Pregnancy and Childbirth in Sweden

I chose to explore the childbirth practices in Sweden.  What I found out was that in Sweden midwives do all of the prenatal care and also most of the delivery care unless there is a high risk factor or something goes wrong during the delivery.  Almost all of the births are still in a hospital setting.  Midwives have a strong history in Sweden and were able to hold on to their role in the midst of other countries pushing midwives out. “According to the organization Save the Children, Sweden is the second-best country in the world to become a mother, behind Finland.  Neonatal mortality is low, at 1.5 deaths per 1,000 — the second lowest in Europe behind Iceland — as is maternal death in childbirth, at 3.1 per 100,000 births, according to the European Perinatal Health Report from 2010. (NY Daily News,  2013)”  In Sweden the government pays for their health care and so pays for the cost of delivery and it is speculated that using midwives lowers the cost of deliveries, gives better care to the expectant mother, and puts the mother more in charge of the different aspects of  their pregnancy and delivery.

I almost lost my first baby due to secondhand smoke in my workplace environment, I had to quit my job because it was my baby or my job, they would not give me another assignment or make accommodations for me.  When I finally went one day past my due date I went in to the hospital and was finishing up a non-stress test when my water broke so I just stayed in the hospital and delivered my 1^st of 3 sons in about 10 hours.  My husband was with me the entire time doing his best to comfort me and give me ice chips.  There were times when I made him leave because I felt like I could not maintain my composure when he was in the room.  The nurse had to come in and get me breathing through the contractions.  I remember my husband cutting the umbilical cord and trying to bribe the doctor to sell him the scissors he used. (Weird, I know) My prenatal care was with a doctor, monthly until the last 2 months then every 2 weeks until the last month which was every week.  I had one ultrasound after the first trimester.

References:

n.a., Midwives, not medicine, rule pregnancy in Sweden, with enduring success, October 7, 2013, www.nydailynews.com/.../midwives-not-medicine-rule-pregnancy, retrieved October 25, 2015

Thank you to my classmates

In concluding my first course,  I want to thank each of my classmates for giving me insights to your sector of the EC field.  It allowed me to become more aware of each of the different sectors and how they all work together.  It was great getting to know each of you, you enhanced my learning of the content.  Without your feedback the content would not have been as rich.

Ethics Meets Real World Practice

“I-3C.3—To strive to secure adequate and equitable compensation (salary and benefits) for those who work with or on behalf of young children.  (NAEYC, 2005, p. 5)”

I serve on the Iowa AEYC’s Executive Board as Vice President.  We recently received the state contract for the WAGE$ program.  This program pays early childhood professionals a bonus based on their level of formal education and their commitment to be a consistent presence in their program. This is just one step towards ensuring the childcare workforce has enough income to support their families.  Currently, this is only a pilot program in very limited areas of the state.

The other event that I work on is Worthy Wage Day.  It is a day to raise awareness in the public to understand how important and impactful early childhood practitioners role is in the community.  They put out public service announcements, send e-mails, and would like to organize a walk out strike by all childcare workers.  The impact of such a strike would send a clear message to employers, policy makers, and parents that you need to invest in early care and education and you need to this because its good for children and it is an economic development issue. 

“I-3C.4—To encourage and support continual development of employees in becoming more skilled and knowledgeable practitioners. (NAEYC, 2005, p. 5)”

I work within my current work place to bring new opportunities to my colleagues when I find new pockets of information.  I was lucky enough to hear in person from the Institute of Medicine as they released their new research report in April, 2015. 

This impacts the work we do when we encourage the child care workers we consult with to further their education by reading journal articles, going back to school for a formal  education, or attend a training on something they don’t already have knowledge of.

“I-4.7—To support policies and laws that promote the well-being of children and families, and to work to change those that impair their well-being. To participate in developing policies and laws that are needed, and to cooperate with other individuals and groups in these efforts. (NAEYC, 2005, p.7)”

I worked to convince my community that early care and education is critical to them even if they do not have children in care at the present moment.  I talked with them about how in Iowa, we have stricter requirements for in-home doggie daycares vs. the requirements for in-home child care providers.

“P-4.11—When policies are enacted for purposes that do not benefit children, we have a collective responsibility to work to change these practices. (NAEYC, 2005, p. 7)”

I have become very vocal in our state on the issue of ensuring developmentally appropriate practices are kept as the top priority across all settings of care and education.  With the advent of Universal Pre-K in our state, we are now finding more and more push down from the K-12 Education system requiring inappropriate assessment practices that are causing Early Childhood Teachers to protest because policy makers and data analyzers are adding more and more assessments to their work load and some are not developmentally appropriate for these young children.  Teachers are finding they spend so much time assessing the children that they are losing their ability to interact within the moment.   Many feel this in impacting their effectiveness as teachers.

References:

NAEYC. (2005, April). Code of ethical conduct and statement of commitment.

Retrieved May 26, 2010, from
http://www.naeyc.org/files/naeyc/file/positions/PSETH05.pdf