Hmong Chapter Summary

The book highlights the conflicts that exist between a culture and the American institutions. The focus is on Lia when she first goes to the hospital at three months of age; the first conflict arises, as she is misdiagnosed. There is a communication barrier between her Hmong parents and the doctors, and no communication is effectively done between the parents and the doctor. Western medicine bases its work on facts and the doctors are trained to use just that; the point of connection between the physicians and cultural relativism comes in communication. There are so many cultures in the world, and every one of them stands by their belief no matter how wrong or right, the point of unity with the Western medicine can only be found in effective communication.
In a case such as Lia’s, life is at stake, and the doctors are sure that they can save the life, then they can use force to make the patient comply. In the case of Foua’s thinking from the time she came to give birth to Lia, who is her fourteenth child, she did not agree with almost all of the hospital procedure from, bathing Lia with Safeguard, to giving her cold water to drink after childbirth. Communication and education are essential for such a mother, and when the life …show more content…
Over and over again, the Hmong have responded to persecution and to pressures to assimilate by either fighting or migrating—a pattern that has been repeated so many times, in so many different eras and places, that it begins to seem almost a genetic trait”(pg, 22). The Hmong people are not trusting due to their history; this is a fact that professionals such as a psychologist should explain, working in conjunction with doctors and the parents. Explaining to the parents, what would happen to their child if they failed to treat her and telling that they have the right capacity to help their

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