Asian Culture 's Child Bearing Practices

In order to have a normal birth, both the mother and the child need to prepare for birth. The mother needs to acquire knowledge regarding what to expect, information about the baby and its special care and attention. Both need to prepare themselves with time, so that at the end of pregnancy the mother just has to sit unstressfully for the baby to arrive. The child start preparing his departure from the mother’s womb by the end of the seventh month. The child starts protecting his body from external viruses and microbes by accumulating antibodies from the mother. Also he starts absorbing extra iron, because he knows that the mother’s milk lacks iron needed for the production of red blood cells. The child rotates his body, locating his head towards the birth canal. And the baby starts accumulating fat under his skin, preparing his body for life in the external

Giving birth to a baby is the most amazing and miraculous experiences for parents and their loved ones. Every woman’s birth story is different and full of joy. Furthermore, the process from the moment a woman knows that she’s pregnant to being in the delivering room is very critical to both her and the newborn baby. Prenatal care is extremely important and it can impact greatly the quality of life of the baby. In this paper, the topic of giving birth will be discussed thoroughly by describing the stories of two mothers who gave birth in different decades and see how their prenatal cares are different from each other with correlation of the advancement of modern medicine between four decades.

Mental health illnesses affect everyone. It is highly prevalent affecting people of all ages, gender, cultures, and social groups. Attitudes towards mental health illnesses vary among individuals and often are highly influenced by the various cultures that the individuals identify with. Culture as a social concept can be defined as a set of norms, values, behaviours, and beliefs that are common and shared amongst a group of individuals (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 1999). Culture can be applicable to groups like Asians and Americans but also to groups of shared norms, beliefs, and values established within professions such as the culture of patients and practitioners. Culture provides these groups with structure and context to understanding their society and the world as a whole. Culture influence a wide range of aspects of mental health, including how mental health is perceived by the patient, how the patient will experience mental health stigma, and how they cope with symptoms of mental health illness. Additionally, these cultural influences impact the relationship between the patient and the practitioner in a number of ways.

For hundred of years, women have wrestled with their womanhood, bodies, and what it means to be a woman in our society. Being a woman comes with a wonderful and empowering responsibility--giving birth. What sets us aside from other countries is that the process and expectations of giving birth has changed in our society; coming from midwifery, as it has always been since the early times, to hospitals where it is now expected to give birth at. Midwifery was a common practice in delivering babies in

The way people interact and live in North America is to this day impacted by colonial thought and beliefs that have been enforced through both the government and social constructs. The impacts are present subtly throughout our entire lives in Canada without us fully realizing the changes it enforces in social interactions and natural body functions. This paper will focus on the differences between Indigenous and “western” ways of birthing affect women, and how the processes of birth have changed and are currently changing. The question that guided the research for this paper was; How does Haudenosaunee and Anishinaabe births and “western” Canadian births compare and how does resurgence, found in traditional births, influence cultural revitalization?

Does everybody think or feels the same about childbirth around the world? This question above is a question that has always been in my mind. Now that I got the opportunity of choosing a topic to do research. I decided to choose childbirth and culture. This research paper is going to talk about how different cultures and countries look a birth in an entirely different manner. Some look at birth as a battle and others as a struggle. And on some occasions, the pregnant mother could be known as unclean or in other places where the placenta is belief to be a guardian angel. These beliefs could be strange for us but for the culture in which this is being practiced is natural and a tradition. I am going to be introducing natural and c-section childbirth. And, the place of childbirth is going to be a topic in this essay. America is one country included in this research paper.

The idea of childbirth has been viewed in three peculiar ways: a social natural occurrence, as a passage to an early death, and in present times a medical procedure needed when having children. In the seventieth and eighteenth century childbirth was seen as a social celebration conducted by midwives, while in the nineteenth century fear of death arose due to an increase of maternal mortality rates. This time period also served as a transition time between the elimination of the midwife and the emergence of the physician. The transition was due to attitude changes and knowledge understanding. During the twentieth century, medical knowledge expanded and thus the idea of childbirth was medicalized into a medical procedure needed to have healthy children. Childbirth once seen as a natural phenomenon was now an event that needed medical attention by health facilitators at institutions of health. The ideas around childbirth developed based on the knowledge, cultural setting, mortality rates, and professionals available at the time. Based on these ideas it is easy to see how social and behavioral aspects influenced childbirth throughout the seventeenth, eighteenth, ninetieth and twentieth centuries. In addition, the communities’ views on childbirth were influenced by the development of public health infrastructure, public health policy advancement and how well public officials were able to disseminate information.

