Healthcare in Cambodia

New Questions

More than anything, my research on health care in Cambodia just opened up more questions for me.

I set out with a list of questions I wanted answered. Some of them I found answers to; some of them I didn’t.

Newborn and mother.

Originally, I wanted to find out the average number of births per Cambodian woman, the cost and availability of pre-natal care and the ratio of female to male healthcare workers in Cambodia.

What I found out was so much more valuable. I envisioned my research taking one path, but it took another and I am glad it did.

My entire experience with the American health care system has been documented, sanitized and monitored. We surround our personal health with such privacy, almost as if it were sacred.

In America, personal health carries a host of emotions: fear, dread, sadness, relief, joy. Not so in Cambodia.

It was not acceptable for a six-year-old girl to cry as her wound was cleaned no matter how much pain she may have been in. A new mother did not smile upon seeing her child for the first time.

Privileged Emotions

The author in Cambodia.

My research led me to consider emotions in a new way, less as natural impulses and more as privileges. By allowing ourselves to feel emotions, we are indulging ourselves. It is a luxury not everyone can afford.

Americans can afford to be egocentric. We expect a certain level of comfort in our hospitals. People here, I imagine, do not. It’s a cultural necessity.

COMMUNITY CONNECTION:

Are you a student interested in traveling to Cambodia? Check out the Where There Be Dragons summer program Cambodia: Studies in Development and Peace.