Motherless Children Research Articles

“A Precocious Little Mother with a Child’s Face”

Theme: Motherhood and Mothering. Ill. ©Stina Wirsén Although Astrid Lindgren’s Pippi Longstocking captured international attention, Martha Sandwall-Bergström’s contemporaneous Kulla-Gulla books (1945–1951) were beloved by generations of readers, despite being discounted as girls’ books or considered insufficiently feminist by critics. A retrospective view, however, reveals that the Kulla-Gulla series offers something more radical than it may seem: it not only reflects twentieth-century Swedish social democratic values of the time and a utopian feminist social model (Toijer-Nilsson; Heggestad, Värld; Nilson) grounded in early Swedish feminist thought, but also, despite the heroine’s own orphaned and motherless state, espouses a maternal ethics of care, which positions the books as pathbreaking still today in a wider global context. The orphan heroine’s assumption of responsibility for effectively motherless children and her rejection of her own elevation from poverty to privilege – until the children she mothers are taken care of also – embody collective responsibility for the vulnerable. Continually emblematized by the heroine, this ethics of care gradually expands to encompass care for other vulnerable figures in the community and finds embodiment in other exemplary characters as well. Key plot points, major characters, and the overall narrative arc demonstrate the books’ radically inclusive and feminist social model and deliver its message of social reform to a young audience.

Studi Kehidupan Anak Korban Pandemi Covid-19 di Kabupaten Purbalingga

Children become one of susceptible groups who get the risks during pandemic period. The risks can be the threat of exposure up to losing their parents who passed away because of Covid-19. The children who lose their parents due to Covid-19 are susceptible to have the problems of health, economy, education guarantee, violence, and other human rights violations. They need social protection to help their growth and development into adulthood. The purpose of this writing is to describe the social condition and the problems of children who become the Covid-19 pandemic victims. They are fatherless kids, motherless children, or orphans whose parents passed away because of Covid-19. This research uses a quantitative research method (survey). The research data are taken by using questionnaires. The samples of this research are 124 or 32% of the children’s total number in Purbalingga Regency whose parents passed away due to Covid-19. The data are presented by using a frequency distributive table. The results show that most of the children are from the lower middle class family. After their parents passed away, the social economy condition of their family gets worse. It causes those children to face economic issues, so they are not able to pay their school fee. Therefore, there must be a social protection for them so that their rights as children are fulfilled.

“Sometimes I Feel like a Motherless Child:” Considering the Metaphor of Divine Adoption in the Context of Trauma

This article will explore the rhetorical and theological significance of the metaphor of divine adoption in the Hebrew Bible. In Ps 22:10–11 and Ps 71:6–9 God is not only said to pull the psalmist out of his/her mother’s womb, but in a context in which many mothers all too often died in childbirth, the newborn is cast upon God who steps in as the adoptive mother. This idea of divine adoption is further found in Psalm 68:5 when God is described as the “Father of orphans… [who] gives the desolate a home to live in”. And in Psalm 27:9–10, God is praised by the psalmist as “God of my salvation!” saying that “if my father and mother forsake me, the Lord will take me up”. In a context in which fathers and mothers either have died or have forsaken their children, God is thus portrayed as the adoptive parent who, as evident in the creative reinterpretation of Ps 68:5 in the African American spiritual referenced in the title of the essay serves as “Mother to the motherless, and father to the fatherless”. I argue that when it is important to keep in mind the complexities associated with this metaphor, which includes not only the multiple layers of trauma associated with the origin and reception of this metaphor but also the trauma associated with the adoptive process and the ongoing relationship between parent and adopted child that may be fraught with ambiguity. Read in the context of individual and collective trauma, this article makes a case for the interpretative potential of this metaphor in times when people literally and figuratively have felt, and still may be feeling, like motherless (and fatherless) children.

Epidemiological, Clinical, Therapeutic and evolutionary Aspects of Children Living with HIV in Guédiawaye, Senegal

