by Purnima Ramakrishnan | Apr 23, 2013 | India, Interviews, Motherhood, Purnima, Social Good, The Alchemist, Vaccines, World Moms Blog, World Motherhood, World Voice
This is the first in a two-part Interview. In an effort to understand health care services in India better and to help expand public awareness, World Moms Blog Senior Editor, Purnima, has interviewed a few physicians. The first in this series is an interview with Dr. V. R. Purushotham, a pediatrician in Bangalore, India. He is consulting in St.John’s Medical College, Bangalore.
Dr. V. R. Purushotham
Purnima Ramakrishnan: How many cases do you come across on an average everyday and out of that how many sick children recover and get healthy again?
Dr. Purushotham: At the outset, I am extremely happy and honored to be associated with an initiative like this which caters to the needs of mothers all along the globe. It is my belief that a caring and loving mother is the strongest immunity which a child can get and there is scientific evidence in support of that.
I work in a tertiary care hospital in Bangalore which caters to a large population of children both in and around the city and serves as a referral centre for about 300 sq.kms. Having specialized intensive care units we do see a good number of sick children daily and 90-95% recover well.
PR: Out of the sick children, how many or what percentage are those which could have been prevented by vaccine?
Dr.P: A good chunk of diseases which we come across are infections which affect the lungs( pneumonia), Brain( meningitis) and diarrhea. The introduction of vaccines has reduced the incidence of these diseases but cost being a limiting factor in India, the number of children who have received all the vaccines are a small population of them. (more…)
by Melanie Oda (Japan) | Apr 22, 2013 | Cultural Differences, Education, International, Japan, Living Abroad, Motherhood, Traditions, Weather, World Motherhood, Younger Children
Handmade shoe and apron bags made by the author.
April in Japan brings with it warmer temperatures, cherry blossoms, and the beginning of a new school year.
Children who are entering first grade, which is the first year of elementary school here, have a lot to prepare. Many of the items are the same as what school children in the rest of the world need: pencils, erasers, a pencil box, notebooks. But some are peculiar, if not to Japan, than at least to earthquake prone regions. (more…)
If you ask Melanie Oda where she is from, she will answer "Georgia." (Unless you ask her in Japanese. Then she will say "America.") It sounds nice, and it's a one-word answer, which is what most people expect. The truth is more complex. She moved around several small towns in the south growing up. Such is life when your father is a Southern Baptist preacher of the hellfire and brimstone variety.
She came to Japan in 2000 as an assistant language teacher, and has never managed to leave. She currently resides in Yokohama, on the outskirts of Tokyo (but please don't tell anyone she described it that way! Citizens of Yokohama have a lot of pride). No one is more surprised to find her here, married to a Japanese man and with two bilingual children (aged four and seven), than herself. And possibly her mother.
You can read more about her misadventures in Asia on her blog, HamakkoMommy.
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by Karyn Wills | Apr 12, 2013 | Cooking, Domesticity, Food, New Zealand
Pavlova is a New Zealand invention, whatever any random Australian may tell you, and as such it’s a dessert that tends to get trotted out whenever Kiwis have overseas visitors.
As I am the sort of Mum who thinks ice-cream in cones or pieces of fruit are perfectly adequate desserts, it was with more enthusiasm than skill that I recently decided to make a Pav for some international visitors.
This was a good plan. My Mum has an awesome recipe, which involves throwing all the ingredients into a bowl and mixing until done. I also remembered to put the eggs in the hot-water cupboard over night to ensure the meringue meringue-ed properly. I was feeling smug. I should never do that. (more…)
Karyn is a teacher, writer and solo mother to three sons. She lives in the sunny wine region of Hawke’s Bay, New Zealand in the city of Napier.
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by Madpsychmum (Singapore) | Apr 11, 2013 | Inspirational, Motherhood, Parenting, Singapore, World Moms Blog, World Motherhood
Letting go…
It seemed like it was just yesterday when I held my newborn 3.4kg baby in my arm (yes singular!), breastfed her every 2 hours and survived on not more than 3 hours of uninterrupted sleep. In a blink of an eye, she is now a feisty and energetic 2.5 year old who is ready to “do it myself!” as she likes to say.
