While browsing the posts in a student midwife group on Facebook I came across a recommendation from a fellow student midwife to newly accepted student midwife at Bastyr University. She wrote:
"Hello everyone! I am new to the group and so excited to be here. I'm starting Bastyr's midwifery program this fall. I'm wondering if anyone has any summer reading recommendations. What have been the most helpful books and resources in your midwifery education? Thanks!" The first comment began, "If you haven't read "The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down," that's one book you can get out of the way this summer." I had never heard of the book before and the title intrigued me. I have had very little time for reading for pleasure while in school but I have taken a great liking to listening to audiobooks while driving many hours (up to 8 hours of driving a week not including births) to my clinical site. I decided to find the book and see if I could get it in audio format. I am so grateful I did! I subscribe to the Audible membership and I was able to find a downloadable version of the book for my iPhone. I began listening to the book the next day while driving to clinic. I was captivated by the very first chapter Birth. The perfect bait for a midwife! The book had turned out to be my favorite since beginning midwifery training. It will likely remain at the top of my list for a very long time. The publisher provides the following introduction to the book: "The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down explores the clash between a small county hospital in California and a refugee family from Laos over the care of Lia Lee, a Hmong child diagnosed with severe epilepsy. Lia's parents and her doctors both wanted what was best for Lia, but the lack of understanding between them led to tragedy. Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Nonfiction, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Current Interest, and the Salon Book Award, Anne Fadiman's compassionate account of this cultural impasse is literary journalism at its finest." The website Good Reads summarizes the book as: 'Lia Lee was born in 1981 to a family of recent Hmong immigrants, and soon developed symptoms of epilepsy. By 1988 she was living at home but was brain dead after a tragic cycle of misunderstanding, over-medication, and culture clash: "What the doctors viewed as clinical efficiency the Hmong viewed as frosty arrogance." The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down is a tragedy of Shakespearean dimensions, written with the deepest of human feeling. Sherwin Nuland said of the account, "There are no villains in Fadiman's tale, just as there are no heroes. People are presented as she saw them, in their humility and their frailty--and their nobility."' I think what beckoned me in the story most was the tale of the mother. Her harrowing fight to protect her child and understand the doctor's recommendations and finally to care for her beloved daughter is nothing less than heroic. The weaving of the tale from the point of view of the family and the doctors as well as many other "experts" gives the story a complete picture that I wish we had in all case studies encountered in the media. Often the newsflash that a family is heartbroken with an outcome and the midwife is to blame but rarely is the full story ever shared because of privacy concerns. Ms. Fadiman does an exquisite job of investigating and documenting the story from every conceivable angle. In the end you can neither find fault with the parents, nor the doctors and the only sadness I feel in laying any blame is on society at large for the misunderstanding that exist to this day when it comes to cultural communication. I hope to be an ally in the world for the refugees among us. My review on Audible. My review on Good Reads.
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Why MusingsThe page I have called Musings is a blog of sorts. I invite you to read my Home page to learn the reasons I had for creating this ePortfolio and how it all started. In it you will find that this ePortfolio began as a learning tool for future students at the Midwives College of Utah. The ePortfolio will become a requirement beginning in the Fall 2016 semester. I also recommend it for former students still finishing their studies and looking for a way to develop their future practice's website, share with potential clients or potential preceptors, and as a very in depth resume of sorts. I invite you to read my musings during the creation of this ePortfolio in the hope that it may strengthen your devotion to your studies, build your determination to answer your call, and be encouraged by the sharing of my musings as I complete this task. Archives
October 2016
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