Challenge of Migrant Motherhood: The Childrearing Practices of Chinese First-Time Mothers in Australia, The

Type: eChapter
Book Title:	Asian Mothers, Western Birth
Chapter:	9
This education is:	eligible for CPD

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Chapter 9: The Challenge of Migrant Motherhood: The Childrearing Practices of Chinese first-time Mothers in Australia

Overview

This chapter is about the experiences of 20 (21 including myself) Chinese migrant women who became mothers for the first time in their adopted country — Australia. It examines their active adaptation when confronted with the demands of a double transition: becoming a mother for the first time and being in the process of settling down as a migrant. It also attempts to study factors perceived by these women to be affecting their attitudes and childrearing practices during the first two years after giving birth. But it all began with my own story. I would not have embarked on such a study if I, a migrant mother myself, had not reacted so strongly to the experience of becoming a new mother in a new land.

The death of my father only six months after our arrival in Australia, made me realise how difficult it was for an old man of nearly 80 years of age to adjust and adapt to a totally new environment. I was deeply saddened by the loss of someone with whom I had become so close after the death of my mother just five years before. At the same time, I knew that I could not prolong the mourning, because I was already six months pregnant. It was that one morning when the buds of our almond trees blossomed into beautiful white flowers that I could feel the gloom of winter fleeing and the hope of spring coming in to fill my heart. I got on my feet and began to prepare frantically for the birth of my first child. With no close relatives and no close friends around, I read book after book on the subject of child care so as to prepare myself for a role which was still a mystery to me.

Our son's arrival brought great joy to me and my family. For me at the age of 37 to have a healthy son by natural birth was, I felt, no less than a miracle. For the first two weeks after delivery I felt secure and relaxed. Who wouldn't be? I had my own private room in the hospital and I was served by a team of competent and friendly staff. Moreover, I had meals of my choice three time a day delivered to my room. There was really nothing for me to worry about. Throughout this time, I put my trust entirely in the nurses to guide me in the intricacies of mothercraft skills. The nurses must have been very pleased with the way I followed their instructions. I scheduled each feed at an interval of four hours and even kept a written record of the time and duration for each feed as well as which breast I last used to feed the baby. Other than feeding, I wrapped the baby, folded the nappies, bathed the baby in exactly the way the nurses demonstrated to me. What I tried to do was to make sure that nothing would go wrong when I had to leave the hospital and go home. I was indeed pampered. Little did I realise that life, once back at home with a newborn baby, was to be an entirely different story.

I was shocked when I arrived home to see my house in such a horrible state. Obviously my husband had neglected it. Who could blame him? He had to work and had to visit his wife in hospital every day. I really did not know what to do. I looked at the helpless creature in my arm and I felt helpless too. The first thought that came to my mind was that I needed to be mothered instead of having to mother this little baby. The next thought was to search for something familiar and useful in the history of my existence which could lend me the support that I desperately needed.

Unfortunately, there was nothing much for me to bank on. I had been a career woman for 15 years before I got married and had never touched a baby in my life. Here I was, still in the process of adapting to married life with two grown-up stepchildren in a new environment, having to face the additional task of helping another human being's entry into the world. For a moment, I did not really feel that I could survive (Liem, 1991).

The above excerpt based on my own experience perhaps helps to illustrate what many leading experts have to say about the complexity of being a new mother and being a migrant at the same time.

Speaker/ Author

IRENE I LING LIEM
Irene was born in Hong Kong and was a social work lecturer in her home country prior to her immigration to Australia in 1984. She is married with two children. She completed her Master of Social Work at The University of Melbourne in 1992 and is currently the Honorary Secretary of Transcultural Life Enrichment Centre Inc. in Melbourne. Her research interests are in the area of parenting in a bicultural environment.

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