Participate in Discussion Forum Number 1. Forum Number 1 asks the following questions:
Part 1: What do you think of the traditional Hmong birth practices (pages 3-5)? Compare them to the techniques used when Lia was born (page 7).
Part 2: Dr. Neil Ernst said, “I felt it was important for these Hmongs to understand that there were certain elements of medicine that we understood better than they did and that there were certain rules they had to follow with their kid’s lives. I wanted the word to get out in the community that if they deviated from that, it was not acceptable behavior” (page 79). Do you think the Hmong understood this message? What do you think of Neil and Peggy?
Participate in Discussion Forum Number 2. Forum Number 2 asks the following questions.
Part 1: How do you feel about the Lee’s refusal to give Lea her medication? Can you understand their motivation? Do you sympathize with it?
Part 2: In the preface, the author says that while she was working on this book, she often asked herself two questions: “What is a good doctor?” and “What is a good parent?” How do you think she might have answered her own questions. How would you answer them?
Part 3: The only American who fully won the Lee’s trust was Jeanine Hilt, their social worker. Why did Jeanine succeed where so many others had failed?
