Hmong Case Study

1. What do you think of the traditional Hmong birth practices? Compare them to the techniques used when Lia was born. How do Hmong and American birth practices differ? Can you think of any parallel examples of medical or healing practices that you have heard about that are used in different cultures?
The traditional Hmong birth practices are very unique and different compared to American birth practices that I have grown up learning. In Hmong practices, if a woman fails to conceive, she would call in a shaman who could negotiate the patients’ health with the spirits. The woman could also avoid becoming infertile by respecting taboos like avoiding caves and respecting her food cravings. It is important that a woman gives birth in her house, and she can ease the pain of labor by drinking water that had been boiled with a key or having her family stand over bowls of sacred water chanting prayers. Lia’s birth however was a little different. Lia was born in the Merced Community Medical Center in California’s Central Valley. Lia’s placenta was incinerated; her mother, Foua,
The Hmong believe that epilepsy is caused by dab, a spirit who captures someone’s soul and then makes them sick. Recognized as a serious illness that is able to cause suffering, epilepsy is also seen as a distinguished affliction since the Hmong epileptics become shamans when they grow up. Shamans negotiate with the spirit about a person’s health. Hmong’s seizures are known and viewed as an altered state at which they can enter into the spiritual realm, when the rest of us are denied access. Seizures are also believed to be a state at which you can see things that others cannot. Lia’s parents were both proud and concerned for her; they considered her very special but also hoped that she would be healed. We can learn that the Hmong is very serious and caring about