Four years ago, a young woman brought her baby Susan Mwangi of AMREF in Kenya disasters and Bomb Unit. mother was concerned because her child is abnormally seemed scared of loud noises. Susan, who was trained as a nurse and midwife, her assurances that it was normal for a baby and sent her on the road. Shortly afterwards another of Susan's patients noticed that her baby is crying and holding her all the time. Susan assured this is a mother too and thought nothing more of it. But when he came third with her mother caring for her baby's nervous disposition, Susan began to wonder if there was more than coincidence.
There was one common factor linking the baby. Susan ran a monitoring program for the protection of 1402 Kenyans who was wounded by terrorists in 1998 Nairobi bomb blast at the U.S. embassy. During four years of disaster and Bomb Unit coordinated the physical and psychological recovery of survivors through the rehabilitation program that began in July 1999. anxious mothers who came to see Susan were all part of this group. It is significant that the all was pregnant at the time of the bombing.
Typically, physical rehabilitation included reconstructive surgery, hearing aids for those deafened by the explosion, and fitting of prosthetic eyes and limbs. Smoke and flying particles of cement and glass caused great damage to the eye: over 200 people who were prescribed glasses for vision damage. victim has suffered extensively from the trauma, as well. They were counseled for post-traumatic stress, which usually manifests itself through stress related symptoms such as peptic ulcers, hypertension, panic attacks, and hormonal imbalance.
"If it were not for them, none of these people to get good quality care. Two-thirds of the victims were manual laborers or semi-skilled jobs. They are in a position to pay for medical treatment. The help survivors, the program facilitated psychological pain of the entire nation, "said Susan.
"Our concern and care instilled a positive attitude among the survivors to expedite their recovery. We held discussion groups, where they learned how to deal with and better understand their disabilities. They began to understand why they have experienced continuous stress. Our culture is not open for consultation as an important breakthrough ."
"Our concern and care instilled a positive attitude among the survivors to expedite their recovery. We held discussion groups, where they learned how to deal with and better understand their disabilities. They began to understand why they have experienced continuous stress. Our culture is not open for consultation as an important breakthrough ."
...a psychologist and a psychiatrist monitored post-traumatic stress levels of both children and their mothers to see if the stress levels of mothers had a direct impact on their children. They measured the three areas of stress in the event of mother: re-experiencing the explosion of a bomb, anxiety and avoidance of discussions about the attack. The children were monitored for stress through behavior, such as hyperactivity, the potential for creativity, their attention span and social or antisocial behavior. At the same time, case-control study was conducted similar to the age group of children born to non-traumatized mothers.
The results showed that stress levels of mothers were declining slowly with time. However, their children had very high levels of hyperactivity and depression and the corresponding challenges in creativity, attention span and social behavior in comparison with those in the control group.
tests indicate that in utero stress caused by war, domestic violence or disasters may adversely affect the fetus for the deterioration of mental development.
", a traumatic experience triggers the adrenaline that throws you into the survival state of fight or flight. physical effect is reduced blood flow to the uterus, " explained Susan. "Our findings reinforce the theory that a pregnant mother's emotional experiences can be transferred to the child wearing it."
creates a healthy community, fighting disease, train health workers and do research in several areas in Africa.
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