Cultural Diversity in Child Bearing Practices Around the World

1892 Words8 Pages
Cultural Diversity in Child Bearing Practices around the World Nursing 8/1/2013 Abstract Much is written on best practices of evidence based birthing statistics and outcomes. They are very important public health issues, due to the still high mortality rates for both mother and child in different parts of the world. Never the less, the efficacy of different childbearing practices will not be compared in this short paper. The goal is to look at the very real belief systems of very real people who are giving birth and cross our paths as nurses every day. How does a nurse’s understanding of a patients culture help positive outcomes? Cultural Diversity in Child Bearing Practices around the World We live in a quickly changing world where many portions of the developing world have recently moved from natural childbirth in the home to having the majority of births in a health facility (Wilkinson, S., & Callister, L. 2010). One proof of this fact is the rate of cesarean sections are higher than they have ever been: China now has a 46 percent C-section rate, Vietnam 36% ,Thailand 34% , Latin America 35%, United States 31% , Cambodia 15 % and India 18% (Soltani, H., & Sandall, J. 2012). Despite the changing physical location where birthing takes place, people’s beliefs still closely effect how pregnancy and childbirth are carried out. When looking at our attitudes towards pregnancy, childbearing, and post natal care, many intimate layers of a particular society become unveiled. Ingrained belief systems about: child safety, ritual, self-care, the pain response, hygiene, joy, gender issues, privacy and the spiritual destiny of the child. Being open to cultural differences also puts the “rightness and wrongness” that so often prevails in the western biomedical model of health care to a
Open Document