essay
Mexican, Mexican American, and Chicana childbirth
Twice a minority : Mexican American women • St. Louis, Missouri • Published In 1980 • Pages: 52-65
By: Kay, Margarita A..
AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
In this article Kay describes the Mexican American culture of childbirth, the beliefs and practices of which can be correlated with how many generations a woman is removed from Mexico. The author discusses the manner in which Mexican American women are returning to their grandmother's custom of giving birth at home, but with the selectivity as to the precise practices they want to adopt. New migrants from Mexico, however, tend to choose hospital births when they can afford them because of the specific obstetrical care they believe they will obtain there. Kay notes that the support of female relatives is particularly important and functional during the period of childbirth for Mexican American women. The adoption of home births seems to provide an important motivation for the return to the family of the various functions which have been relegated to scientific medical personnel but were never adequately provided because of lack of appreciation for the individual's psychological, cultural, and social correlates of biological health.
- SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
- Pharmaceuticals
- Hospitals and clinics
- Medical therapy
- Pregnancy
- Childbirth
- Postnatal care
- cultureCulture name from the Outline of World Cultures (OWC)
- Chicanos
- HRAF PubDateThe date HRAF published the document
- 2002
- RegionThe area the document pertains to
- North America
- Sub RegionThe more specific area the document pertains to, which is located within the Region
- Regional, Ethnic and Diaspora Cultures
- Document TypeMay include journal articles, essays, collections of essays, monographs, or chapters/parts of monographs
- essay
- Evaluation
- Creator TypeThe type of person writing the document, e.g. Ethnographer, Missionary, Archaeologist, Folklorist, Linguist, Indigenous Person, and so on.
- Social Scientist
- Document Rating A ranking done by HRAF anthropologists based on the strength of the source material on a scale of 1 to 5, as follows: 1 - poor; 2 - fair; 3 - good, useful data, but not uniformly excellent; 4 - excellent secondary data; 5 - excellent primary data.
- 4: Excellent Secondary Data
- 5: Excellent Primary Data
- AnalystThe HRAF anthropologist who subject indexed the document and prepared other materials for the eHRAF culture/tradition collection
- John Beierle ; 2001
- Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document
- no date
- Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to
- not specified
- Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)
- southwestern United States
- NotesAdditional notes
- Margarita A. Kay
- Includes bibliographical references (p. 64-65)
- LCCNLibrary of Congress Control Number
- 80011177
- LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
- Mexican Americans