Blog 5: Inspirational Women

Welcome Back!

I would like to take the moment to shine light on a woman who played an important role in both the United States and the United Kingdom healthcare system. Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell is known to be not only the first woman to earn her medical degree but also the first woman on the Medical Registrar of the General Medical council.

As a child, Dr. Blackwell and her family migrated to the United States from Great Britain in hopes of finding better economic opportunities. After the death of her father, Elizabeth chose to take a job as a school teacher in order to make ends meet. However, while in her mid-20’s, Dr. Blackwell had a friend suffering from a terminal disease and expressed her embarrassment of going to male doctors to seek care. Despite widespread opposition, this inspired her to attend medical school where she later graduated first in her class.

Dr. Blackwell medical career came with great successes. In 1850, she founded a non-profit clinic for poor women and children, where she worked as a surgeon. Blackwell also established the New York Infirmary for Indigent Women and Children in 1857, an institution that would last for more than a century. In 1861, under the Lincoln Administration, Dr. Blackwell helped establish the Sanitary Commissions which maintained clean and sanitary conditions to support sick and wounded soldiers during the American Civil War. Dr. Blackwell is was specifically known for her achievement of opening the first medical school for women, Women’s Medical School of the New York Infirmary. Her motive for opening a medical school had been simply due to the need of spreading social awareness that women are fully capable of becoming physicians. 

I consider Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell an inspirational woman due to her resilience and perseverance she displayed throughout her medical career. She faced many challenges and prejudice all because she was woman who wanted to make her dream of being a physician a reality. She didn’t take “No” for an answer. However, she allowed the rejections as her motive to continue to raise awareness for women. 

Sources:
https://www.biography.com/scientist/elizabeth-blackwell

Mental Health Blog

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I have always been an advocate in helping remove the stigma that is attached to treating mental illness. After taking the mental health quiz, it not only presented me with new coping mechanisms to assist my mental health but also ways that I can better assist friends and family who are battling a mental illness.

My very first encounter with someone who had been battling a mental illness had been a close friend of mine. She suffered from severe psychological childhood trauma and other contributing factors such as neglect and sexual abuse that went years without being treated or spoken about. It took her years to finally open up to me about all the trauma she had faced growing up. She’s encountered/ witness things no child should ever see or be around. After learning more about my friend past, everything regarding the way she behaved began to make sense. I had always wondered why she had a poor ability to relate to others, would isolate herself, never spoke about the way she felt, had been extremely fearful, and an excessive thinker.  She had grown up in a neglectful household where she had been steadily abused mentally, emotionally, and verbally. For as long as she could remember, her parents never failed to let her know that her feelings didn’t matter and that she was worthless.

Being friends with Caroline taught me a lot. First and foremost, it taught me that in order to be fully competent in helping someone with a mental illness, you have to first acknowledge their struggle. Eventually it taught me patience, the importance of offering practical help, developing healthy routines, and just simply being there for someone in whatever form they needed me to be. Caroline hadn’t been used to someone willing to help or listen to her and I wanted to ensure that I could help her in any way possible throughout her recovery journey.

Blog 2

Menopause is the cessation of a menstrual cycle. It is diagnosed after a woman has gone through an entire year without having a period. While going through menopause, many women experience a vast variety of symptoms such as, hot flashes, low energy, night sweats, anxiety, and depression.

In India, women are no different in terms of perspectives regarding menopause; many women embrace it while others dread and are fearful of it. However, there is a huge difference between how reproductive health is advocated for in India and in western societies. In western civilization, there has been millions of dollars invested in research regarding menopause and the struggles women face. However in India, women are deemed as second class citizens. Therefore, their health, particularly reproductive health isn’t talked about nor advocated for. They are left to not only experience the horrible symptoms of menopause but are also faced with possibility of experiencing it prematurely.

The average age of women facing menopause is 46 years old. This is a huge problem considering that the average age of women facing menopause living in the United States is anywhere between 50-60 years old. Unfortunately, there has been little to no research done on women experiencing menopause in India. Therefore, premature menopause has been on the rise for a few years now due to the possibility of genetic and environmental reasoning but until there is change made regarding women’s health in India and adequate research completed, there isn’t much that can be done.

http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art18499.asp

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5051232/

Global Trend Blog

Hello all,

Welcome to my blog! 

After taking the Global Trend quiz, I was definitely surprised by how many questions I got incorrect. A few that stood out to me had to be one’s regarding predictions about the world’s population by 2050. It is assumed that by 2050, there will be approximately 12.8 billion people on this planet if fertility rates continue to increase as they are today. This came as a total shock due to studies essentially showing a correlation between educated women and fertility rates seeming to decrease. It is said that females who are educated are choosing to either not have children at all or opting out for smaller families. Therefore, I would assume that by 2050, we would either see a slight decline in population or an increase in population by no more than 1-2 billion people.

Another question that stood out to me was the one regarding how many people in this world are chronically undernourished. There is an estimate of 826 million people who do not have the accessibility to healthy foods to live an active life. Reading this devastated me. Approximately 34-35 million of the 826 million live in a developed country, including the United States. Leaving over 700 million undernourished people living in developing countries. It’s something I essentially couldn’t wrap my head around, due to the fact that there’s so much wealth in this world and yet we still have millions of people living in poverty and are practically dying of hunger.

I find that the biggest health challenge women face globally would have to be the struggle women face with their mental health. With more than 264 million affected by depression, 76%-85% of the 264 million people are currently living in low income countries. Therefore, there are barriers to effective care including a lack of resources and stigmas regarding mental health.

One health belief about women I would like to change would have to be removing the stigma about mental illness. I find that the best way to remove the stigma is by understanding what it is and what it is not. Being an advocate. And be willing to start conversations about self-stigma.