Introduction: HIV infection in children is a major public health problem. The objective of this study carried out in the paediatric department of the Centre Hospitalier Roi Baudouin de Guédiawaye, was to evaluate the epidemiological, clinical, therapeutic and evolutionary aspects of a cohort of children with HIV over a 15-year period and to determine the factors associated with discontinuation of treatment and transition to second-line treatment. Patients and Methods: This was a descriptive and analytical cross-sectional study from August 2004 to December 2019 at the Centre Hospitalier Roi Baudouin de Guédiawaye. Through this study, age at diagnosis, current age, gender, orphan status, therapeutic aspects, status announcement and evolution were evaluated. A total of 129 patient records were studied over a 15-year period (2004-2019). HIV-positive children with profile I represented 93.8% and there was a male predominance with a sex ratio of 1.43. The current mean age of the children was 12.2 ± 4.5 and the median was 14 years. Fatherless and motherless children represented 24.0% and 20.2%, respectively, while both fatherless and motherless children represented 11.6%. The mean age at the start of ARV treatment was 7.6 ± 4.3 years and the median was 7.5 years. The mean age at the start of second-line treatment was 13.7 years with a standard deviation of 2.6 while the median was 13 years. AZT + 3TC + NVP was the most commonly used combination (29.5%) followed by TDF + FTC + NVP (26.2%). The mean age at treatment discontinuation was 13.3 ± 4.3 years while the median was 15 years. More than half of the children (57.0%) (N = 69) were aware of their status. Factors associated with discontinuation were gender (p value = 0.025 and OR = 3.2), orphan status (p value = 0.027 and OR = 3.0) and follow-up time greater than 10 years (p value = 0.013 and OR = 5.6). The mortality rate was 3.9%. Factors associated with transition to second-line treatment were year of inclusion (p value = 0.001 and OR = 15.6), age group (p value = 0.001 and OR = 19.2), orphan status (p value = 0.040 and OR = 2.6), treatment regimen (p value = 0.019 and OR = 5.7), duration of ARV treatment (p value Conclusion The cohort of HIV-infected children followed up in Guédiawaye remains dominated by adolescents. Orphan status, announcement of status and duration of follow-up are associated with transition to second-line treatment and treatment discontinuation.

“Motherless Children Have the Hardest Time”: Epigenetic Programming and Early Life Environment

The Blind Willie Johnson blues song “Motherless Children” highlights the maternal bonds that we all know are critical to emotional and cognitive development. Authors of previous work looking at infant stress response have found that these bonds begin in utero and can be influenced by both maternal and paternal influences and across multiple generations.1 The observations of Barker et al2 on the Dutch famine birth cohort of World War II were perhaps the first published observations of this phenomenon.3 Somehow, we carry the benefits and burdens of our childhoods into our adult lives, with impacts made evident on our behavior and also virtually all organ systems. In a new study published in Pediatrics , Lester et al4 evaluate the potential biological factors that underlie these effects. Memory at the cellular level must be a key marker of programming. The idea that, during early development, important physiologic parameters can be reset by environmental events, … Address correspondence to Robert O. Wright, MD, MPH, Department of Environmental Medicine, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, 1 Gustave L. Levy Place, New York, NY 10029. E-mail: robert.wright{at}mssm.edu

The role of infant life histories in the construction of identities in death: An incremental isotope study of dietary and physiological status among children afforded differential burial.

Isotope ratio analyses of dentine collagen were used to characterize short-term changes in physiological status (both dietary status and biological stress) across the life course of children afforded special funerary treatment. Temporal sequences of δ15 N and δ13 C isotope profiles for incrementally forming dentine collagen were obtained from deciduous teeth of 86 children from four early-medieval English cemeteries. Thirty-one were interred in child-specific burial clusters, and the remainder alongside adults in other areas of the cemetery. Isotope profiles were categorized into four distinct patterns of dietary and health status between the final prenatal months and death. Isotope profiles from individuals from the burial clusters were significantly less likely to reflect weaning curves, suggesting distinctive breastfeeding and weaning experiences. This relationship was not simply a factor of differential age at death between cohorts. There was no association of burial location neither with stage of weaning at death, nor with isotopic evidence of physiological stress at the end of life. This study is the first to identify a relationship between the extent of breastfeeding and the provision of child-specific funerary rites. Limited breastfeeding may indicate the mother had died during or soon after birth, or that either mother or child was unable to feed due to illness. Children who were not breastfed will have experienced a significantly higher risk of malnutrition, undernutrition and infection. These sickly and perhaps motherless children received care to nourish them during early life, and were similarly provided with special treatment in death.

