After reading The Immigrant Advantage by Claudia Kolker, there were many customs that Americans simply did not do that could really benefit our way of life. The one that stood out to me the most is “How to Mother a Mother”, and this specific ritual is practiced by the Mexicans mostly in the rural state of Chiapas. This ritual is known as a cuarentena and is used to help insure the health of a newborn baby and its mother in the first 40 days following giving birth. What I sought out to find was to look into our culture today and see if non-immigrant American women were practicing something like it or knew about it and see how their experience went with it. Another one of my objectives was to find other factors that play major roles in postpartum depression (PPD), a condition that effects many new mothers every year and see how the cuarentena can prevent it. And my final objective was to, after collecting all my data, deduce the best possible variation of the cuarentena to fit typical everyday American lifestyles; and if not possible to do so, then steps to take to significantly reduce the chances of mothers suffering from PPD.
To elaborate more on what the cuarentena is, it’s an ancient practice that originated in rural Mexico and practided during the postpartum period. It emphasizes on the health of the mother and the new born child to make sure both survive. It was originally used to warn off disease and other possible threats. But what keeps the ritual going in the United States and variations of it in other cultures is that it defends against postpartum depression. A condition that effects thousands of new mothers every year, one that leads mothers to feel lonely, depressed, and even go as far as hating their newborn child. The guidelines that make up the cuarentena are as follows: it lasts 40 days, absolutely no sex, getting out of bed, and the mother’s closest friends and female relatives that she approves will be there f...