The Journey of Becoming a Mother Among Women in Northern Thailand is the first book-length study of childbearing and motherhood in Thailand. Informed by both anthropology and women's studies, Pranee Liamputtong draws sharp distinctions between the practices of the East and those of the West. Covering virtually every aspect of childbirth and upbringing, this book also examines how women try to adapt to changes - social, economical, and political - that affect their motherhood and reproduction.This very personal and accessible book is an excellent intercultural study of women and health, useful to undergraduate as well as graduate students of Women's Studies, Public Health, and Anthropology.

Although reproduction including infertility, abortion, childbearing and motherhood is a significant human experience, its social meaning is shaped by the culture in which birthing women live. Reproduction and its management, therefore, occur within the social and cultural context of the event. As such, reproductive beliefs and practices differ across social and cultural settings. This book focuses on reproduction, childbearing and motherhood. In this volume, the authors show that despite the modernisation of the society and advanced medical technology and knowledge in reproduction, traditions continue to exert influence on how the women and their families manage their reproduction, childbearing and motherhood in their societies.

There are about 34 million people worldwide living with HIV/AIDS. Half are women. There has been a dramatic global increase in the rates of women living with HIV/AIDS. Among young women, especially in developing countries, infection rates are rapidly increasing. Many of these women are also mothers with young infants. When a woman is labeled as having HIV, she is treated with suspicion and her morality is being questioned. Previous research has suggested that women living with HIV/AIDS can be affected by delay in diagnosis, inferior access to health care services, internalized stigma and a poor utilization of health services. This makes it extremely difficult for women to take care of their own health needs. Women are also reluctant to disclose their HIV-positive status as they fear this may result in physical feelings of shame, social ostracism, violence, or expulsion from home. Women living with HIV/AIDS who are also mothers carry a particularly heavy burden of being HIV-infected. This unique book attempts to put together results from empirical research and focuses on issues relevant to women, motherhood and living with HIV/AIDS which have occurred to individual women in different parts of the globe. The book comprises chapters written by researchers who carry out their projects in different parts of the world, and each chapter contains empirical information based on real life situations. This can be used as evidence for health care providers to implement socially and culturally appropriate services to assist individuals and groups who are living with HIV/AIDS in many societies. The book is of interest to scholars and students in the domains of anthropology, sociology, social work, nursing, public health & medicine and health professionals who have a specific interest in issues concerning women who are mothers and living with HIV/AIDS from cross-cultural perspective.

Globally, postnatal depression (PND) is a growing public health problem. PND affects 10 to 15% of women in Western society. It caused by a combination of biological, psychological and social factors. Two models have attempted to define and explain PND; the biomedical and the sociological models. The traditional biomedical model views PND as a medical condition which implies there is individual pathology and abnormality. Whilst the biomedical model has been the dominant model in treating PND, it has been criticized by feminist sociologists and psychologists for its rigidity in defining and explaining PND. In contrast, the psychosocial model of health acknowledges the biological factors that impact on emotional well-being, but places more emphasis on the personal and social factors that impact on emotional well-being, but places more emphasis on the personal and social factors that contribute to depressive symptoms such as gender, poverty, social disadvantage and social class. The central argument throughout this book is the importance of support before and after the birth for women's emotional well-being. This book will also include women's journeys through pregnancy, childbirth, motherhood, postnatal depression, and resolution. To date, literature has focused on women's lived experiences of PND rather than their personal journeys through pregnancy, childbirth and early motherhood. Additionally, the adjustment to fatherhood has received less attention. For example, little is known about the impact of postnatal depression on the partner, what support partners offer when women with the intention to fill the gap in knowledge of cultural and social issues relating to pregnancy, childbirth, and motherhood for woman who were diagnosed with, and had resolved, PND.

It’s natural... It’s unsightly... It’s normal... It’s dangerous. To breastfeed or not? For millions of women around the world, this personal decision is influenced by numerous social, cultural, and health factors. Infant Feeding Practices is the first book to delve into these factors from a global perspective, revealing striking similarities and differences from country to country. Dispatches from Asia, Australia, Africa, the U.K., and the U.S. explore as wide a gamut of salient issues affecting feeding practices as traditional beliefs about colostrums, “breast is best” campaigns, partner attitudes, workplace culture, direct government intervention, and the pressure to be a “good mother.” Throughout these informative pages, women are seen balancing innovation and tradition to nurture healthy, thriving babies. A sampling of topics covered: • Policy versus practice in infant feeding. • Infant feeding in the age of AIDS. • Managing the lactating body: the view from the U.S. • Motherhood, work, and feeding. • The effects of migration on infant feeding. • From breastfeeding tradition to optimal breastfeeding practice. Infant Feeding Practices is a first-of-its-kind resource for researchers and practioners in maternal and child health, public health, global health, and cultural anthropology seeking empirical findings and culturally diverse information on this sensitive issue.

This highly anticipated third edition of the Handbook of Parenting brings together an array of field-leading experts who have worked in different ways toward understanding the many diverse aspects of parenting. Contributors to the Handbook look to the most recent research and thinking to shed light on topics every parent, professional, and policymaker wonders about. Parenting is a perennially "hot" topic. After all, everyone who has ever lived has been parented, and the vast majority of people become parents themselves. No wonder bookstores house shelves of "how-to" parenting books, and magazine racks in pharmacies and airports overflow with periodicals that feature parenting advice. However, almost none of these is evidence-based. The Handbook of Parenting is. Period. Each chapter has been written to be read and absorbed in a single sitting, and includes historical considerations of the topic, a discussion of central issues and theory, a review of classical and modern research, and forecasts of future directions of theory and research. Together, the five volumes in the Handbook cover Children and Parenting, the Biology and Ecology of Parenting, Being and Becoming a Parent, Social Conditions and Applied Parenting, and the Practice of Parenting. Volume 4, Social Conditions and Applied Parenting, describes socially defined groups of parents and social conditions that promote variation in parenting. The chapters in Part I, on Social and Cultural Conditions of Parenting, start with a relational developmental systems perspective on parenting and move to considerations of ethnic and minority parenting among Latino and Latin Americans, African Americans, Asians and Asian Americans, Indigenous parents, and immigrant parents. The section concludes with considerations of disabilities, employment, and poverty on parenting. Parents are ordinarily the most consistent and caring people in children’s lives. However, parenting does not always go right or well. Information, education, and support programs can remedy potential ills. The chapters in Part II, on Applied Issues in Parenting, begin with how parenting is measured and follow with examinations of maternal deprivation, attachment, and acceptance/rejection in parenting. Serious challenges to parenting—some common, such as stress and depression, and some less common, such as substance abuse, psychopathology, maltreatment, and incarceration—are addressed as are parenting interventions intended to redress these trials.

This book will explore the childbirth process through globally diverse perspectives in order to offer a broader context with which to think about birth. We will address multiple rituals and management models surrounding the labor and birth process from communities across the globe. Labor and birth are biocultural events that are managed in countless ways. We are particularly interested in the notion of power. Who controls the pregnancy and the birth? Is it the hospital, the doctor, or the in-laws, and in which cultures does the mother have the control? These decisions, regarding place of birth, position, who receives the baby and even how the mother may or may not behave during the actual delivery, are all part of the different ways that birth is conducted. One chapter of the book will be devoted to midwives and other birth attendants. There will also be chapters on the Evolution of Birth, on Women’s Birth Narratives, and on Child Spacing and Breastfeeding. This book will bring together global research conducted by professional anthropologists, midwives and doctors who work closely with the individuals from the cultures they are writing about, offering a unique perspective direct from the cultural group.