Discuss about the Maternal Depression and Early Childhood Growth.
All around the globe degrading health at the early ages is a problem (Black, et al., 2013). It is due to the reason that people are not getting healthy diet at early ages. This is the major problem for the low income or the developing nations. This is also due to the reason the diseases and health condition of the people is very poor in these areas In the African and Asian regions it has been seen that governments are trying very hard to ensure healthy diet for the pregnant women. Child and maternal under nutrition cases are very high in some parts of the world. Its affect can also been seen with the amount of diseases that is present in these regions. The indicators associated with blood lipids, lungs, cardiovascular diseases, cancers, mental illness, immune functionality showcased those families that do not have higher incomes have the probability of generating various kinds of disease. In the country like India there are many families that are having lower incomes and hence they are unable to feed their infants and pregnant women (Ruel, Alderman and Maternal and Child Nutrition Study Group, 2013). This has resulted in many types of diseases due to deficiency of nutrients. Government of India is bringing the schemes so as to financially help the poor women at the time of pregnancy so that they have nutritional food.
Under nutrition is generally considered as the lack of basic nutrients in the body of a person. This gets generated due to improper or low nutritional meal in their daily life (Bhutta, et al., 2013). Under nutrition is a type of malnutrition. This has a direct effect on the physical and mental development of the child. They remain poor in their class performance as well as they develop many diseases at the early stage of life which can lead to short life expectancy or life full of diseases. Maternal nutrition at the time of pregnancy plays a crucial role in the regulation of placental-fetal development and hence it has a lifelong effect on the productivity and health of the child. In the development of child mother’s health matter a lot.
It is the fact that most of the development of the child happens when they are inside the womb and hence they need to get nutrition at this time (Walker, et al., 2011). Birth weight is positively associated with the functioning of the lungs. In the researches it was found that the child who does not get proper diet at the early stages of life generally develops mental disorders at the later stage. Impairments are caused due to under nutrition at the infant stages. Damages caused at the early stages of life cannot be corrected at the later stages. It does not only affect the individual but also affects the nation as their human capital becomes weak and prone to several kinds of disease. This is due to the reason that the life style of the people living there is below average and the women do not get the meal for two times so as to feed their infants or the child in the womb (Imdad, Yakoob and Bhutta, 2011).
Providing them with a healthy food is highly necessary as it is fact that the person who gets nutritional food at the early stage has a good body mass index. Such kind of infants grows as a healthy person with properly developed cells and various organs. This prevents them from the attack or failure of any body part. The data recoded in many parts of the world shows that people with lower body mass index in the early stages of life generally develop a chronic disease that are dangerous (Luyckx, et al., 2013). In the last few decades the problem has widened, this is due to the reason that the inflation has increased at much faster in many parts of the world. The growth in the inflation has affected the poor families as they are unable to get the right nutritional food when women in their family are pregnant. Apart from this the women that are weaker at the time of child growth have their babies generally weak or impaired (Ahmed, Hossain and Sanin, 2012). Nutritional deficiencies in the childhood have created many problems at the later stage of life. This is due to the reason that one deficiency leads to larger number of problems in the later stage.
In scientific terms it can be understood by the fact that the infant who have not got any particular type of nutrient has not been able to develop any particular organ (Benny, Georgiadis and Dornan, 2016). Every nutrient has a closer connection with the particular part of the body. This is the reason that when any particular kind of nutrients gets missing or is provided in lower amount in the diet of the mother at the time of her pregnancy, it leads to huge diseases (Popkin, Adair and Ng, 2012).
In other context it is understood by the fact that if the mother lags any particular kind of nutrients it gets transferred in the children. This leads to long term deficiencies in the babies. Scarcity of iron in the blood of the mother generally increases the chances of child becoming anaemic at the later stage of the life. This is most dangerous in the case of the girl child as they also develop anaemia in the adulthood (Ngure, et al., 2014). If the mother has a protein deficiency while she is pregnant her new born baby can have many kind of diseases like they can get diseases related to the muscles of the body or generally it is seen that these children remains thin throughout their life.
In the hilly region since there is lack of iodine in their food and hence children develops disease like goitre and hence iodised salts are preferred in these areas. Due to poverty children are unable to get quality food having higher nutrition content and hence their immune system does not get developed properly (Victora, et al., 2011). This leads to more number of diseases of which many are chronic and many are due to infections. Hence the doctors suggest a woman to have a healthy food at the time of pregnancy. It must increase as per the development of child in the womb. In many parts of the world it is seen that people have certain kind of believes related to food habit. Such believes reduces the intake some particular kind of food and hence they develop any specific kind of deficiency in the body health. This can be seen in the health disparities in urban and rural areas only because of beliefs.
