Bringing a child into the world entails great responsibility,
and it cannot be emphasized enough how preparing yourself physically,
mentally, emotionally, psychologically, and financially for the
event is the best gift you can give your future child.
The world we live in today is much safer than the
one known by your parents and grandparents. Even considering the
constant bombardment of news to the contrary, the government and
industry have taken some major steps to protect us all. In almost
everything we do, we are surrounded by protection based on safety
experience from the past.
You'll be safer - - but only if you have a strong feeling for safety.
Why? Because many of the safety factors developed to protect you
function only if you do something about them. Do you buckle your
seat belt every time you get in the car? Do you cross the street
at crosswalks instead of jaywalking? Do you walk or jog on the left
side of the road so that you are facing oncoming traffic? These
are just a few of the things that you know and can do something
about.
We all must acknowledge the fact that we bear some of the responsibility
for making our environment safe and safety is thinking about other
people, too. Because in this safety awareness, we can take steps
to help others. For instance, a jagged piece of metal and certain
types of broken bottles on the street can cause tire problems to
cars. Broken glass on the beach might also send someone to the hospital
for stitches. When you take time to clean up things such as broken
bottles, etc., you're taking a big step toward protecting others.
An accident is something that happens to you and to others. It's
easy to think that these accidents just happen. Buy they don't.
They're not just bad luck or bad breaks that come to you out of
nowhere. An accident is never supposed to happen. It isn't planned
and it isn't deliberate. Accidents are caused!
An accident can be caused by an unsafe condition. Look at your automobile.
It can be a typical example of an unsafe condition. Bad brakes and
unsafe tires, faulty headlights, loose steering, and, yes, even
dirty windshields and side windows can cause accidents, and they
are all unsafe conditions. And along this same line, we need to
consider unsafe acts as also contributing to the cause of accidents.
These are not "conditions." They are what you, or someone
else, does or doesn't do. A good example is jaywalking. You know
it's dangerous to walk out between parked cars to cross the street,
but it's easier than walking down to the next corner.
Both unsafe conditions and unsafe actions exist, and either one
can cause accidents. But you can put the two together, as well.
That car with the poor brakes, and all the other unsafe conditions,
isn't unsafe at all until someone starts to use it. It's the act
of using that causes the accident. Oh sure, the car was at fault,
but the driver of that car was the ultimate cause of the accident.
You will find many unsafe conditions in your daily life, but most
of them become truly unsafe based on your own actions related to
them. What causes you to act in an unsafe way? Is it carelessness?
Poor judgment, were you at the wrong place at the wrong time?
There's never a total absence of risks in our lives. Risks are voluntary
actions and can be managed. Emergencies can be met and handled,
but it takes know-how and constant awareness. What you can't prevent,
you can usually compensate for or protect against.
Safety experts classify accidents in four broad categories: Motor
vehicle, work and job related, home, and public. The public category
excludes motor vehicle and work accidents in public places. It covers
sports and recreation (swimming, hunting, etc.), air, water, or
land transportation excluding motor vehicle and public building
accidents.
On the average, there are 10 accidental deaths and about 1,000 disabling
injuries every hour during the year. About one-half of the deaths
occur in motor vehicle accidents while about one-third of the injuries
occur in and around the home.
It's not hard to imagine adding yourself to the accident statistics.
Any day of the week, you'll be swamped with stories in the newspapers
and on television about the many tragic accidents going on all over
the country and it seems to be getting worse all the time. And in
every case the victim was somebody who did not plan or expect that
they would be hurt or killed.
In a matter of seconds, everything you were ever going to do and
be can be snuffed out. At the least, you suffer pain and inconvenience
from an accident. At worst, an accident kills or damages you for
life.
Safety saves you, but it does more than that. Mix each safety ingredient
with all of your day to day activities. An use common sense in everything
you do.
Safety in your home is a combination of mind and matter. You mind
must be constantly aware of the home safety dangers. The matter
is the safety condition of your home.
The safety condition of your home isn't a case of rebuilding things
to make it safe. It's more the disposal of dangerous items, and
a case of good housekeeping. A safe home has a place for everything,
and that along with the right mental attitude about keeping those
things in place is just good housekeeping.
The home is the most frequent place for injury accidents to occur,
and it is second only to motor vehicle accidents for the number
of deaths in the country today. Family members are busier than ever
rushing in and out so it's easy to understand how careless mistakes
are often made.
When you read the daily newspaper or watch newscasts on TV, you'll
see that home accidents can be classified in two major ways. There
are things that can totally disrupt your entire community - - such
as earthquakes, tornadoes, storms and floods.
And then there are those kinds of accidents that are centered in
your own home, and not involving the whole community. These are
things like fires, local earth sliding, flooding and wind damage.
You will need to consider both types when thinking about safety
at home. For the community - wide disasters, you may or may not
receive any outside help for a considerable period of time, and
you must be prepared to survive on your own home resources. With
the second type, your home may be destroyed, but some help should
be there from the outside, early in the experience. Most cities
and communities have some agencies and organizations in place to
assist the public in times of severe emergencies.
It is wise for everyone to do a home safety check on a regular basis
and get the family members involved. Naturally, every family needs
to develop its own plan because every house and every family is
different.
Want to learn more?
"So You Have Actively Trying To Get Pregnant" will go over all the important medical conditions. We show you how they relate to pregnancy and steps to overcome possible problems