Hmong Tradition: How Does Childbirth Differ From Here In America

Ch1. In Hmong tradition how does childbirth differ from here in America.

The traditional childbirth in Hmong has countless different aspects compared to those here in America. In the beginning of chapter 1 Fadiman was able to describe the birthing process that takes place in the highlands of northwest Laos. One of the innumerable traditions that is mentioned in this chapter is the presence of a woman’s husband during the delivery process. Nao Kao had the authority to bring his wife Foua some hot water when her throat became dry during labor, but he had to shun his eyes from her body. Along with this, during the labor process no one in the house knew the presences of a new child existed until the infant cried after birth. Foua believed that
As Mao returned to the Ban Vinai refugee camp, she was welcomed with not only open arms, Mao also had 15,000 Hmong ready to ask questions regarding western medicine. Because Hmong experienced a lack of accurate exposure to western medicine, they were able to create ideas that contraindicated everything they believe in. One of the questions that a fellow Hmong was able to ask was “ why do doctors take so much blood from their patients?”(Fadiman, p.32, 2012). Hmong have a strong belief that a person is born with a certain amount of blood that will sustain them for the rest of their life and cannot be replaced. This led them to question as why it is necessary for a great deal of blood tests to be performed or why doctors need to remove a great amount of blood. Another question that Mao was able to encounter was “ is it forbidden to use txiv neeb to heal an illness in the United States?”(Fadiman, p.32, 2012). A multitude of Hmong live in refugee camps such as Ban Vinai and Phanat Nikhom and avoided participating in receiving care from the medical center, because it was full of “excessively zealous volunteers from christian charitable organizations” (Fadiman, p.35, 2012). These staff members were there in helping the Hmong, they were also there to covert. These two camps did not allow the practice of shamans in the building, until a certain point in time. This change was due to the lack of Hmong entering the medical center. In order to have the Hmong people come to the hospital, they allowed a shaman to be present and give out herbs. The Shaman was not given any consent to perform any rituals with the spirits. This type of experience made the Hmong believe that the practice of traditional healers was completely