Pregnancy

This paper is based on a personal reflection regarding pregnancy of a woman, named Janet Smith.

1. Basic Data

Client (Legal name plus nickname): Janet Smith / Caroline

Date of birth: March 25, 1975

Chronological Age: 35 years

Race: African American

Religion: Orthodox Christian

School and Grade: St. Mary's High School, South California / A-grade

Place of employment: ABC Human Resource Consultancy Private Limited.

Address: 123- Blueville Avenue, XYZ Street, East California.



2. Individual Client Profile

A. Brief Physical Description

Mrs. Janet Smith is a bulky woman with a heavy built. She has peculiar features of an African American rural lady. There are no particular identification marks on her face, except for a big scar that she sustained after falling from stairs, when she was only six years old.

B. Development History Question

1. Pregnancy

Although racism is a deep-rooted and multilayered phenomenon in the United States, there is a paucity of published data on the relationship between women's exposure to racism and pregnancy outcome. Exposure to interpersonal racism is both an acute and chronic stressor for African Americans (Schetter, 2007). Mrs. Janet belongs to a low-income African Americans maternal perception of exposure to racial discrimination during pregnancy was a risk factor for very low birth weight (Misra, 13). African American women (such as Mrs. Janet Smith) have excess rates of very low birth weight and preterm delivery compared to White women.

2. Delivery

Generally, African American community is associated with a decreased risk of low birth weight among African American women (such as Mrs. Janet Smith in this case). The limited available resources suggest that residence in neighborhoods with recent fluctuations in racial composition is associated with an increased risk of preterm delivery for women like Mrs. Janet Smith. Mrs. Janet's experiences with stress and social support explain this phenomenon. Although the pathways and precise mechanisms are not fully worked out as yet, it appears that psychosocial stress and emotions in the mother can lead to physiological effects that influence the timing of delivery and in some cases, trigger early delivery. In addition, emerging research suggests effects of maternal stress on fetal development and on the offspring's health over the life span (Collins, 36).

In addition to the fast-growing body of work on maternal stress and pregnancy outcomes, other findings point to personal resources such as a woman's degree of mastery, optimism, self-esteem, and social support in predicting fetal growth. Women who lack these resources are at higher risk of delivering an LBW infant, independent of the timing of delivery (Collins, 2006).

C. Current Family Relationship

1. Marital Status

Mrs. Janet is a married woman living with her husband for the last 18 years. Although the couple experienced some hard times during the early years, when Mr. Smith was unemployed for a period of two years, but since then their relationship has grown ever stronger. African American family reunions can be quite large, bringing extended family members together across many generations and from even different countries. Extended family members have traditionally played an important role in African American and African communities. Extended kin ...