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OBJECTIVES/METHODS: In a variety of health care settings, nurses are caring for childbearing women and their families from the Amish culture. Accommodations for the Amish can be provided while still giving quality health care for the delivery and care of babies. A person's deeply held cultural religious views can profoundly impact the childbirth experience. RESULTS/CONSLUSIONS: This article describes a case study of an Amish family who had to transfer their newborn daughter to a neonatal intensive care unit as well as a visit to an Amish Birthing Center. Health care professionals working with the Amish must recognize and respect the role that culture plays in the health care practices of this population.
KEY WORDS: Amish heritage; Amish mutual networks; family roles; genetics; prenatal care, birthing center; and home remedies
The United States is truly a multicultural society with nurses caring for more and more childbearing women and their families from culturally diverse backgrounds. With pregnancy and childbirth being cultural, social, and physiologic experiences, any approach to culturally competent nursing care must be responsive to the particular needs of our culturally diverse patients.
CASE STUDY
The religious and cultural beliefs of the Amish culture have led to variations in health care practices that are different from main stream American culture. The Amish have a health care belief system that includes traditional remedies passed from one generation to the next. An opportunity to observe, care for, and learn about the Amish culture and life styles of this population occurred quickly one evening when our neonatal ICU received a transfer of a 24 hour old, 36 week gestation, 8 pound, six ounce female infant. This infant was delivered to a Gravida 14, para 13, 34 year old Amish mother who delivered at home and, because of birth asphyxia, the infant was taken to a nearby emergency room by a neighbor of the family who had a car. The family did not carry any health insurance and were concerned about paying the doctor and hospital bills associated with this baby's admission to the neonatal ICU. The biological and extended family visited frequently and brought in their own food in bags. The grandmother and neighbor would gather the children all around to eat in the waiting room while the...