Week 6 Group Presentation- Alesha, Charles, Jane

Valverde’s “My Mother Not My Mother,” delves into a strained relationship between mother and daughter.   Valverde lived with her grandparents in Vietnam, until the age of five, when her mother took her to live with her in Oakland.  Their relationship was tense, because Valverde believed that her mother had abandoned her.  Many years later, Valverde learned the reasons her mother thought it was best to leave her in her grandparents’ care.  After learning of her mother’s hardships, Valverde would try to put herself in situations that she thought her mother could have been.  She truly wanted to understand why her mother had made such choices.  When her mother said, “It is because I am not your real mother.  My sister is your real mother,” Valverde felt like she could make sense of the world.  She accepted that her aunt, the person who showed her love, was her mother in the absence of her biological mother.   

“My Mother Not My Mother,” connects to the theme of “Giving Life and Life Giving,” because it demonstrates that the person who gives birth to you does not necessarily give you life.  There is a social construct of a “normal” family that consists of a loving mother and father and a loved child.  Valverde knew of this construct and was confused as to why she did not have a “normal” family.  Though she had loving grandparents and a loving aunt, she wanted love from the person who gave birth to her.  Through her dream, she came to accept that a mother can be someone who shows you love and cares for you.  Though her “mother” gave birth to her, her real mother was her aunt who cared for her throughout her life.  This is a concept I believe would be common for children who are adopted.  These children may not know who their biological parents are, but they still have a mother and/or father in their adoptive parents who love and care for them. 

In “Spiritual Healing Practices Among Rural Postpartum Thai Women,” the use of Traditional Thai Medicine (TTM) is introduced as a method of spiritual healing after childbirth.  Although childbirth is thought to be a natural process of life, it creates an imbalance to the self, which consists of body, mind-heart, and energy. This disequilibrium causes instability in the immunity of an individual.  This study evaluated how traditional practices that involved food restriction, lying by the fire, hot herbal bath, and hot herbal drink allowed spiritual healing of the mind-heart during the postpartum period. 

The food practices and lying by the fire practices stood out to me. After giving birth, women are supposed to eat grilled sticky rice as their first meal, because it symbolizes strength, patience, endurance, fight, and survival.  As someone who grew up eating rice every day, I did not think of rice as representing any of those characteristics.  I was only exposed to Korean tradition where the importance of seaweed soup is emphasized for the postpartum period.  For at least a month, the mother is supposed to eat seaweed soup three times a day.  Unlike Thai tradition, this meal does not symbolize certain characteristics.  Instead, seaweed is thought to cleanse the blood and help with milk production.  The lying by the fire practice was interesting, because not only were the rituals important, but also performing them correctly were of equal importance.  If the rituals were not executed correctly, there were consequences such as skin problems.  In Korean tradition, there are no rituals performed in the postpartum period.  However, there is the belief in consequences of unexplained joint pain and body aches for exposing the body to cold.  Though there are differences in postpartum care in Korean and Thai culture, these cultures have a similarity.  These practices are passed down from generation to generation, and they are thought to ultimately benefit the mother and child.  These practices tie into our theme of “Giving Life and Life Giving,” because they demonstrate that just giving birth to another human being is not enough.  Mothers have the responsibility to restore themselves and provide a suitable life for their child with the use of these practices in the postpartum period. 

Abuidhail's study on rural Jordanian mothers really began to identify an interesting aspect of their society in regards to child rearing and childbirth. She interviewed a sample of experienced mothers who lived as housewives (known as informants) and had close ties to their mothers and elderly women in their community. She identified specific postnatal practices and sought to identify the reasoning behind their mechanisms and identify their relation to larger relationships in the community. Breastfeeding, for example, was seen as normal social behavior and an important source of life that helped to shield their newborns from disease. Interesting enough, informants did not specifically mention the psychological effects associated. I saw this as being an interesting comparison with western society where the health and psychological benefits are both espoused but the social acceptance is somewhat grey. At least in the United States, breastfeeding is generally expected by mothers, but not to be done in public view where some groups see it as indecent or uncivilized. It stood out that a practice can be seen as inherently natural and needed with many benefits in society, but not be accepted wholly like it is in other places. Other practices such as Kohla, or ground lead powder applied to the eyes, and salt bathing, where newborns are bathed in high salinity water identified an odd phenomenon. Lead is highly stigmatized in the west where it is seen as a health risk, whereas in rural Jordanian society, it is specifically applied to the eyes to help beautify them. Salt bathing was also readily identified by doctors as causing complications to the skin and causing dermal irritation, but Jordanian grandmothers used their valorized role and experiences to mandate that such practices are tradition and should be continued. This led me to expect that the familial integrity of these Jordanian families may create a culture where personal experience and tradition, as told by experienced family members, may supersede that of even the most basal scientific understanding. While I believe this displays the strong collectivism and social fabric of this community, I believe there are inherent risks in following such traditions blindly and not accepting fact-based evidence.

The Lovers is the fourth card in the arcana. It describes the duality, multiplicity, and trust shared between lovers, who are inherently bound by aspects such as their shared trauma. Love is one of the strongest, if not the strongest forces within humanity. It is, at times, able to bring together two fractured individuals who are subdued by the stressors of the world and now, the many new vices of modern society. It is the feeling of bliss as if walking on water, and the feeling of hope, thinking that the heavens are the limits of togetherness. But, as with many intertwined lives, the deep rooted, unseen aspects of their lives and love found in both the water underneath and the sky above would challenge their bond with one another if and when they begin to wonder.

