Its hard to believe I am already heading into my third week of clinical's here. I met a wonderful Navajo medicine woman who shared some traditional knowledge with me and also wrote a prayer for me to say each morning in Navajo. Per my request of course. This was actually one of the high lights of my week. As well as, attending a birth at which I got to see her provide labor support and prayers for a patient. I am still at the stage in my clinical training where I am gaining the trust of my preceptors and the nurses. This is always an uncomfortable stage for me, as that I have to share my past experiences with them and prove to them I am competent. It is even more worrisome when they know the program I am with is well known for "good" and "competent" students. Because, then they expect no less of me. I know it is how it has to be, but I am the type of person who likes to feel comfortable from the get go and feel like old friends, rather then to stumble around. However, I know the stumbling around part is in important step in my develop as well. Gotta stumble before I can stand...right?
Aside from some of the clinical and management skills I want to develop while I am here, I am trying to get a sense of what it means to be a Navajo woman. I mean, I know what kind of Navajo woman I am, but what does it mean to other Navajo women?....I am asking this question because it is interesting to see the role women play in each family and compare it to the role the elder women play in each family. There seems to be a shift in what the roles used to be to what they are now and also whether they are a "traditional" Navajo family or " non-traditional" Navajo family. I take this to be an interesting study of my own culture and what women's roles are in it. I have my own life to compare it to, but my up bringing was a mix of tradition and non-tradition. Further more, my experience with Navajo women in labor is limited. And let me tell you, the experiences I've had so far with them, is very different from the experiences I've had with other cultures. I find this interesting, because for one I am a Navajo woman, but yet I have little knowledge of how other Navajo women cope with the pains of labor, motherhood, and their overall new roles in their family. Again....this is stuff my mother never discussed with me. She went to the hospital one day and came home with her baby the next. She never talked about the pain of labor or how she coped with it, nor did she tell me about how her mother birthed her. Could this be the same experience other women have in my culture as well?
Obviously, I am seeking a deeper meaning to what it means to be a Navajo woman today and what it meant to be a Navajo women 20 or 30 years ago. I don't think I will get this answered in the short time I will be here, but I do look forward to spending some time with some of the elders to learn more about my cultural history. Its during this time I wish my grandmothers were still alive to share this knowledge with me. It is only through bits and pieces of other peoples stories am I able to put it together for myself.
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