The case was not same all the time in various parts of the world and people were aware of what kind of nutrition they need to provide to their child hence a better human capital was present. In the later stage of the 20th century when the people started to move towards the towns, people forgot their traditional believes and adopted a different kind of food habits. These food habits led to many types of development of disease.
In poor families since people are slightly less educated and hence they do not give proper attention to the meals. This is sometimes due to the reason that they do not have anything to eat or many time they save money for other purpose. This negligence towards proper meals leads to many kind of deficiencies in the person when they become adult (Huffman, et al., 2011). The situation is getting degraded day by day. Since the poor are getting poorer with everyday passing. According to UNO the condition of the African countries is worst. Due to terrorism and scarcity of food the number of death of many children at early ages is a reality. This carries on with the generation since the deficient mother always gives birth to the child that lags some kind of nutrition in their body.
Poor nutrition before the age of 2 years can lead to improper growth of the child. For example they remain of shorter height, their attendance in the schools remains on the lower side. In Guatemala the research revealed that if the child below the age of three gets low amount of nutrition in their meals generally has height 2 cm less than the people who can avail this nutrition. Research related to Zimbabwe’s children health condition also shows the same results (Dewey and Begum, 2011). In the rural areas of India it is noticed that the low cost families have most of the members being underweight and they remain the same throughout their life. The fates of the children are generally left in the hands of god. Since there is larger population the countries like India and hence this is a bigger problem in these areas.
Lower growth rate can also be accounted in terms of people being poor in the number of skills they have. Less protein diets at early stages of life can lead to lesser development of mind and hence they remain poor in their qualification areas. Both mental and physical growths are challenged with the lower nutrients level in the food of the child at early stages. Since 90% of the brain develops before the age of 10 years hence it is necessary that they get proper diet at this age (Black, et al., 2013). It is also seen that child who has not got proper diet at the early stages of life and suddenly if they start getting proper diet in the adulthood then they develop some of the chronic diseases or sometimes they develop organ failure. Cancer is most common at the later stage of life and in the infant some kind of impairments are common.
In order to prevent the problem government have also made many plans in various parts of the world but they have not succeeded 100 %. In the South East Asian countries where the population is higher it is a greater challenge to provide food to everyone at lower cost. The schemes like mid-day meal in the schools of India are much appreciated scheme which can be used in many parts of the world (Monk, Georgieff and Osterholm, 2013). It ensure that the poor children can get health food at least once a day as their families are unable to provide it to them due to lack of money . Similarly in the western Africa there are many schemes run by the UNO so as to ensure that the chid do not die due to starvation. There is one more reason for it i.e. the poor class people have large number of children. This puts burden on the health of the mother which is reflected back in their offspring’s. With every new child the health of the mother is degrading and hence the children getting weaker and weaker (Yang and Huffman, 2013). In the 21st century where the technologies have made the life of the people more confortable this is a blot on the development that human beings have had over the years. It is also the failure of the society that they have not developed a system where the younger child can get money for two times. There are many people in the society who are working in this direction but still a more number of people need to come up for eliminating such a severe condition.
It is essential that the companies which are indulging in the CSR activities include this also in their list. It will ensure that many children can get food which will ensure their physical and mental development. These programs must be carried out in schools so that they have physical and mental development at the same time. Under nutrition can affect cognitive development by causing direct structural damage to the brain (Parsons, et al., 2012). It is impairing exploratory behaviour and motor development of infants. It is effecting the economic development of the nation as the greatest wealth of the nation is its human capital and if it gets degraded at early stages then it can be greater loss to the nation. As it is said that prevention is better than cure hence it is the responsibility of the families to provide healthy food to their children at the early stages of life so that they may not face problems in the later stage of the life. When somebody gets disease then their lot of money gets wasted on medical claims which takes all their money and if the disease is chronic then due to lack of money people die or their lifestyle becomes worse. On the broader scale it is seen that when the person develops any disease at the early stages of life he is more like to face heavy economic loses (Surkan, et al., 2011). In order to ensure that they have quality life it is essential that they get proper nourishment at early stages of life.