Mothers are the bridge of life, often the unsung heroes of the world who must strike the hardest balance of remaining true to themselves and their dreams, while also fostering new ones of the next generation. She is the beautiful woman, cradling her young, and simultaneously the old soul, giving her greatest years to her own. There is no greater hero who must maintain composure and appearance while internally she is constantly weighed down and chipped away by the challenges of living life in one body and at least two souls. Just like life, I believe there is so much happiness to be found in the great journey of mothering a child, but at that, there is also some of the greatest challenge and sacrifice that many will never see or know. 

            The Daughter to me is the inquisitive explorer. She traverses two worlds where she walks on land as all others do, but also looks underneath the surface of the water to understand the things that many do not see. As she walks the line between these two worlds, and forming a real, objective understanding of a person's self and their flaws, she may grow the proverbial limb that will guide her to her lover. To me, I believe it is her history written on her arms and legs, likely with the help of the Mother, and yet there is still more to come with her weapon of progress in her hand.

Within the pages of the Postpartum Depression Facts pamphlet, there are many strike thoughts and additions to the typical medical description of PPD. While each of them felt like individual additions, it is clear by the second page that much of the common thought line of PPD surrounds the assumption that women are limited by their emotions and that sadness just happens “for no apparent reason.” Sharlene Chiang [referred to as SC in the pamphlet] makes a note next to this line in the symptoms list that confining life issues are not “no reason” and that this should be removed, along with the addition of “overly anxious”, indicating that a rise in anxiety can be one of the symptoms of postpartum depression. This concept is hardly new in American society. Mental illness and any condition that is relative to it, comes pre-packaged with societal doubt, dismissal, and willful ignorance of helpful behavior in relation to the person afflicted. Going one step further, there is a section of the pamphlet that discusses what to do in a crisis: Call your doctor [who may have NO training in your condition], call 911 for emergency services [I can personally attest this is a terrible idea. A 911 dispatcher is not a trained mental health expert, nor are the EMT’s. They will not be able to do anything except check your vitals and tell you to go to the hospital], and call a 24 hour suicide prevention hotline [which has a note added that there is no cultural competency within the confines of the hotline]. All of these offer nothing but a line to somebody who might care but are ill-equipped for PPD response. Instead of reaching out to the wrong people, why don’t we create a usable database of cultural resources for those who might be disengaged from their ethnic community in the United States? Something on the internet with equal access between mental health professionals and the American population as a whole could be a powerful tool for treatment of PPD. While on the lookout for something like this online, I came across a video of UCD’s Dr. Nolan Zane, who recorded an interesting talk about the cultural and therapy factors in treating Asian Americans. I found it interesting that there is more than one instance where researchers studying certain conditions do not consider it necessary to consider cultural context when the patient is Asian American. You can view the video here [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKN7QMPaOyY] and come to your own conclusions.

Finally, the letters to mothers from daughters portion of the reading really hits home. There is a wide variety of subjects discussed, but the largest commonality between them are the things that we are too afraid [or have other reasons not to] tell our mothers, whether it be something that would disappoint them, scare them, or otherwise. There are a few letters outlining the structure of healthy relationships and thanking mother for providing the author with a solid structure for their own lives, but many of them appear to be missing that healthy link and instead reach out in a cathartic manner to express their upset at not being able to openly express themselves or reach out to the pinnacle of nurturing in their life. In particular, there is one letter written to a younger family member who translates on behalf of mother that is heartbreaking. The author expresses that while their language often falls short, it is not for lack of trying, but it will have to do. The dongsaeng [younger sibling] is going into the military during the period of the Korean War and will be unable to assist with translation for the period he is in service. The letters provided show us that motherhood is a path that is never tread twice. There are common struggles with understanding how to raise children, what is the right amount of love and compassion for the child, and which values to give them as they set out in life. We need to remember that no individual has every tool to give their offspring. I wonder how does one bridge a gap that is created through society’s vision of mental illness? Included is a link to a Chaos Chaos song that touches on the uncertainty that anxiety brings and the desire to be loved in a way that doesn’t blacken the soul. I find that this connects our needs and desires with the complication of life’s impact on the psyche. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTA0DSfrGZ0]

References:

Abuidhail, Jamila, (2014). “Rural Jordanian Mothers’ Beliefs, Knowledge and Practices of Postnatal Care.” Quality in Primary Care (2014)22(6): 285-93.

"Daughter to Mother Letters." Open in Emergency.

Prangthip, Thasanoh, Kennedy, Holly Powell, & Chesla, Catherine A. (2014). “Spiritual Healing Practices Among Rural Postpartum Thai Women.” Journal of Transcultural Nursing.

The Mother, The Daughter, The Lover (Tarot Cards) 

"Treated Pamphlet on Postpartum Depression." Open in Emergency.

Valverde, Kieu Linh Caroline. “My Mother Not My Mother.”


Visual:
https://theselightfootsteps.files.wordpress.com/2014/01/img_8592.jpg

Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKN7QMPaOyY

Audio:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTA0DSfrGZ0