Help Please

[szccdw]

My instructor assigned us this past Friday a 2 page presentation to give to the class on this Tuesday. We are to take a specific cultural/ethnic group that she has assigned to us (Mine being the African American culture) and talk about the taboos or folk beliefs they have about childbearing and parenting to the class. I am African American and before we left class Friday I talked to her about some things I knew about and she said they were all wrong. She told me that some of the things WE like to do are eat dirt and have a voodoo priestess come to our home after the birth of the baby and bless it (WHAT!!!). I have been online to all types of websites and can not find ANY info on African American taboos in relation to chilbearing and parenting (I've found every other culture/ethnic group though). I've tried google, yahoo, archives for several nursing journals, the CDC, the minority health institute, I've gone to two local universities and researched what they had, etc..... If any body can help me out please, I'm at a point of frustration. Thanks (I'll still be searching in the mean time). Kudoos

[NRSKarenRN, BSN, RN]

Think your instructer is mixing up African American and some Haitain cultures....will look for you.

http://ethnomed.org/ethnomed/clin_topics/biblio/genbib.html

Cultural Perspectives in Childbearing

Pat Bowers, RNC, MS

http://nsweb.nursingspectrum.com/ce/ce263.htm

Cultural Perspectives in Childbearing

International Journal of Childbirth Education

http://www.icea.org/journals.htm

negative stereotypes of Black women followed African-American out of slavery and into the 20th century

http://www.socqrl.niu.edu/forest/WeekFive454.htm

Issues in Cultural Competency Bibliographic References

http://www.culturalhealing.com/resources.htm

Cross-Cultural Issues During

Pregnancy and Lactation: Implications

for Assessment and Counseling

http://www.epi.umn.edu/let/files/NMPA_173-180.pdf

childbearing + African American woman

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=+childbearing+%2B+African+American+woman

Go to school library and ask librarian for help too.

[szccdw]

I did call our school library saturday and get a password so that I could access any journals or weblinks that may be useful but didn't have any success with them either. Thanks for the assistance you given me. You don't know how frustrating this is.

[NRSKarenRN, BSN, RN]

Somtimes it's just learning how to search and chosing different words:

I tried first:

childbearing and parenting + African American stereotypes + nursing

Then

childbearing and parenting + African American Woman

Transcultural Nursing +childbearing

[szccdw]

yeah I've tried SEVERAL:

folk medicine and the african american family

taboos and the african american family

how do african american women view childbirth and parenting

cultural diversity and the african american community

....and the list goes on and on

all the stuff I've seen on the web is the same exact stuff in our maternal child and health book and she said she wants to see something different. i haven't found anything different from out book on the web so tomorrow i am going to talk to her and let her know about ALL the various sites I've been to and how it all said the same things as the book. If i can't find what she wants I don't feel like I should be penalized for it. I have been to SO MANY website this weekend it's ridiculous. I had already been to several that you sent (thanks for all your help by the way). As an African American woman myself I don't agree with what's even in our book. The stuff it is talking about are things you tend to see done in the DEEP south, say Lousiana. I don't know ANYONE who's had a voodoo priestess come to the house after having a baby or that eating liver is thought to cause heavier lady partsl bleeding because of its high blood content. She only gave us the weekend to get this done. If I had more time I would try to order some books on cultural diversity and nursing. What's a girl to do. :)

[BMS4]

So let me get this, you are an African-American Woman and you are WRONG!?! What's up with that!

*shaking head*

[szccdw]

Exactly what i said!!!

[purplemania, BSN, RN]

If you have to search that deep sounds like the book has not kept up with the times. Cultures DO CHANGE. How ironic that she would not take your word when you are part of that culture. That is how stereotypes are perpetuated, yet the purpose of her assignment was to identify bias and encourage diversity. Yet she insists on maintaining that attitude! People are funny, huh?

[lucianne]

I don't know if it's too late or not, but there's a great book called "I'm Chocolate, You're Vanilla" that has a couple of chapters on African American families and beliefs about corporal punishment. I think the author's name is Margaret Wright. I get into this topic about every six months or so with my parenting teens.

Your instructor sounds ignorant and insulting. The African American mothers I know would no more have a voodoo priestess in their homes after a birth than a Jewish family would invite the Pope in to perform a bris.

luci

[renerian, BSN, RN]

I had several african americans on the sickle cell unit I worked on and they did eat dirt, powder and talked about the other tradition you described.

renerian

[Audreyfay]

I don't know if it would work, But how about interviewing several of the African Americans you know. Perhaps you might be surprised?

[traumaRUs, MSN, APRN]

I'm in a community health nursing class now for my MSN and our instructor brought up (and we agreed) that sometimes the healthcare worker skews things a certain way. I think that's what your instructor has done.