Culture and Health

Culture and Health

by Dewi Erita

Good morning,

Have you ever heard if single women should not eat pineapple?

Have you ever heard if women in her period should not eat ice because her menstrual blood will not flow smoothly?

Have you ever heard if pregnant women want a certain food (cravings), the husband should provides that food, or their baby will salivate excessively?

Today, I am going to talk about culture and health. Culture is usually defined as a set of beliefs and behaviors that are learned and shared. Why should we discuss about culture? Because culture relates to people’s health behavior (Skolnik, 2012). My aim is to explain advantages and disadvantages related to culture and health.

Culture is essential determinant of health (Skolnik, 2012). There are many cultures which good for health. Firstly, it is allowed for mothers to spend time with her baby after giving birth. Bonding is essential for a baby. In contrast, nowadays there is several place that put newborn baby in separate room although the baby’s condition is normal. Secondly, male circumcision is a must for religion reason. There is evidence that circumcision has health benefit. It reduces the transmission of HIV/AIDS. Thirdly, monogamy in marriage has lower rates of HIV/AIDS than cultures in which having multiple sexual partner. Monogamy is harm reduction effort. One of the reason HIV/AIDS spreading quickly is because certain people have sexual intercourse with many partners espescially with prostitute .

In contrast, other traditional practice are not health promoting. Firstly, feeding sugar water to infant is not good for health. Older people usually thought that breastmilk is not enough. Infant should be exclusively breastfeed for 6 months because breastmilk is best food for newborn baby. Secondly, there are some food that pregnant women should avoid. It is believe that eating fish and egg will take longer time for laceration wound to be cured. As we know, fish and egg are protein sources and those are good for baby. Thirdly, there is wrong perception of illness. For example, if babies have diarrhea, it is sign for baby to become smart. As we know, diarrhea is because of infections or food allergies. Other beliefs are single women should not eat pineapple because they will get leukorea (the local term is “becek”); women in menstrual period should not eat ice because the menstrual blood will freeze; and husband should provide certain food or the baby will salivate excessively. Those beliefs are myth.

To sum up, there are many cultures that related with health. So, we have to learn for knowing the right thing for our health because some cultural values enhance health and some may not enhance health.

Thank you

Depok, August 12^th 2017

References

Skolnik, R., 2012. Global Health 101. Jones & Bartlett Learning, Canada.

(This draft has been presented in EAP Class on August 12^th 2017)