Mother And Baby example essay topic

Focus Paper I believe that answering a question like "what is culture?" requires a concise and concrete background about myself in order for people to understand me. For this reason, excuse me if you think I am getting off the subject when reading my essay. To begin, my name is Edv " in Hernandez and I am a Guatemalan Indian native. I was born into a large impoverished Indian peasant family, and raised in the Quiche branch of the Mayan culture in Guatemala.

My original idiom is Quiche, which was one of the Mayan languages centuries ago. Besides my native language, Quiche, I mastered Spanish and English in my early teenage years after I migrated to the United States in February of 1997. Culture according to the Webster's New World Dictionary is the ideas, customs, skills, arts, etc. of a people or group that are transferred, communicated, or passed along, as in or to succeeding generations. Similarly, I defined culture as the total pattern of human behavior that includes a specific set of social, educational, religious and professional behaviors, practices and values that individuals learn and adhere to while participating in or out of groups they usually interact with.

In short, Culture is social heritage, rules for living, and a way of life, which is passed on to future generations. When talking about or defining culture, it becomes complex to me because I cannot succinct its definition into one specific word. This is why, to avoid ambiguity, I decided to talk about a specific aspect of my culture, that is practices taken before, during, and after childbirth. To most Indians in my town, pregnancy is viewed as a normal part of life, and therefore, is not seen as requiring medical care.

In fact, most Indians highly value large families and this extended family support. Mothers, grandmothers, sisters, aunts, and the comadrona together feel they have collective knowledge to care for the mother and baby, strongly enough that they encourage the notion that prenatal care is unnecessary. So, when a woman gets pregnant and is not shy, she tells her situation to her mother and her husband or future husband. But if she is shy, she waits until her mother or other people notice the natural signs of her pregnancy; for instance, her stomach increases in size and blemishes begin to appear on her face. After a woman's mother or other member of her family realizes that she is pregnant, her mother or a close relative stars to make the preparation for the delivery. They begin by asking her questions like: When was her last period?

What moth of the year she stopped menstruating? What was the moon's position when she got pregnant? And who the father is (only if the mother doesn't know he is)? Then she recalls and answers all these questions carefully because they are considered relevant to the creature's well being.

After or before the woman confirms that she is pregnant, the parents seek the help of family members or forefathers to help them with the preparation and to find the child some godparents, so that if the baby's mother and father die, he or she shouldn't be tempted by any of the bad habits our people sometimes fall into. But the decision about choosing the godparents and comadrona is only the parents responsibility. A comadrona is a woman who has experience in assisting women in childbirth. Comadrona can be considered a mid-wife since it cannot be translated exactly the way it is from Spanish to English. In general, a comadrona is a mature woman whose sons / daughters are alive and belongs to the community.

Although many times comadrona are an alphabets, they do speak the local idiom. In-fact, they not only understand the system and religion, they are an integral part of it. They are well known in the community and they get pay with money or any other contributions. During the first six and seven months of pregnancy, many things can happen in a woman's pregnancy. For example, after seven months of pregnancy, the woman needs to start getting massages on her stomach to make the delivery less painful. Later, when she's in her with month, the mother introduces her baby to the natural world, as our customs tell her to.

She goes out in the fields or walks over the hills. She also has to show her baby the kind of life she leads, so that if she gets up at three in the morning, does her chores and rends the animals, she does it all the more so when she is pregnant, conscious that the child is taking all this in. She talks to the child continuously from the first moment the creature is in her stomach, telling him or her how hard his life will be. It's as if the mother were a guide explaining things to a tourist. She " ll say, for instance; 'You must never abuse nature and you must live your life as honestly as I do. ' As she works in the fields, she tells her child all the little things about her work.

It's a duty to his or her child that a mother must fulfill. Additionally, It's also the custom for the pregnant mother's neighbours to visit her every day and take her little things, no matter how simple. They stay and talk to her, and she " ll tell them all her problems. When the baby is a few days from being delivered, the mother begins to prepare pieces of used clothes or any type of material to wrap the baby in (but now days, my mother told me that people use more formal clothes than ten years ago). Then the woman tells one of her children to let the godparents and the comadrona know that a baby is about to be delivered by a bird (this is what my mother told me when my younger brother was born), if is her first time giving birth, then there is always a relative constantly watching for her. When the baby is eight days from being delivered, the woman's mother starts taking care of her; the godmother, the comadrona, and other female neighbors come to visit the woman.

