Displaced Mothers: Birth and Resettlement, Gratitude and Complaint

Abstract

In narratives of displaced Karen women from Burma, both before and after resettlement in Australia, women framed their birthing experiences with those of persecution and displacement. Although grateful for the security of resettlement in Australia, social inclusion was negligible and women's birthing experiences occurred in that context. Women described the impact of the lack of interpreting services in Australian hospitals and an absence of personal and communal care that they expected. Frequently, this made straightforward births confusing or difficult, and exacerbated the distress of more complicated births. Differences in individual responses related to women's histories, with younger women displaying more preparedness to complain and identify discrimination. The problems identified with health care, coupled with the inability of many of the women to complain requires attention, not just within the health care system, but more widely as part of social attitudes concerning Australia's obligations to those who seek asylum.

How do ethnic minority patients experience the intercultural care encounter in hospitals? A systematic review of qualitative research

“…Furthermore, unknown financial organization of healthcare services, unknown hospital rules, organizational structures and subtle power relations between caregivers are easily misunderstood by ethnic minority patients [34, 35, 44, 49–51, 56, 70, 73]. It is remarkable that, in spite of the unknown character of the hospital, many ethnic minority patients express a wish to fit in and to be “normal” [43, 69, 72].…”

“…Periods of war and violence in the country of origin caused fear and traumatic memories for many migrant patients [47, 70]. Women in particular describe how these memories revive in their maternity care in the new country [47, 70].…”

“…Women in particular describe how these memories revive in their maternity care in the new country [47, 70]. They remember the death of beloved ones on the way to the hospital or in surgery due to a lack of transportation, hospital infrastructure and resources in the country of origin [40, 61, 70, 75].…”

“…Women in particular describe how these memories revive in their maternity care in the new country [47, 70]. They remember the death of beloved ones on the way to the hospital or in surgery due to a lack of transportation, hospital infrastructure and resources in the country of origin [40, 61, 70, 75]. In their own communities, migrant women share the knowledge that giving birth is a natural process which might last for hours and might be a balance between life and death [40, 42, 55, 60, 70, 71, 76].…”

“…They remember the death of beloved ones on the way to the hospital or in surgery due to a lack of transportation, hospital infrastructure and resources in the country of origin [40, 61, 70, 75]. In their own communities, migrant women share the knowledge that giving birth is a natural process which might last for hours and might be a balance between life and death [40, 42, 55, 60, 70, 71, 76]. This shared knowledge, previous experiences of natural or complicated deliveries in the country of origin, previous traumas as well as painful memories of their own circumcision might revive in present hospital care [38, 40, 47, 55, 56, 61, 69–71, 75].…”