It used to be that whenever I asked her to do something, she would do it cheerfully, even if it was to throw rubbish into the bin. Nowadays, however, it is almost impossible to get her to do anything if there’s nothing in it for her
Where did my innocent little angel disappear to? (more…)
Madeline lives in Singapore, a tiny cosmopolitan island in Southeast Asia. She is a mother to a beautiful and intelligent little girl born in July 2010.
Madeline used to be a stay-at-home mother while she was completing her graduate studies in psychology at a local university. On completion of her studies, she has now joined the workforce and is working in the Ministry of Education (Singapore).
Madeline is passionate about children and education and hopes to make a difference in the lives of children living in Singapore. Also an avid traveller and hardcore advocate of breastfeeding, she regularly documents her overseas trips and nursing room reviews with incredible detail on her blog, MadPsychMum @ University of Motherhood.
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by Fiona Biedermann (Australia) | Apr 10, 2013 | Being Thankful, Domesticity, Family, Home, Inspirational, Life Lesson, Motherhood, Oceania, Older Children, Parenting, Teenagers, Uncategorized, World Motherhood
Do you ever find yourself saying things to your children and then realising that they’re your mother’s words coming from your mouth?
My mum was a big believer in making my brother and I wash the dinner dishes before going to bed. As a teenager this drove me absolutely crazy, and when I first moved out of home I reveled in the pure freedom of leaving my dirty dishes sitting on the kitchen sink and going to bed.
Fast forward to several years ago when I was a working mum with three teenage boys, and ‘dishes before bed’ became my mantra – they don’t like it any more than I used to, but their time will come.
What about the advice that it’s disrespectful to be late when you’re expected somewhere at a specific time; be it work, dinner, or even a party. I could never see the problem, I figured that at least we turned up, so better late than never. I had no idea why my mum was so strict on us being on time. (more…)
Fiona at Inspiration to Dream is a married mother of three amazing and talented MM’s (mere males, as she lovingly calls them) aged 13, 16 and 22, and she became a nana in 2011!
She believes she’s more daunted by becoming a nana than she was about becoming a mother! This Aussie mother figures she will also be a relatively young nana and she’s not sure that she’s really ready for it yet, but then she asks, are we ever really ready for it? Motherhood or Nanahood. (Not really sure that’s a word, but she says it works for her.)
Fiona likes to think of herself as honest and forthright and is generally not afraid to speak her mind, which she says sometimes gets her into trouble, but hey, it makes life interesting. She’s hoping to share with you her trials of being a working mother to three adventurous boys, the wife of a Mr Fix-it who is definitely a man’s man and not one of the ‘sensitive new age guy’ generation, as well as, providing her thoughts and views on making her way in the world.
Since discovering that she’s the first blogger joining the team from Australia, she also plans to provide a little insight into the ‘Aussie’ life, as well. Additionally, Fiona can be found on her personal blog at Inspiration to Dream.
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by Karyn Wills | Apr 3, 2013 | Natural Disaster, New Zealand, Parenting, Uncategorized
March 5th 2013 was Census Day in New Zealand, and it was the first that our boys were really involved with. This was a re-scheduled Census due to the February 22nd (2011) earthquake in Christchurch, which had put the country into a state of emergency. (8th March 2011 had been the original scheduled date)
We hold a Census every five years and it is illegal to not fill in a form or to fill in forms with incorrect information. The data is used by central government, local government, iwi (Maori tribal groups), businesses and community groups for strategic planning and budget allocation. We have the option of filling them out on paper or on line and we can chose to have forms in either English or Maori.
The boys were very excited, and immediately after dinner was cleared away, the one (how does that happen?) blue pen in the house was found. It was heartening to see the older boys both knew their full names, address, previous address, dates of birth etc and the three year-old was able to tell me his full name too. On asking him where he lived, he looked at me as if I had gone insane and said, Here. When I asked him where he used to live, he said matter of factly, “In our town house.” (I must work on that – the other two could easily rattle off their address and phone number at the same age.) (more…)
Karyn is a teacher, writer and solo mother to three sons. She lives in the sunny wine region of Hawke’s Bay, New Zealand in the city of Napier.
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