Instructor and Class,
Members of the Amish society are known for their unique traditions and preferences in terms of managing their household (Ray, 2020). As times change and humans face new threats and potential concerns, it is important to provide the Amish families with health education about potential risks and ways to avoid complications and unwanted occurrences. The areas of prenatal care I would want to discuss with Mary include dietary preferences and recommendations, cooking regimen to avoid infections with food, and recommended physical activity and workloads limits to avoid any complications.
To discuss perinatal care with Mary in a way that is culturally congruent, a number of aspects of the Amish societal norms need to be addressed. First of all, it is of importance to know that the Amish people are focused on the family values, they have very serious attitude to growing and teaching their children, and they have a practice of supporting family members at times of distress and hardships (Anderson & Potts, 2020).
It is also important to consider here that although the family we are working with is not a traditional one, but they are also humans and have similar feelings and concerns. Particularly, the birth of an immature infant who requires intensive hospital care and may have chronic, sometimes disabling physical problems can produce tremendous stress on the family (Andrews & Boyle, 2019). The bonding between mother and baby often is disrupted, and a great deal of anxiety is produced by the infant’s critical condition. These factors can also have a negative effect on later parenting behavior and on the interaction between the parents and the child. For this reason, Mary will need support and empowerment to understand that despite possible limitations, she needs to support her newborn baby to help cope during the period of rehabilitation and health improvement. At this point, the Amish values and focus on faith in Gods ability to support people during the times of difficulties will help to strengthen and motivate Mary (Anderson & Potts, 2020).
When preparing prenatal educational classes with the Amish families, it is important to understand their values and beliefs about family life and role of families in society. Being the typical example of mechanical solidarity, the Amish society is characterized by the high degree of solidarity and low degree of labor division. The main agents of socialization in the Amish society are the family, the neighbors, religious leaders and fellow-believers, and community leaders (Anderson & Potts, 2020). All the above-mentioned agents shape common conscience of the Amish society. As a result, people in this society are closely knit together by the common way of thinking and common sentiments. Their collective conscience is maintained by the use of repressive law, which establishes moral boundaries (Andrews & Boyle, 2019).
In the Amish culture, they always work and they always place an emphasis on humility in work and a feeling of being blessed through the opportunity to work (Anderson & Potts, 2020). With regards to the above, the Amish families will need help to understand how husbands can support wives during the first special months of growing the newborn baby. Fathers need to assist their spouses with caring about the baby to help cope with the most complicated tasks and being tired and depressed due to all the responsibilities and limitations related to giving birth prematurely.
References
Anderson, C., & Potts, L. (2020). The Amish health culture and culturally sensitive health services: An exhaustive narrative review. Social Science & Medicine, 113466. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2020.113466
Andrews, M. M., & Boyle, J. S. (2019). Transcultural concepts in nursing care (7th ed.). Wolters Kluwer.
Ray, M. A. (2020). Transcultural caring dynamics in nursing and health care. Davis.