Relationship between feeding practices and morbidity pattern of children under two years of age in a community setting at Mymensingh

This descriptive cross-sectional study was performed in the department of Pediatrics, Mymensingh Medical College Hospital to assess the feeding practices and their relationship with the morbidity pattern of children under two years of age. For this study four hundred (400) children from eight different Upazilla Health Complexes (UHC) of Mymensingh district were enrolled and UHCs were selected randomly. Mothers with their children under two years of age who gave voluntary, informed, written consent were included and very sick children, motherless children, handicapped children were excluded from the study. Immediately after registration, detailed history was taken from child's mother using a preset questionnaire and clinical examination (anthropometry and bipedal edema) was done. Among them, 214 children (53.5%) were male and 186 children (47.5%) were female and M: F=1.2:1. Regarding morbidity pattern, 17.3% had acute respiratory tract infection (ARI), 12.7% had acute watery diarrhea (AWD), 2.2% had dysentery, and 9.5% children had more than one disease. In exclusive breast feeding (EBF), acute respiratory tract infection was 10.24% where as in partial breast feeding it was 23.24% and acute watery diarrhea in exclusive breast-fed baby was 6.6% but in partial breast-fed baby it was 17.29%. Morbidity were more in children who started complementary feeding with luta, barley, suji and cow's milk with suji than with khichuri and mixed family diet.
 CBMJ 2018 January: Vol. 07 No. 01 P: 10-15

Joseph’s Journey: Uncovering Israel’s Unconscious

This paper decodes the story of Campbell’s namesake, Joseph of Genesis, son of Jacob. It demonstrates that Joseph, much more so than Moses, represents the archetypal hero. Joseph is called to adventure into the unknown. Due to the boundedness of the Abrahamic worldview, Joseph must leave monotheistic Israel to fulfil his potential in polytheistic Egypt. It is as viceroy of Pharaoh that he comes into his own power, his political eminence an emanation of his intuitive, creative power. Joseph’s journey itself serves as the Call to Adventure for the hero’s journey of Israel: Israel, as a people, must recognize Joseph’s creative power and follow him into Egypt to realize their own procreative power. Before returning to the familiarity of the desert, the motherless children of Israel are called into the unknown to be nourished by the Nile. It is at the banks of the Nile that they fulfil their divine mandate to multiply. Joseph’s intuitive power—the ability to receive and interpret prophetic dreams—makes explicit what is implicitly encoded in the Campbellian hero’s journey: the masculine individual consciousness venturing into the feminine collective unconscious, matrix of creativity, in pursuit of wholeness. His story moreover celebrates the centrality of personal transformation to the Campbellian heroic quest, flourishing through embodiment of transformational leadership.

Predictors of Virologic Failure on First-line Antiretroviral Therapy Among Children in a Referral Pediatric Center in Cameroon.

Suboptimal response to antiretroviral therapy (ART) is common among children living with HIV (CLHIV) in resource-limited settings. We sought to assess virologic failure (VF), time for switching to second-line regimens and factors associated with VF in CLHIV receiving first-line ART in Cameroon. An observational cohort study was conducted in 375 CLHIV initiating a first-line ART and treated for ≥6 months at the National Social Insurance Fund Hospital in Yaoundé-Cameroon from 2009 to 2013. Using logistic regression, predictors of VF and delayed switch were assessed by univariate and multivariate analysis. P < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Overall, 17% (64/375) CLHIV experienced VF on first-line ART after a median time of 28 (interquartile range: 22-38) months. After VF, median time to switching from first- to second-line ART was 20 (interquartile range: 8-24) months. In multivariate analysis, VF was associated with male gender (adjusted odds ratio: 0.36; 95% confidence interval: 0.19-0.71; P = 0.003), motherless children (adjusted odds ratio: 2.9; 95% confidence interval: 1.3-6.06; P = 0.005) and treatment with stavudine-containing compared with zidovudine-containing regimens (P = 0.022). Overall, male gender, orphanhood (motherless) and treatment with stavudine-containing regimens predicted VF at a rate of 70% (area under curve =0.70). VF on first-line pediatric ART is common, and switching children failing first-line to second-line ART is considerably delayed. These results suggest performance of pediatric ART program can be improved by targeting orphans, adapting counseling for male children, complete phasing-out of stavudine and ensuring timely switch to second-line regimens.

Growth disparity of motherless children might be attributed to a deficient intake of high-quality nutrients

We hypothesized that single-parent children (SPC) are retarded in growth compared with both-parent children (BPC), and that motherless children (MC) are affected differently from fatherless children. Moreover, the growth disparity between SPC and BPC might be attributed to a deficient nutrient intake. Data from 2967 children between the ages of 2 and 18 years were extracted from 4 recent waves (2004, 2006, 2009, and 2011) of the China Health and Nutrition Survey to compare the growth status of SPC and BPC and to investigate the association between growth indicators and nutrition status. Anthropometric measures and 24-hour recall of 3 consecutive days of dietary intake were collected. The discrepancy of growth status and nutrition between BPC and SPC was analyzed by multivariable regression models with adjustments for socioeconomic status. Results indicated that MC were significantly lighter in weight than BPC (P=.03); the same trend was observed for height (P=.08). This might be attributed to the lower intake of animal-source protein (P=.02), such as meat (P=.04) and fish (P=.04). Further analysis showed that intake of animal-source iron and zinc was also significantly lower in MC compared with BPC (P=.01, P=.03). No difference was detected in fatherless children in comparison with BPC. Our study indicated that the loss of the mother adversely affected children's growth status and that a lower intake of animal-source protein, iron, and zinc might be a reason for the retarded growth status of MC.