However, here is the part that I didn't like about childbirth, the woman's children don't get to see the woman for eight days, because they want to keep the baby pure. The purity with which the child comes into the world is protected for eight days. Our customs say that the new-born baby should be alone with his mother in a special place for eight days, without any of her other children. Her only visitors are the people who bring her food.

This is the baby's period of integration into the family; he very slowly becomes a member of it. When the child is born, the comadrona immediately cut the bellybutton then ties it twice. After that, they have a special plant, which the woman drinks it and the rest is used to massage her stomach to alleviate the pain. This special plant is more or les a medicine. Then the placenta is burden close to a tamascal, about 20 inches under the surface so that another will not born soon.

Then they kill a sheep and there's a little fiesta just for the family. Then the neighbors start coming to visit, and bring presents. They either bring food for the mother, or something for the baby. Then, the whole house is cleaned. The child is also washed and wrapped and put into the "new bed". Four candles are placed on the corners of the bed to represent the four corners of the house and show him that this will be his home.

They symbolize the respect the child must have for his community, and the responsibility he must feel towards it as a member of a household. The candles are lit and give off an incense which incorporates the child into the world he must live in. When the baby is born, his hands and feet are tied up to show him that they are sacred and must only be used to work or do whatever nature meant them to do. They must never steal or abuse the natural world, or show disrespect for any living thing.

Three or four days after the baby was born, the baby and the mother perform a very important ritual called tamascal. A best translation of the word tamascal in English could be American Indian Sauna. A tamascal or vapour-bath, is usually built of raw bricks. The form of it is similar to that of ovens for baking bread; but with this difference, that the pavement of the tamascal is a little convex, and lower than the surface of the earth, whereas that of most ovens is plain, and a little elevated for the accommodation of the baker.

Its greatest diameter is about eight feet, and its greatest height six. The entrance, like the mouth of an oven, is wide enough to allow a man to creep easily in. In the place opposite to the entrance there is a furnace of stone or raw bricks, with its mouth outwards to receive the fire, and a hole above it to carry off the smoke. The part which unites the furnace to the bath, and which is about two feet and a half square, is shut with a dry stone of Tetzontli, or some other stone porous like it.

In the upper part of the vault there is an air hole, like that to the furnace. This is the usual structure of the tamascal. The sweat bath has special significance for our women; during menstruation the sauna can alleviate some of the cramp pain by relaxation and removal of excessive water caused by sodium retention. For the same reasons, sweat bathing is generally beneficial for pregnant women. Sweat bathing after childbirth relieves aching muscles, cleanses the body and gives the new mother needed privacy. According to my mother, menopause is another special concern of women that sweat bathing can ease.

Primarily, sweat bathing helps by stimulating the autonomic nervous system, the pituitary gland, and the ovaries. But some medical people consider menopause an elimination crisis which makes sweat bathing even more useful. The theory is that menstruation is more than just an elimination for the uterine lining; it is an eliminative cycle for the entire body. Upon cessation of the woman's reproductive cycle, the body must find other ways of ridding itself of toxic accumulations. While this adjustment is going on, uncomfortable menopause symptoms are felt. Sweat bathing, acting as a general toxic eliminator, reduces some of these distresses.

Another main reason for Indian women for taking a tamascal after childbirths is because it gets rid of evil sprits and protects the children. Tamascal needs to be performed once a week for the first month. Although tamascal is something that mother have to perform after they deliver their baby, this ritual can also be done by anybody. In-fact, I once did it or I should say my mother prepare me a tamascal when I was ten years old.

Sitting in a sweat bath could be the most vigorous activity I have ever done. The heat produces an artificial "fever" and urges every organ of the body into action. While outwardly relaxed, your inner organs are as active as though you were jogging or mowing the lawn. At the same time, I am being cleansed from inside out by the skin, your body's largest organ and its excretion, sweat.

Tamascal in general are considered healthy and we are suppose to take them once in a while to stay healthy. I think the delivery of baby in my culture is unique because the necessity of medical care is not always needed and because of the processes that are taken to receive the baby. Staring from asking a woman about when she got pregnant, the fiesta, and the last ritual, which is the tamascal.