Vietnam's Challenge: Reducing Hmong Infant Mortality

For Vietnam's Hmong, childbirth is a sacred event dowered in Shamanistic ritual, creating challenges for the secular Vietnamese government that is trying to improve infant mortality rates in the country.

LOS ANGELES, CA. (Catholic Online) - As one of the larger ethnic minorities in Vietnam, the Hmong have integrated poorly into Vietnamese society. Supportive of the US during the Vietnam War, the Hmong have always been at the cultural fringes. Exacerbating the issue is the fact the Hmong do not speak Vietnamese, nor do the Vietnamese speak Hmong, and while the Vietnamese are embracing modern medical practices, the Hmong practice shamanism, and require the performance of rituals to ensure desired outcomes.

These differences are stark when it comes to childbirth. Living far from city centers and modern health care facilities, the Hmong often have their children at home, making emergency intervention virtually impossible. Ritual practices also add complexity to the problem.  When a child is born, the placenta is placed into a hole under the parent's bed and water is added for a month's time, after which the hole is filled. This is meant to ensure the good health of the child and it permits the individual to collect their placenta after death for the journey into the afterlife. Such practices are impossible for children born in modern hospital facilities, which means the mothers frequently stay home to give birth, a choice that can be more dangerous for both mother and child. 

Trust is also a problem for the Hmong. While the Hmong publicly voice support for the communist government and its institutions, most acknowledge the support is only lip service, designed to keep the peace.

Since the 1990's Vietnam's economy has improved with limited reforms that have eased restrictions on business. The influx of money has allowed the government to modernize its health-care facilities and train providers. Over the past 20 years, the mortality rates have improved dramatically. But for the Hmong, self-removed from the benefit of these new facilities, the mortality rates, particularly for newborns, is high.

New programs have been adopted to improve upon the situation. The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) has sought to address cultural barriers that are keeping infant mortality rates high among the Hmong. Specifically, women are trained by the UNFPA as midwives. The modern training is producing positive results as young, trained women are working to improve childbirth outcomes among their people. Sadly, not all UNFPA programs promote life.

The new program as well as the increasing modernization of the country is making modern healthcare and lifesaving treatment available to the Hmong peoples of Vietnam. It is hoped that trust can be rebuilt while cultural differences remain respected, and lives are saved.

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