“Three Generations of Native American Women’s Birth Experience”

Jessica Schwendeman
WST 3015 – Perez
February 10, 2010
Discussion Leading Abstract

“Three Generations of Native American Women’s Birth Experience”
Joy Harjo, 1991

This reading from “Women’s Lives: Multicultural Perspectives” describes three generations of birth to a Cherokee family. The narrator details several birth experiences – her mother’s, her daughter’s, and two of her own experiences. Each one is different, though similar in the ancient ways that all births have been tied together since the dawn of humanity.
The first experience is of the first time that she gave birth – as a poor Native American woman, she describes the feelings of alienation from the cold doctors and nurses who touch her as if they are “moving equipment” (Harjo 240) and the sterile environment of her surroundings in the government hospital, “built because of the U.S. government’s treaty and responsibility to provided health care to Indian people” (Harjo 240). This distinction is clear to the narrator, who feels as though the people who are treating her feel sorry for her people and look upon her with a mixture of disgust and pity – she is left humiliated and alone to live through this momentous event in her life that will change all that comes after it. Additionally, she feels shame to be part of her race and culture, and is told in no uncertain terms that her opinions and thoughts don’t matter, the hospital is in complete control of all decisions that are to be made, and she isn’t even consulted.
Even so, she experiences a wealth of positive feelings during the birth, including wonder and a “yearning” to see and be near “the child she had suffered for” (Harjo 240). Eventually she leaves the hospital, scarred from the “rape by the bureaucracy’s machinery” yet still “proud of what her body had accomplished” (Harjo 240).
This birth experience contrasts with her mother’s birth, who was born at home with no medical care or assistance, and of the narrator’s own birth, which is described as nearly fatal for both the narrator and her mother. This is different still from the narrator’s second birth to her daughter, which is slightly better in some ways but still not perfect, as she still experiences fear and discrimination from the hospital staff, who feel that she is unable to care for her own child as she is “Indian and poor” (Harjo 241). Even so, in this experience, at least she is not alone, and is able to enjoy nature through the window in the room where she gives birth. Additionally, the child, named Rainy Dawn, is presented to her tribe in a cultural experience that is very important to her family in their society.
Between this birth and the next in her life, she is able to become educated and works to achieve a better place in society for herself and her family. However, she worries that all she has worked for will be in vain when her daughter becomes pregnant in a similar situation – unmarried and poor. Though the prejudice still exists, and the family is forced into rejecting their strong intuitions about the natural process of childbirth, and manipulated into making unfortunate decisions by the hospital staff, ultimately the narrator feels as though she has come full circle in a positive way. She is able to be there for her daughter during this time, and to pass on her knowledge and experiences, honoring the past and looking to the future at the same time.

Works Cited
Harjo, Joy. "Three Generations of Native American Women's Birth Experience." Kirk, Gwyn and Margo Okazawa-Rey. Women's Lives: Multicultural Perspectives. Boston, MA: McGraw-Hill, 2010. 239 - 242.