At my homestudy workshop this weekend (12 hours long, two days) I learned the following things about what to expect when I get to the babyhouse in Uzbekistan. The information was compiled from other parents to adopted from Kazkhstan and it's assumed that I can expect the same in Uzbekistan.
1. The babies will be purposely dehydrated. (There's a shortage of diapers.)
2. Because of the diaper shortage, babies are tied (not for evil purposes but for support) to a crib post and positioned on an enamal pot to learn how to pee. This is at age 4 months.
3. The ratio of babies to social worker is 30:1.
4. The building is usually all white inside (no playful colors or play area that stimulates touch, sound, sight, etc.) with a large rug in the middle. The babies are put on the rug.
5. No toys.
6. The cook doesn't arrive until 6:15am. So if the babies are hungry during the night, they learn that crying isn't effective and resort to thumb sucking and rocking to stimulate themselves until it's feeding time.
7. Because there is little furniture, infants do not develop their gross motor skills in a timely matter. They don't have anything to pull themselves up or to lean on.
8. Babies generally have giardia, lice and scabies.
9. Babies are generally malnourished. The babyhouses are not subsidized by the government. Their diets are usually gruel and porridge. Money for fresh fruits, vegtables, proteins and meats is just not in the budget.
We focused a lot on #6. In a 'typical' infant's first year, he is constantly held and touched. When being fed, he hears the cooing and sees mom's face making expressions. This is the same when being changed, burped and rocked.
There's the cycle on which the child's mind functions. If he's hungry, he cries and is fed. He has built that trust and communication with his mother. Children in babyhouses learn that they can only trust themselves to ease their need.
I need to expect that my child will have had no stimulation or bonding. So it's imperative that for the first four months I am constantly holding her, having skin-on-skin contact, stimulating her sounds, sights and touch. My social worker stressed that I do not use a stroller and invest in a shoulder/hip sling. She also insisted that I be the absolutely only person to feed, carry, bathe and rock my daughter. This will solidify the bonding process and render the loneliness from her first 18 months as a distant memory with no lasting effects.
Overall it sounds horrible about what to expect but everything is treatable. There are antibiotics for scabies, giardia and lice. A few months of proper nutrition and hydration will do wonders for her weight/height. I can expect some challenges in getting her to eat the foods as they will have a different taste, texture and smell to what she's used to.
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4 comments:
Ugh, I feel physically ill after reading that list. I know that this is to be expected, it is just heart wrenching for me to think that this is happening to all of these children now and we are all hung up on paperwork!
Wow. This is a sobering post. I'd love to hear from others who have adopted from Uzbek to see if they agree that this is universally the case, or just the absolute worst case scenario.
We are adopting from Russia and tales of the baby houses vary enourmously from the absolute awful to the baby house with indoor pool and play yard to rival any found in a park in the U.S.
Hey, I linked over to your blog from a mutual acquaintance's blog. I remember going to the adoption education classes. Sometimes they feel like they are trying to scare you out of it! We had to watch this video about RAD, and discuss it. It was rough.
This will solidify the bonding process and render the loneliness from her first 18 months as a distant memory with no lasting effects.
It's interesting to read about the different experiences with the homestudy classes. Our instructor made it clear that these problems were only extreme cases. But she also made it clear that there's no way to completely solve the problem with no lasting effects.
With all the info that's out there, it's amazing to think that there really still hasn't been enough research on this topic.
You really sound like you're on top of all this, so I think you'll be a great mom!
Thanks Melissa, Valerie and GDS! Valerie, there were only 5 adoptions from Uzbek last year and 5 in 2005 so there's really no way of knowing what's the norm. Plus, it depends on where your agency has facilitators. But an indoor swimming pool?!?! Holy moley.
GDS, I totally agree about the varying information taught at homestudy workshops. But I will say that I came out feeling scared.
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