Phuc Nguyen
Growth and Human Development
November 08, 2013
KWLA
K:
For my project, my group and I will be researching the topic of childbirth or
neonate. Our interviewee is a mid-forty year-old woman those have three children. Julia
Roberts is one of our teammate’s aunt and she seems like a perfect fit for our nursing
project. Allison shared some family background to us about her aunt Julia that Julia has
three children and she is currently a single mom. All three of her children suffer from
some kind of disabilities when they are born. Julia went through childbirth like any other
women so her knowledge about this topic is abundant. Childbirth is a process almost
every woman around the world has to go through. Some have a natural birth, others
might need C-section. The pain, the happiness that comes with it will change their life
forever as a transition from being an individual to a mother. As a group we wanted to ask
questions in a way that would get the interviewee to express herself fully. We want to
make her feel comfortable with the questions and so that is why we let her look at the
questions before hand. We want her to share her childbirths experiences to the class and
so we ask very specify questions. Such as the questions that I will ask will reveal to us
how her life change after having the baby, and how it affect her marriage. Julia’s
situation is unique because not many mothers went through what she had done. Three
kids with some disability are not easy for her but she bears it all. A theorist that comes to
mind is Erikson’s Psychosocial Stages generativity vs. stagnation. How can Julia
contribute to the world? By being a parent, taking care of her children is considered as
generativity under Erikson’s stage rather than stagnation. This is his seven stage of social
development as one decision to contribute to the society or not. I contributed to this
project by coming up with some questions to ask during the interview.
WLA:
1. How did having a baby affect your marriage?
Rationale/Analysis: According to the article online having a child intensifies everything
in a relationship. The baby can brings spouses closer together or drives them apart really
depend on their pre-baby relationship.
Reference: Rauh, Sherry. (2005). Will Baby Strengthen or Strain Your Marriage?
WebMD. Retrieved from http://www.webmd.com/sex-relationships/features/baby-andmarriage
2. You mentioned that your first child was Autistic, what were the challenges in raising
two more children while taking care of a child with a disability?
Rationale/analysis: According to this article, for family raising children with disability
experienced significantly greater hardship than did other normal families in society.
Especially for single mother raising children with disability will probably experiencing
severe hardship.
Reference: PARISH S. Material Hardship in US. Families Raising Children with
Disabilities. Exceptional Children [serial online]. Fall2008 2008; 75(1):71-92. Available
from: Professional Development Collection, Ipswich, MA. Accessed October 8, 2013.
3. How have you changed as a person or how have your children help define who you are
today?
Rationale/analysis: According to the textbook children would help define and shape a
mother role in society such as protector, physical support, emotional support and
financial provider. According to Brofenbrenner’s ecological system in this situation the
mother is the center of the family, she is the kinkeeper.
Reference: Craig, G. &Dunn, W. (2012) Understanding Human Development 3rd
Edition. New York: Pearson Books. 56-58
Reflection: Overall I thought our topic of childbirth was interesting and very real-word
experience that almost every female have to go through. I thoroughly enjoyed group work
because my teammates are all responsible and we all have the same common goal. Our
weakness is that due to the busy day to day school works between classes, one or two of
us can’t make it to the meeting. Despite our busy schedules we were able to meet up at
least five times to get our project done. Other than that we are a very solid group and we
all enjoyed working together. Our strength is that we all want to do well on this project so
all of us put our 100% into doing it. We get things done on times and always productive
during our group meetings. We helped each other out in our specific parts of the project,
and all of us are willing to listen to new ideas. This project taught me how to work in a
group, it make me realize my strength and weakness so in the future I can improve
myself.
Peer Evaluation:
Janet Daif: 5 points
Alison Kerling: 5 points
Self: 5 points
Bridget Meade: 5 points
Jessica Flores: 5 points
Sanje Harris-Richardson: 5 points