Developmental Vulnerability of Children Born to Traumatized Mothers in Mount Elgon Region, Bungoma County, Kenya

Abstract

Psychological trauma is the minds reaction to an event and does not manifest in everyone in the same way,it affects people in different ways; for some the symptoms may take weeks, months and for others several years to surface. Regardless of the sources, an emotional trauma contains three very common elements namely; it was unexpected, the person was unprepared, and there was nothing the victim could do to prevent it from happening. The Mount Elgon Region expectant mothers found themselves in the generic as the result of the atrocities of Sabaot Land Defence Force Group.The fundamental goal of parenting right from conception, zygote and embryo is to help the feotus, neonate, infant and later the child to grow and thrive to the best of its potential. Parents anticipate protecting their children from danger whenever possible, but sometimes serious danger threatens the parents themselves leaving the children more vulnerable traumatic effects. The expectantmothers during the Sabaot Land Defence Force violent conflict exposed their foetus to devastating developmental risks which were visible through behavioral disorders and various types of disabilities as revealed by the study. Worse still, approaches to conflict management in Mount Elgon region relied on relief response by humanitarian agencies with a hope that affected families will attain recovery in due course. However, it is apparent that any assistance must go hand in hand with social economic development where social structures with specific indicators in normative cultural transformation are used in the transition to reduce conditions for which conflicts have arisen. This paper, therefore, exploreswhat trauma of the mother can do to unborn child’s developmental milestones and suggests approaches for change that can minimize the traumatizing agents to expectant mothers.

KeyWords:- Traumatized Expectant Mothers, Pre-School Learners,Foetus, Developmental Vulnerability.