I received a question from a student who is doing research and wants to know about Hmong child-birthing experiences in America.  Here is her question:

Hi! My name is Jasmine. I’m a student at Carleton College in Northfield, MN., studying to hopefully be a doctor one day. I’m doing a research project on multicultural medicine and writing about Hmong child-birthing experiences in America. I’m desperately in need of primary sources to back up my claim that America and Australia essentially have the same issues when it comes to accommodating for cultural needs during child-birth, but it seems that the only difference is that the problems are intensified in America for reasons that I’m still trying to gather. Would you be willing to answer to some questions about your birthing experience, if you gave birth in American hospitals?

I personally cannot answer this question because, although I am Hmong, I am not cultural when it comes to medicine.  I opted for epidural for both my kids and they were both induced.

As for the famous herbed chicken diet, Mom made some because she’s semi-cultural but other than that, I pretty much ate regular food.  I’m not sure how important breast feeding is (and I can’t seem to remember if it is important) but I didn’t breastfeed either of my babies due to medical reasons.

If anyone reading this blog post want to chime in on your experience, please do.  I’d love to hear about it too.

Thanks for the interesting question, Jasmine. I hope that you will receive your answers.

BTW, that beautiful ethnic scarf my daughter is wearing above is from Target.  It has the Hmong designs on it which I love.  I found out about the scarf through one of the many forums I frequent.  Here are a couple more shots of it: