[null, {"document_url": "http://samsrelevantstuff.blogspot.com/2010/09/painful-memory-revisited.html", "unformatted_src": "http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_48MS8uD3etM/TIJ5WH-oA1I/AAAAAAAAAIA/WOIJ-4JsihM/s400/CHILD+ABUSE.jpg", "src": "http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_48MS8uD3etM/TIJ5WH-oA1I/AAAAAAAAAIA/WOIJ-4JsihM/s400/CHILD+ABUSE.jpg", "formatted_filename": "CHILD ABUSE", "rendered_width": 400, "rendered_height": 400}, null, null, null, null, null, null, null, null, null]


Several hours after I heard this news....another DOA from home! This was a 3 month old whose mother placed him on a semi-inflated air mattress. Some how his mouth got wedged into the tight concave portions of the mattress.

I cannot begin to count the number of times a drugged, or drunken mother, has fallen asleep with her infant and suffocated them. or, the calls, "my baby has had a fever of 103 for 3 days...what should i do?"
When i left work, I spent some time going deeper into my memories of working with children. When I first arrived in PA in the mid-80's, I had a government grant to work on a SIDS project with a nearby WV hospital. at that time, SIDS was not accepted as a cause of death; therefore, a coroner could not write that on the certificate.

At that time, we knew so little about SIDS. statistics showed it was usually a male, usually happening in the spring, and usually around 3:00am. We also knew that WV had the second highest incidence of SIDS.  only VA had higher statistics because DC was lumped in with their totals. Some families has such a large number of SIDS, that the children were not name until 2 or 3 years of age. and, parents didn't bond with their children until they were named.

The grant was to investigate the children we termed "near" SIDS cases. We offered a free clinic for parents and near SIDS infants. We gave them free round-trip transportation, food, physical and psychological
examinations. Further, we gave them free medication, free mattress monitors and an alarm system. All they really needed to do was to arrive at our free clinic once a month. Some came to the clinic. some did not.  The clinical nurse, Jodi, and I went to visit the homes of the no-shows.

Some homes were closed to us....no strangers permitted. Shotguns were produced to chase us off the property.  Some mothers were interested, but the child's father refused.  Ok, so the WV home visits happened almost 20 years ago.  Some of these visits also happened in the deepest recesses of WV: the hollars.

Ok, so 20 years has passed, and my town has almost 50,000 people.  I'm not in a hollar. Aren't we more educated? Aren't we more informed? What's happened to common sense? We give free pre-natal care.
What about post-natal care? Mandatory parenting classes?

All in all, I do a good job at work. for your family and for your child(ren). Why aren't those mothers doing a good job?
 Posted by Sam McFarland at 10:37 PM Relevant Friends