Childless Mothers and Motherless Children

Mma Ramotswe, the heroine of the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency novels and their adaptations, is proud of “being a traditionally built African lady unlike these terrible stick-like creatures one saw in the advertisements.” This crisis of the ‘traditional’ and the ‘modern’ erupts in the representation in the novels and television series of Mma Ramotswe’s sexuality and mothering, the texts’ failures to acknowledge or negotiate the inconsistencies of its deployment of the ‘traditional’ and the ‘modern’, and the resulting dilemma of (national) reproduction when sex is not an option. Further, neither text integrates its explicit celebration of ‘traditional values’ with the professional opportunities that ‘being modern’ affords Mma Ramotswe. Attempting to negotiate this disjunction, the texts divest Mma Ramotswe of any ‘modern’ sexual attitudes or actions – the ones that produce offspring – while still providing her with those fruits: children. Both written and visual representations systematically negate any possibility that Mma Ramotswe might participate in any reproductive activity of her own. A mother without children to children without mothers, Mma Ramotswe figures postcolonial reproduction as a sexless, passionless transaction, while both texts align any sex with the probability of pain, betrayal, and death.

Situación social familiar y de Salud de los Huerfanos de muertes maternas en trance obstetrico. Hospital Regional "Dr. Ramón Carrillo". Santiago del Estero. 2008

Abstract: Quanti-qualitative research. Health condition (growth and development) was evaluated using WHO/SAP standars, PESQUISA NATIONAL TEST*; and the social family situation of motherless children under 5, from mothers who died in obstetric situations in 2008 was assessed through home visits and semi-structured surveys. In growth: 57% eutrophic; 29% chronic undernurished; 14% over-weight. In development: Personal-social area (100%); fine and gross motor skills (86%), language (42%) according to age. Fragile social family situation; 87% poor; 13% indigents, 100% with no medical coverage and absense, shortage or inadequacy of basic services. They solved health problems with homemade medicine or healers. Poor social protection. Conclusion: Health condition of motherless children, satisfactory. In deveploment some presented delays in language and motor skills. Precariousness and vulnerability have increased in carer families. They showed strong bonds of protection towards these motherless children.

What the Government of Ghana Could do to Allay the Fears on Maternal Health

Maternal deaths prominently occur in rural and typically remote areas and among women in the most deprived sections of a given population. Childbirth, a real cause for rejoicing among more fortunate, economically affluent women, becomes for the poor an event filled with tension, which may and all too often does, leave behind motherless children and bereaved families. A comprehensive understanding of the root causes of the present unacceptable toll of maternal mortality in developing countries deserves a serious attention. Although maternal mortality accounts for the greatest proportion of deaths among women of reproductive age in most of the developing world, its importance is not always evident from official statistics. This ignited the passion to scan through existing data on maternal deaths in Ghana.

MOTHER’S DEATH AND CHILD SURVIVAL: THE CASE OF EARLY QUEBEC

The aim of this paper is to account for the effect of mother's death on child survival in a historical population. Using comprehensive data on the early French Canadian population of Quebec, evidence is provided for a higher risk of dying for motherless children that remains significant over all childhood and long after the death of the mother. The specific effect of the loss of maternal care was estimated by comparing mortality before and after mother's death, furnishing a means to control for family heterogeneity. No differential in investment between genders was detected before age 3, but older girls suffered a three-fold higher susceptibility to mother's death than their male counterparts. This suggests that grown-up girls assuming the responsibilities of the missing mother had a lower chance of survival.

The social situation of motherless children in rural and urban areas of Guinea-Bissau

With the increasing prevalence of HIV infection and the high maternal mortality, orphans are a rapidly growing problem in Africa. However, few studies describe the social conditions of these children. Our study focuses on motherless children in urban and rural areas of Guinea-Bissau. A rural and an urban cohort of children (128 and 192, respectively) that had been followed by demographic surveillance since 1990 were identified and the relatives of these children interviewed. A control cohort of 808 individuals was also identified. Although orphan children remained disadvantaged, there were few differences between surviving motherless and control children in nutritional status, use of health care services, school attendance, quality of housing, and clothing. Motherless children moved more frequently and were more likely to live in small families, often with an older grandmother. The traditional extended family system appears to be capable of handling motherless children in a non-discriminatory fashion. However, the AIDS epidemic will continue to stress the extended family system and social services to the limit.

