One Child at a Time

              Child Development and Public Health : Maln utrition At every developmental stage, changes in body proportions and primary motor skills mastering are part of biological maturation. These changes are also susceptible to the nutritional status of the individual child.  Researchers have shown that the timing of nutritional deficiencies can also significantly affect growth and development. For example, during the fetal stage, folic acid deficiency between 21 and 28 days after conception predisposes the fetus to a congenital malformation called a neural tube defect. The childhood period is also predisposed to dietary deficiencies, especially as the brain undergoes significant structural and cognitive maturation (Graham, 2016). Nutrition plays a vital role in children’s growth and development, with a healthy diet harmoniously improves physical and mental abilities. So, malnutrition in children is deleterious to the development of children’s physical, cognitive, and psychosocial

  Personal birthing experience.  The birth of my first child is a memory to live by. It all began on the morning of August 12, 1994. A day etched into my mind. My husband was thousands of miles away, and I was all by myself. The morning was bright and beautiful; I woke up at about 6 a.m to get ready for work. As I stood up from the bed, I begin to feel some sharp pain around my waist. I thought to myself, it is nothing. As soon as I stepped into the bathroom, “the water broke.” I didn’t know what to do. I called out to my friend, who I was sharing the apartment. She was not married and never had a baby. She, too, was confused. In the confusion that ensued, she remembered that the guy who rented who owns the house lives a block from us. She ran to the house and called his wife. She came and put me in the car and took me to the hospital. Luckily, the hospital was a stone throw from the apartment. The doctor, who happens to be a family friend, met us by the door and took over. Before I