In this time when the number of diseases is increasing day by day, it is essential that the awareness regarding the ill effect of the maternal and child nutrition has to be spread. This will help the families in enhancing their standards of living as the cost involved in the medical facilities will not be much. This has become the urgency because of the fact that medical facilities within the nation is getting costlier and hence affording these facilities is not possible for the poor. Despite of several actions taken by many NGO and government bodies the condition of the poor people is bad in various countries (Dewey and Mayers, 2011). Since the problem does not lies about having the nutritional meal in the early stages of life rather it is about providing them food of two times.
The problem of under nutrition lies deep in the society and hence a proper plan will be required by the governments so as to eliminate it from the root (Imdad and Bhutta, 2012). A special plan for the rural areas will be needed so as to achieve success. Basic nutrition must be available with the women at the time of pregnancy like iron capsules or dry fruits can act as a supplement. Awareness program regarding nutrition need to be made and circulated among various poor people so that they do not produce large number of children and hence can be able to provide them better nutritional meal to them. On the concluding remark it can be said that under nutrition has a very bad effect on the overall personality development of the child and are at higher risk to get severe chronic diseases. A proper diet can help in development of mother’s womb and hence the organs of the off springs also gets developed which ensure proper functioning throughout their life.
Ahmed, T., Hossain, M. and Sanin, K.I., (2012). Global burden of maternal and child undernutrition and micronutrient deficiencies. Annals of Nutrition and Metabolism, 61(Suppl. 1), pp.8-17.
Benny, L., Georgiadis, A. and Dornan, P., (2016). Maternal under nutrition and child development: Is adolescence a critical window for interventions. [Online]. Available at: https://www.younglives.org.uk/content/maternal-undernutrition-child-development-adolescence-critical-window-interventions. [Accessed on: 14 April 2018].
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Dewey, K.G. and Begum, K., (2011). Long?term consequences of stunting in early life. Maternal & child nutrition, 7(s3), pp.5-18.
Dewey, K.G. and Mayers, D.R., (2011). Early child growth: how do nutrition and infection interact?. Maternal & child nutrition, 7(s3), pp.129-142.
Huffman, S.L., Harika, R.K., Eilander, A. and Osendarp, S.J., (2011). Essential fats: how do they affect growth and development of infants and young children in developing countries? A literature review. Maternal & child nutrition, 7(s3), pp.44-65.
Imdad, A. and Bhutta, Z.A., (2012). Maternal nutrition and birth outcomes: Effect of balanced protein?energy supplementation. Paediatric and Perinatal Epidemiology, 26(s1), pp.178-190.
Imdad, A., Yakoob, M.Y. and Bhutta, Z.A., (2011). Impact of maternal education about complementary feeding and provision of complementary foods on child growth in developing countries. BMC public health, 11(3), p.S25.
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Monk, C., Georgieff, M.K. and Osterholm, E.A., (2013). Research review: maternal prenatal distress and poor nutrition–mutually influencing risk factors affecting infant neurocognitive development. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 54(2), pp.115-130.
Ngure, F.M., Reid, B.M., Humphrey, J.H., Mbuya, M.N., Pelto, G. and Stoltzfus, R.J., (2014). Water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH), environmental enteropathy, nutrition, and early child development: making the links. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1308(1), pp.118-128.
Parsons, C.E., Young, K.S., Rochat, T.J., Kringelbach, M. and Stein, A., (2012). Postnatal depression and its effects on child development: a review of evidence from low-and middle-income countries. British medical bulletin, 101(1).
Popkin, B.M., Adair, L.S. and Ng, S.W., (2012). Global nutrition transition and the pandemic of obesity in developing countries. Nutrition reviews, 70(1), pp.3-21.
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Surkan, P.J., Kennedy, C.E., Hurley, K.M. and Black, M.M., (2011). Maternal depression and early childhood growth in developing countries: systematic review and meta-analysis. Bulletin of the World Health Organization, 89(8), pp.607-615.
Victora, C.G., Aquino, E.M., do Carmo Leal, M., Monteiro, C.A., Barros, F.C. and Szwarcwald, C.L., (2011). Maternal and child health in Brazil: progress and challenges. The Lancet, 377(9780), pp.1863-1876.
Walker, S.P., Wachs, T.D., Grantham-McGregor, S., Black, M.M., Nelson, C.A., Huffman, S.L., Baker-Henningham, H., Chang, S.M., Hamadani, J.D., Lozoff, B. and Gardner, J.M.M., (2011). Inequality in early childhood: risk and protective factors for early child development. The Lancet, 378(9799), pp.1325-1338.
Yang, Z. and Huffman, S.L., (2013). Nutrition in pregnancy and early childhood and associations with obesity in developing countries. Maternal & child nutrition, 9(S1), pp.105-119.
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