beer).
Pregnant woman can’t cut her hair.
It is considered, that each time cutting off the hair, future mum shortens her child’s life.
Actually: That is nonsense!!!!! On the contrary, during the pregnancy women usually have a problems with hair. Her hair structure gets worse. Hair become thinner, fragile, grows dull, split and fall out. Therefore, to improve hair and to have a good look, it is better to cut your hair regularly. And it is not gonna influence your child!!!
It is forbidden to buy any clothes and toys for the kid and to bring it into the house before delivery.
It is considered, that it is very bad sign.
Actually: It only a prejudice. What about baby showers?!!! I think it is better to buy everything you need for the baby. So right after returning from a maternity home you won’t have to run shopping. Or you’ll have to send your husband or relatives to buy all this stuff. And there is no sure in that they will buy the right things.

On June, 5th, 1989 Cadidja Abdella (Ethiopia) has given birth to a boy. A week has passed, the woman has almost recovered after the sorts as suddenly, on June 13th, she felt pangs and she … has given birth to a girl, which was 8 days younger than her brother.
Canadian twins Alice and Emma Roudz were born with a difference of 39 days. After premature birth which resulted in appearing of 500-gramm Alice, doctors managed to suspend patrimonial activity, and her younger sister was born 5 weeks later.
Berlin twins Krug have different years of birth in their metrics. Thus Anton Krug has outstripped his younger little sister Leila only for 15 minutes! It is explained very simply: Anton was born on December, 31st, 1997, shortly before midnight, and Leila has seen the light already on January, 1st, 1998.
Dates of birth of Aaron and Luc Hegenbergs from Massachusetts, born with a difference 8 minutes, are divided with a millennium: the senior was born on December, 31st, 2000, younger - on January, 1st 2001!

During the pregnancy I got a huge problem – anemia. And I want to tell about it.
Anemia happens when your blood doesn’t have enough hemoglobin. Hemoglobin helps red blood cells carry oxygen from your lungs to all parts of your body.
There are many types of anemia, but I got an iron deficiency anemia (IDA). Iron deficiency anemia happens when there is not enough iron in body. Probably I got IDA because my diet didn’t have enough iron in it. Pregnancy usually can cause iron deficiency anemia if there’s not enough iron for the mother and fetus. Sometimes this can happen when woman loses blood from problems like heavy periods, ulcers, colon polyps, or colon cancer.
The signs of anemia can be weakness, fatigue, low body, temperature, irritability, pale skin, rapid heartbeat, shortness of breath, numbness or coldness chest pain, dizziness and headache.
Anemia is diagnosed by a blood test. The treatment for anemia depends on the cause of the anemia.
To prevent (treat) anemia I tried to eat food high in iron like red meat, fish, chicken liver or eggs, dried fruits, like apricots, prunes, and raisins lentils and green beans, leafy vegetables, like spinach and broccoli, or cereal with iron in it (iron-fortified).
You can also get iron from food like ground beef, clams, spinach, lentils, baked potato with skin, sunflower seeds, and cashews.
I can say that I ate all kind of these products, but it helped me just a little bit.
For more sources of iron, I tried to eat and drink food that helped my body absorb iron, like orange juice, strawberries, broccoli, or other fruits and vegetables with vitamin C. I tried not to drink coffee or tea with meals. It was really hard for me!!! These drinks make it harder for body to absorb iron. Calcium can hurt absorption of iron also.
I can say that if you have a hard time getting enough iron, make sure you get enough folic acid and vitamin B-12 in your diet!!!
Talk to your doctor about taking iron pills (supplements). But you should know that taking iron pills can cause side effects, like nausea, vomiting, constipation, and diarrhea. I got nausea. It was really unpleasant. And I even didn’t know that it was because of iron pills. I thought it was because hormones of pregnancy. But then I changed my pills for another kind and everything is fine now!!!
Only taking iron pills together with folic acid and water with lemon juice helped me. And of course fresh air!
Not getting enough iron can cause preterm labor and delivering a low-birth weight baby. So if you’re pregnant make sure you get 27mg of iron every day and take an iron supplement (pill). It may be part of prenatal vitamin, get tested for anemia.
For vegetarian woman.
It is easier to get iron from meat than from plant-derived foods. So some vegetarians may need to take a higher amount of iron each day than what is recommended for other people. Try to take vitamin C with other iron-rich foods.
Avoid iron overload
Iron overload happens when the body absorbs too much iron over many years. Excess iron builds up in organs, like the heart and liver. Many problems can cause iron overload. It can happen from years of taking too much iron or from repeated blood transfusions. But the most common form of iron overload is an inherited condition (runs in families) called hereditary.

German government has published the report concerning family questions. It criticizes the young German mums who bring up their children insufficiently.
Federal minister of Germany for family questions Ursula von der Leyen has presented in Berlin the report prepared in her ministry.
Two hours on education of the child.
The document criticizes the way of life of the unemployed young women who have children. “Young German mothers are present on a labour market very slightly. However they prefer to spend their free time in entertainments, but not in household chores”.
According to the ministry, German mums spend with their children only 2 hours and 18 minutes per day on the average. Worth notice that in those European countries where young women are more actively working - in Sweden, Norway, Finland, France - every day they spend with children approximately as much time, as Germany women (2-2,5 hours).
Desire to have children is decreasing
Besides the family policy of the German government focused, first of all, on financial attitudes is criticized in the report. «That is why German young men do not consider a birth of children as important component of the vital plans. That is their essential difference from the same aged people from France, Netherlands, Great Britain and Denmark “.
Long time was considered, that women do not wish to have children because of their career. Career and family are incompatible. However now experts observe with anxiety, that young people don’t have any desire to have children.
According to the report, young women from other European countries at the age of 20 till 34 years consider ideal family with 2-3 children. In Germany many women consider optimum family with the only child. A lot of men don’t want to have children at all.
That is really sad. I think that the demografic situation is getting worse in Germany every year. The population is getting older. Who is going to work and to feed the nation in about 30 – 40 years?????

The girl from West Lothian would become one of the United Kingdom’s youngest mothers.
The teenage boy is due to appear in court in July charged with rape because of the age of the girl, who is now 12.
She said she was looking forward to motherhood and hopes she has a boy when she gives birth.
The girl added that she thought she would be able to cope as she’d had “lots of practice” looking after young children.
“I’m enjoying being pregnant - even though I get a bit of a sore back and sore ribs.”
Her 34-year-old mother told the newspaper: “I’m not ashamed of my daughter at all - in fact, I’m proud of her for keeping her baby.”
The newspaper said the girl smokes up to 20 cigarettes a day.

Is she crazy? What can she give to her future child at the age of 12? Love? Financial stability? Education? She is a child herself. Does she understand that to have a child is a huge responsibility? For the rest of life…… According to the newspaper the girl smokes up to 20 cigarettes a day. So I don’t think she understands. I’m not telling to make an abortion. You know it is not my business, but she should think before… at least she can give up smoking now. Her body is not ready to have a baby at all and smoking is not the best thing now…

Jurgen Hass is going to adopt couple hundred children in Paraguay where he lives now. The 56-years old pensioner (earlier lived in the Rhine small town Rees), intends to provide children with social benefits provided by German law. He says that this social benefits can provide a normal living of eight members’ family for the whole month in such country as Paraguay.
However he is doing it not because of love or desire to facilitate children’s living in poor families. His main aim is to revenge the German state for the unfair treatment to him. He worked as the legal adviser without having special education. So the German court fined him for 100 thousand euro, and later on charge in swindle has sentenced him to three years of prison. He thinks that it is not fair.
Now Jurgen Hass lives in Paraguay and his German pension is about 1000 euros. This is big money for this country. He has already adopted more than 300 children from Paraguay, Romania, Hungary, Moldova, Russia, Ukraine and India. The father of how many children he is going to be? There is no any limit he says. He sad that a thousand is enough for the beginning. His “kindness” doesn’t cost the pensioner any euro. The state cannot take away from him his pension or force him to pay for his “love to children” from it.
This happens because of the “hole” in the parental rights law the new version of which the Bundestag has accepted in 1998. The law allows the man to recognize himself as the father of the child if his/her mother agrees and nobody else declares the fatherly rights. All his adopted children received German citizenship. So, according to him – he gives good slap in the face to the German government and provides an opportunity for children from poor families in the countries of the third world to receive German education and the social help from Germany.
Jurgen Hass is not only one who is using such «holes» in the German legislation. There is one more unemployed man in Berlin who annually recognizes himself as the father of about ten children from Bosnia and Vietnam. As a result they are getting the right to stay in Germany and also to receive social and children’s grants. And “philanthropist” gets about one and a half thousand euro for each child. The state can’t stop him while the present law operates.
The Minister of Justice of Germany Brigitte Cupris has presented the new project of the act in April which will give the possibility to the state to punish such men for abusing the law on paternity.

Twins, who accrete by their bodies in a parent womb, are called Siamese. This term is connected with the pair of Chinese twins that were born in 1811 in Thailand (then it was Siam). Boys (parents have named them Chang - “left” and Eng - “right”) accreted in the field of a solar plexus. They had common navel and liver. When they were young they worked as sellers and messengers. At the age of 18 they immigrated to the United States of America and began to go on tour with improbable success. They married sisters, gave birth to more than 20 children and died in the age of 63.
Other pair - the well-known Siamese twins - sisters Blazhek - was born in 1878. Sisters became musicians - violinist and harp-player, one of them gave birth to the child.
In 1952 doctor Jacque Geller (USA) lead the first successful operation on division of Siamese twins. Now such operations are made even more often, and Siamese twins have more and more chances for a high-grade independent life.