Reflection Paper on The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down Essay

Reflection Paper on The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down - Essay Example In this portion of writing, the issues regarding healthcare and religious belief, practices and their challenges to healthcare professionals in The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Friedman are critically explained. Anne Fediman evidently conveys the two cultural differences between the Hmong customs and the contemporary society in America that includes the professional doctors. The Hmong’s beliefs were merely objectionable especially when it comes to healthcare matters. For instance, during birth, a pregnant woman would be expected to squat on the ground regardless of the untidiness of the floor then pull the child out of her womb. The mother was to ensure that the baby does not touch the dust and that the umbilical cord was to be cut by the father. In case of any problem during childbirth, Lia’s mother, Foua Yang could resort to numerous remedies regularly used by the Hmong such as shaman who was believed to have natural powers to negotiate for his patient†™s health with the spirits that lived in the dominion that was invisible (Fediman 1997). In addition, a woman would take a number of precautions to avoid childbirth predicaments such as a woman could ensure her child’s health by concentrating on her food cravings. The child’s placenta would be buried in different places of the house depending on the child’s sex. However, currently childbirth is treated with lots of precautions with the use of modern techniques as seen in the Foua’s case while giving birth to Lia in Merced Community Medical Centre where the writer describes her birth as like any American woman. She greatly doubted the American medicine in general and how they handled the childbirth differently from what she expected such as offering ice water to stop blood from flowing freely instead of warm water to facilitate blood flow from the womb and the nature of food she was given which she refused to eat. Furthermore, the Hmong believed that los s soul was one major cause of sickness and diseases to the child hence the community was to carry out several rituals to please the soul providers (Fediman 1997). Despite Lia’s cautious fixing of her soul, she was attacked by epilepsy when she was about three months old. There was a mixture of reactions due to the epilepsy since some people considered it as a great deal of social status in their community since a healing spirit would not choose somebody of no account. Nevertheless, the doctors regarded this belief as vague. The diagnosis for the epilepsy failed as Foua and Kao were strongly convinced that the issue was not an illness but an issue of spirit catches you and you fall down as they described it. Moreover, both parents and Dr Murphy believed that constant seizures increased the dangers of the epilepsy. Interestingly, the doctor after several tests could find the cause of the disease after admitting Lia in ward for some time thus recommending her discharge after pre scribing Ampicilin for pneumonia and Dilantin for the seizures (Fediman 1997). Additionally, the Hmong’s had dreadfully horrific beliefs in American doctors and their confidence towards them was low. They were convinced that the