Summary Of The Spirit Catches You And You Fall Down By Anne Fadiman

Using Anne Fadiman’s book The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down I have created a cultural assessment of the Hmong people and their experiences with the American healthcare system. This small Southeast Asian minority known as the Hmong began moving to the United States towards the end of the Vietnam War. This brought a whole new set of challenges for the healthcare providers of the United States due to their cultural beliefs and native practices which made it difficult to perform certain forms of medicine. Doctors and nurses had to find different ways to treat these patients without violating their cultural beliefs or upsetting them. This was especially difficult because they did not speak English and translators were scarce.

Most of the

Their body types vary but tend to be smaller in stature and weight and they have skin colors ranging from fair to olive in complexion. Iron deficiency is common in children due to feeding them the same amounts as they did with formula when giving cow’s milk as the child gets older. The Hmong are more susceptible to disease due to their lifestyles and different traditions. The diseases to consider are diabetes, hypertension and strokes.

One thing that could affect the biological variations of Lia verses the rest of Foua’s children is how she was cleaned at the hospital after they had her, she will be healthier and less susceptible to disease since she was cleaned with clean water instead of stream water. “Although she felt that the nurses who bathed Lia with Safeguard did not get her quite as clean as she had gotten her newborns with Laotin stream water, (Fadiman 1997: 8)” even though Foua feels this way we all know that it helped Lia to be clean in filtered water with

Majority of Hmong women prefer women doctors or nurses to give them care in these situations, they are known to refuse male doctors or nurses when it comes to anything involving a vaginal examination or birthing. The Hmong believe in no touching of the head because they believe the head is the most sacred because they believe that is where the spirit resides. It is considered inappropriate for opposite genders to sit too close to each other and to avoid misinterpretations it is a male’s responsibility to make sure to keep a distance between himself and the female. Only men shake men’s hands when greeting each other women do not shake hands. Women who are close (close in terms of relationship) will hug each other just like Americans would