November 23, 2002

Malaysian students in our Graduate Diploma

This week we began the Six Day workshop module of the Graduate Diploma in Childbirth Education. This program runs from a Wednesday to a Wednesday with the weekend free (rest and recuperation!) and comes at the end of the first year of the Course.

The group is small this year (a number of students did not complete the required study units in time) but is a varied and interesting bunch. There are two students from Malaysia and others from interstate. Because the number of our students was small we were able to open up the program to others who just want an intensive workshop without the added study required for a qualification and this has brought us participants from Western Australia and Tasmania.

Having participants from a completely different culture (Malaysia) has put everyone on their toes. The way Australian interacts, share ideas, speak all the time (!) and generally get stuck into group work has been a real eye-opener for them, as this is a complete contrast to their way of learning. In Malaysia, as they explained, it is most normal for the teacher to do the talking, the group to listen politely and answer with a single short sentence when asked. They would not normally add further thoughts or share in a conversational way between members of the group. If the teacher doesn’t “teach” then they are considered a “bad” role model.

We discussed some of these differences on the first day of the program because I wanted to make sure they felt comfortable and knew that we understood they had a different way of relating to the group. The contrast by day three has been remarkable - they are chipping in, adding comments and generally getting involved just like everyone else and they are obviously enjoying this different way of doing things. Give women a chance to talk, no matter where they are from, and they will be hard to stop!

This weekend they are out observing Birth Centres and prenatal classes run by an independent educator in a hospital setting - more learning opportunities! The whole concept of “active birth” is unknown in Malaysia and they are keen to learn as much as they can while they are here. There are still some home births in rural areas of their country (supervised by traditional birth attendants) but birth in the hospitals is very regimented with the doctor in complete charge. Concepts of informed choice, consumerism and options for birth care are very foreign notions and are a long way off in Malaysia. They were asked if they thought these ideas may surface in time, and they felt that they might, because of the growing worldliness of the population and the fact that many young people have a foreign education and have travelled.

It takes a long time to overcome entrenched attitudes and beliefs (as we know from efforts in Australia to change the birth culture) however change is inevitable, even if slow. I hope they enjoy their visits to our hospitals this weekend and I am looking forward to hearing of their adventures when the group meets again on Monday morning.

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