ABSTRACT

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.

chapter |18 pages

Introduction

ByPranee Liamputtong Rice, Lenore Manderson

part I|81 pages

Birth and Its Inflections

part II|104 pages

From Her Womb ....

chapter 5|21 pages

Journey to the Land of Light: Birth Among Hmong Women

ByPatricia V. Symonds

chapter 6|19 pages

A Baby is Born in Site 2 Camp: Pregnancy, Birth and Confinement Among Cambodian Refugee Women

ByKimberley Townsend, Pranee Liamputtong Rice

chapter 8|21 pages

Women as "Good Citizens": Maternal and Child Health in a Sasak Village

ByCynthia L. Hunter

chapter 9|14 pages

Tso Yueh-Tzu (Sitting the Month) in Contemporary Taiwan

ByCordia Chu

part III|95 pages

The Workings of the Body: Issues of Sexual Health

chapter 10|19 pages

White Blood and Falling Wombs: Ethnogynaecology in Northeast Thailand

ByAndrea Whittaker

chapter 11|20 pages

“No Problem”: Reproductive Tract Infections in Indonesia

ByValerie Hull, Ninuk Widyantoro, Tamara Fetters

chapter 12|13 pages

Blood Beliefs in a Transitional Culture of Northeastern Thailand

BySiriporn Chirawatkul

chapter 13|15 pages

Only When I Have Borne all my Children!: The Menopause in Hmong Women

ByPranee Liamputtong Rice