Full Description
This collection examines enduring and topical questions in sexual and reproductive health in a range of contemporary Asian cultures. Beliefs and practices surrounding conception, pregnancy, birth, and confinement are studies in culturally specific contexts in Japan, Taiwan, the Philippines, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, and Indonesia. Important and widely applicable health issues are also addressed, including the perception and management of HIV/AIDS, experiences of menopause and the interaction of cosmopolitan ("western'') medicine with traditional healthcare.
Contents
Introduction; I: Birth and Its Inflections; 1: Japanese Women's Views on Having Children: The Concepts of Sazu-Karu and Tsuku-Ru; 2: Of Blood and Foetuses: Female Fertility and Women's Reproductive Health in a North Balinese Village; 3: Health Beliefs and the Use of Antenatal Care Among Pregnant Women in Southern Thailand; 4: Use of Health Services by Filipino Women During Childbearing Episodes; II: From Her Womb ....; 5: Journey to the Land of Light: Birth Among Hmong Women; 6: A Baby is Born in Site 2 Camp: Pregnancy, Birth and Confinement Among Cambodian Refugee Women; 7: Healers and Modern Health Services: Antenatal, Birthing and Postpartum Care in Rural East Lombok, Indonesia; 8: Women as Good Citizens: Maternal and Child Health in a Sasak Village; 9: Tso Yueh-Tzu (Sitting the Month) in Contemporary Taiwan; III: The Workings of the Body: Issues of Sexual Health; 10: White Blood and Falling Wombs: Ethnogynaecology in Northeast Thailand; 11: "No Problem": Reproductive Tract Infections in Indonesia; 12: Blood Beliefs in a Transitional Culture of Northeastern Thailand; 13: Only When I Have Borne all my Children!: The Menopause in Hmong Women; 14: "Vectors" and "Protectors": Women and HIV/AIDS in the Lao People's Democratic Republic
