PREVENTING LOW BIRTHWEIGHT: CULTURAL INFLUENCES ON MEXICAN IMMIGRANT AND MEXICAN-AMERICAN PRENATAL CARE. A COMMUNITY STUDY.
Contributors: University of California, San Francisco.
Published: 1996
Number of pages: 294
Subjects: Health Sciences, Nursing.; Health Sciences, Obstetrics and Gynecology.; Sociology, Ethnic and Racial Studies.; Health Sciences, Public Health.
Description: Ethnic minority women in the United States deliver more low birthweight (LBW) infants than women in the predominant white population. However, Mexican Americans appear exempt from this phenomenon. Additionally, immigrants from Mexico give birth to approximately half the number of LBW infants than do their U.S. born counterparts. It is possible that, through the process of acculturation, cultural factors that are protective to pregnancy are being lost.

An 18-month ethnographic study in Watsonville, California investigated the pregnancy experience in Mexican Americans. Data from participant observation, event analysis, historical records, vital statistics, and twenty-eight formal semi-structured interviews with mothers of Mexican cultural heritage were analyzed. The interviewees also completed the Acculturation Rating Scale for Mexican Americans (ARSMA).

The analysis suggests that Mexican American women over time selectively take on certain aspects of the Anglo lifestyle while maintaining many components of traditional Mexican culture. The resulting biculturalism appears stressful to pregnant women as they struggle to balance several highly valued roles. The mother role is highly valued in the Mexican American culture. However, women also valued the improved social services and career opportunities for women in the United States. During pregnancy, they adhered to a more traditional belief system of diet, activity, and stress reduction. The traditional cultural construct "no preoccupada (do not worry)" encouraged women to decrease psychological stress.

The presence of the Mexican American grandmother had a powerful stress-buffering effect in the lives of the women interviewed. Maternal grandmothers provided the most comprehensive social support during pregnancy, followed by other women in the family. Relationships with husbands and fathers-of-the-baby were seen as supportive only under certain conditions: absence of controlling behavior, comfort with gender role flexibility, and a high degree of affection. More acculturated women and those lacking maternal grandmother support struggled with stress control. Two women had LBW infants, one related to battering, and the other related to chronic hypertensive disease. Two women reported preterm labor related to work stress and worry, which resolved with medical intervention.

Santa Cruz County's social health policy promotes early and comprehensive prenatal care. All women valued formal prenatal care. Provider continuity and respectful interactions were strong indicators of satisfaction with prenatal care. These factors, combined with the healthy lifestyles and strong natural social support networks of traditional Mexican culture, appeared to influence the low rate of LBW in Watsonville.

Mexican cultural influence appeared to be strengthened by communality and ongoing contact with Mexico. However, evidence of classism between immigrants and U.S. born members of the community and state legislative efforts to prohibit social services to undocumented women may threaten the optimal perinatal outcomes in Watsonville.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 57-06, Section: B, page: 3656.

Thesis (PH.D.)--UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN FRANCISCO, 1996.

School code: 0034.