Pregnancy and Childbirth Practices Among Immigrant Women from India: "Have a Healthy Baby"

The life history of the individual is first and foremost an accommodation to the patterns and standards traditionally handed down in his community. From the moment of his birth the customs into which he is born shape his experience and behavior (Benedict, 1934, pp. 2-3). US Indian migrants represent a highly educated group. Sixty-one percent hold a college degree. Sixty percent of all employed Indians in the U.S. work in professional or managerial fields (US Census Bureau, 2010). Indian immigrants (i.e., post-1965 Immigration and Naturalization Act migrants from the Indian subcontinent) originate from across the Indian subcontinent, rather than from a single region. They are less likely than European migrants to settle in ethnic enclaves, choosing instead to take up residence throughout urban and suburban areas. As reflected in the participants in this study, geographic dispersion stems largely from the generally high socioeconomic status of immigrants arriving in the 1960's and 1970's, many of whom came to the United States to pursue post-graduate education and/or professional opportunities in the fields of medicine, engineering, and science. Most of these immigrants chose to live alongside upwardly mobile colleagues in suburban areas, rather than in ethnic neighborhoods (Helweg, 2002). This paper describes and analyses a case study involving eight US immigrant women in a Midwestern state. Women who participated in this study were from different parts of India, but mostly from the South. The aim of the study was to explore US Indian women's perspectives and beliefs about pregnancy and childbearing, describe related practices, and consider the possible implications these may have on child development and health. Many women in India follow specific practices during their pregnancy, childbirth and postnatal period. These practices are largely based on their cultural beliefs, religion, customs and upbringing. These specific practices are important because of the deference to elders that is widely observed by Indian families and the value attached to orally disseminated knowledge by elders. It is well documented that the source of knowledge for many regarding healthcare is rooted in Ayurveda, the Indian system of medicine (Jain & Tiwari, 2012; Kala, 2006). It is also well known that traditional knowledge about the use of plants and herbs as food and medicine has been passed down orally (Katewa, Chaudhary, Jain, & Galav, 2003; Natarajan, Paulsen, & Korneliussen, 2000). Even those women who are distanced from their homeland continue to follow traditional practices and simultaneously use the medical model of care (Posmontier & Teitelbaum, 2009). Thus, it is important that practitioners value their life stories and narratives. Ayurvedic texts described and prescribed maternal practices and behaviors that aimed to promote the health of the mother and developing infant. As a corollary, they aimed to prevent birth of children with disabilities (Dhiman, Kumar, & Dhiman, 2010). Given that the detailed study of the human body and its healthy development can be traced to its hoary history in the Vedas, it is pertinent to ponder over the belief in and continuity of these practices. Such an endeavor is especially valuable for Indians living in their home country or abroad, and for medical practitioners across the globe because it is critical to develop a broader understanding of prevention measures utilized across cultures. Armed with such knowledge, medical practitioners as well as migrant Indian women can find ways to effectively integrate those practices. This is especially true given that women's post-migration acculturative experiences result in differential access to informal knowledge networks such as pregnancy and childbirth practices (Levitt & Waters, 2002; Pluss, 2005; Raj, 2003). As Levitt (2007) notes in her study of second-generation migrant acculturation, middle-class migrants employed in the professional sector "selectively assimilate elements of where they come from the where they settle" (p. …