Survival among motherless children in rural and urban areas in Guinea‐Bissau

With the increasing incidence of HIV and TB, motherless children are becoming a rapidly growing problem in Africa. However, few studies describe the survival patterns of these children. The aim of this study was to investigate the mortality of motherless children in urban and rural areas of Guinea-Bissau. A historical cohort study was set up in urban and rural areas in Guinea-Bissau. Motherless children were selected from two study cohorts under demographic surveillance since 1990. The relatives of 128 motherless children from the rural cohort and 192 from the urban area, as well as a total of 807 controls, were examined and interviewed. Controlling for significant background factors revealed that motherless children had a markedly higher mortality than that of controls in both urban (mortality rate ratio (MR) 2.32 (95% confidence interval 1.11-4.84)) and rural areas (MR = 4.16 (2.79-6.22)). Virtually all the excess mortality occurred among children under 2 y of age when their mother died. Few motherless children had been provided with surrogate breastfeeding. Since nearly all children in Guinea are breastfed until 2 y of age, premature weaning may be one of the major causes of the higher mortality rates observed among motherless children.

Survival among motherless children in rural and urban areas in Guinea-Bissau

Survival among motherless children in rural and urban areas in Guinea-Bissau

Fatherless Children and Accouchement Sous X, From Marriage To Demarriage: A Paradigmatic Approach

The author proposes a paradigmatic approach to the construction of fatherless, abandoned, and/or motherless children as social issues needing some policy responses: within the different historical Western configurations of the repertoire of potential responses, major organizing paradigms draw the line between those responses that are rejected as belonging to the supreme evil sphere and others that can be considered as lesser evils. Within the framework of a paradigm, dilemmas exist and debates go on as to which lesser evils should be preferred and how the policies should be implemented. Policies deriving from different paradigms give rise to intractable controversies since the disagreements concern not only the means but also the ends. Four paradigms can be extracted from the historical data with regard to illegitimacy and single motherhood: Christian angelism, Malthusian angelism, healthy citizenship, and proper citizenship.

Growing Up Dependent: Family Preservation in Early Twentieth-Century Chicago

On December 23, 1912, a Hungarian father brought his three young daughters (ages three, five, and seven) to the Cook County Juvenile Court to file dependent petitions on their behalf. He alleged that their mother had deserted the family, stolen their savings, and disappeared. As a single father, he could have and probably did argue that it was unreasonable to expect him to work and to raise his young children simultaneously. On Christmas Eve, after a six-man jury found each girl to be a “dependent child,” Judge Merritt Pinckney ordered them committed to the Lisle Industrial School and arranged for their father to pay $15 a month for their support. Thus, the single father had used the juvenile court to arrange for a private institution to raise his now motherless children, who because they were the same gender were at least allowed to grow up together in the same industrial school.

Estimates of the number of motherless youth orphaned by AIDS in the United States

Objective. —To estimate the number of youth in the United States who have been or will be left motherless by the human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) epidemic, in order to project the need for family supports, age-appropriate foster and congregate care, and mental health and social services. Design. —Orphans are defined as youth whose mothers (the usual caregiving parent) die of HIV/AIDS-related causes. A mathematical model was constructed to estimate the number of such motherless youth. Cumulative fertility rates were applied to the number of reported AIDS deaths (1981 through 1990) and projected deaths (1991 through 1995) of adult women less than 50 years old. The results were adjusted for underreporting of HIV/AIDS-related mortality, pediatric AIDS deaths, infant mortality, ethnic and racial variation in fertility, and decreased fertility associated with late-stage HIV disease. Estimates were made for the number who were children (less than 13 years of age), adolescents (13 to 17 years of age), or young adults (18 years of age or older) at the time of their mothers' death. Results. —By the end of 1995, maternal deaths caused by the HIV/AIDS epidemic will have orphaned an estimated 24 600 children and 21 000 adolescents in the United States; unless the course of the epidemic changes dramatically, by the year 2000, the overall number of motherless children and adolescents will exceed 80000. In 1991, an estimated 13% of US children and 9% of adolescents whose mothers died of all causes were children of women who died of HIV/AIDS-related diseases. These proportions will surpass 17% and 12%, respectively, by 1995. The vast majority of these motherless youth will come from poor communities of color. Conclusions. —A large and rapidly growing number of American youth are being orphaned by the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Unless increased attention and resources are devoted to this vulnerable population, a social catastrophe is unavoidable. (JAMA. 1992;268:3456-3461)