Chinese value silence and avoid disagreeing. The purpose of avoidance is to lessen conflict and maintain a peaceful environment. When assessing a pregnant Chinese woman, it is important to understand this idea of silence. The Chinese woman may remain silent during an exam and while the nurse is educating. Although the woman is not verbalizing her understanding, she most likely does. It is important to gauge how the woman demonstrates understanding. Head nods or silence are often non-verbal cues that a Chinese patient may demonstrate (Giger and Davidhizar, 2006, p. 445).

In traditional Chinese perspective, giving births to offspring for a man’s family was the main function of a woman’s sexuality. Also, woman’s sexuality was safer under the protection of staying with the family. Woman was vulnerable and did not have ability to resist if there’s any man tried to abuse her. In such manner, women were asked to stay inside of the household neither stepping out of the household nor met the guests in the living room, because women were considered as their husbands’ personal property. In addition, there were many single men who could not find a wife called bare sticks, and they were regarded as extremely dangerous people for women, because they would sexually abuse women if there were any chance.

Chinese women will take many precautions to protect their unborn and newborn babies from evil spirits. They will never attend a funeral and they will hang certain embellishments to ward of the spirits. A paper cut out of scissors is hung over the bed curtains of a pregnant woman and when a baby is born a special pendant is placed near the baby’s crib in hopes that any evil spirits would be more attracted to the pendant then the baby. Another example of keeping the spirits away is the parents of the child would make “arrows from wood of a peach tree and place near the cradle.” It is considered unlucky to name your child before they are born as well as to celebrate before the baby is born with a baby shower. This is normal for many cultures including some Native American cultures here is America. Though now it is more taboo and people are naming their babies as soon as they know the gender and having showers months before the baby is born to make sure that they are prepared when the baby arrives. When a baby is being born in China it is customary that the mother and mother-in-law of the mother to be, to be present during the delivery but not the father. It is considered terrible luck to be scared of labor as it is considered the woman’s job. After the baby is born the mother is in a “sitting period” for a month. This insures that the mother is completely healed and only has to focus on

The generally accepted way in which children in a society are raised, constitutes its philosophical and social child rearing practice. Child-rearing research has focused on understanding differences in parent’s beliefs and values, characteristics of cultural socialization, and the implications of such variations. “Chinese parents traditionally stress their authority over their children and expect unquestioning obedience from them” (Chiu 1987). In America, a parent’s main focus is what they should do for their children to help them succeed in life; Chinese parents raise their children to do what is best for their parents and society. Significant differences were found in Chinese,

During labor and delivery, for many Chinese women, family support is preferred over pain medications (Sullivan, 2012). For the delivery of the first child, the father of the baby is not present, instead the woman’s mother is there

Through the Grandmother’s Law women are assisted through the birth by strong and supportive women. Traditional healing practices used by Indigenous midwives during the birth, include therapeutic massage for relaxation, sand, heat, smoke and fire to help with pain and being spiritually strong after birth was important for the mother and baby. Traditional rituals aimed at stopping bleeding, healing, warming will be used.

From the beginning of recorded history, there has been a variety of traditions to help enter the baby into the family. Some traditions have a negative effect, while some have a positive effect. Some countries have important traditions, that have a major effect on the people, and some countries do not have very important ones. China, in this case, has a tradition that has been followed for plenty of years. This tradition is that the husband takes the pregnant wife, and walks on coals before the pregnancy. People say that the act of this tradition was being done because of confidence for the women’s pregnancy.The `myth of this tradition is that if the husband walks the wife over the coals, the pregnancy will be successful. The practice of carrying a pregnant woman over coals in China has a negative impact on the community because it leads to pain and suffering, causes financial losses for medical services, and it results in negative limitations for the wife during her pregnancy.

According to the United Nation’s data, the total fertility rate of China was 5.7 births per woman in 1969, and it declined to 2.8 births per women by 1979. This remarkable