Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down

1. The traditional Hmong birth practices are so different from the birth practices we use here in the United States. Foua’s previous child births before Lia were very different. She gave birth inside her home, with completely no help. She also cut and tied the umbilical cord with a string. Afterwards they buried the placentas as a tradition to their beliefs. Now, with Lia’s birth she was in a public hospital where she was attended by doctors and given medicine. It was also sanitary there, unlike her house. Instead of burying Lia’s placenta, it was incinerated.
All in all, the difference between Hmong birth practices and practices here in the united stated at that our birth practices are much more sanitary and much more moderate.
2. I think that the up-heavals the Hmong have been through have made them more insecure about the help of other cultural. For example, they don’t really trust the western medicine practices. Foa is agitated with all the medication Lia has to take and believes some of it makes her even worse. So they have some trouble believing that other people want to help. Also, they have grown stronger as a cultural and have their guards up.
3. The cultural barrier is the biggest problem because the Hmong people do not have the same concept as we do. They don’t have words for certain things we do. For example, a doctor can’t tell them they have diabetes because their pancreas doesn’t work for the simple fact that they don’t have a word for pancreas. When someone in their culture passes away they don’t open them up, so they have no idea that how our organs look. Although, they do know they have a heart only because they can feel it beating. It’s an “infinite difference” because it’s very hard to teach a cultural something new from scratch when they are already adapted to doing things and learning about things their way for years after years.
4. I don’t think the Lee’s understood what Dr. Neil Murphy said because they believe they knew