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WASHINGTON, May 11, 2002: Hospitals, and in particular maternity wards, have had to adapt to multicultural traditions and practices in an attempt to meet the needs of immigrant mothers in the last ten years. In the last decade half of all births in the U.S. have been to mothers born outside the country, compared to one in three births in 1990. At the Holy Cross Hospital, an Indian gentleman from Bombay brings his wife home-cooked curries because the elders of his family insist that a new mother eat certain grains and seeds. On the same ward, a nurse struggles with a Vietnamese grandmother who insists that she not place a cold pack on the new mother’s body to reduce swelling. In that culture the belief is that cold will disrupt a person’s equilibrium leading to bad health. To accommodate the culture of African countries, Holy Cross has ordered special biohazard containers so that patients can take the placenta home and bury it. Similar efforts to accommodate new mothers of different cultures are being put into place at Prince George’s Hospital Center in Cheverly. Women are allowed to give birth in a variety of positions as suggested by their traditional customs. More visitors are allowed in delivery rooms at Inova Fairfax Hospital in Falls Church. This is especially important to Latin American women who want their extended family nearby. Elita Rosillo-Christiansen, supervisor of multicultural initiatives at Inova, says, “Its extremely challenging, because you don’t just have to worry about meeting the language or religious needs of one culture, but of multiple cultures and multiple beliefs and values surrounding health care.” To meet the demand, hospitals have hired multicultural experts to run sensitivity workshops and to write internal guides to assist the medical staff in understanding how to relate to different traditions. Patti DiGiovanni, a nurse at Holy Cross, admits that there are challenges. However, she adds that the diversity has made her job more interesting and she has learned alot about other cultures even though she has not travelled outside the U.S.

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