Chapter one

Foua delivered each child with her own hands, without a birth attendant, keeping silent to avoid thwarting the birth with noise. She then washed each baby with water she had carried from the stream. Her husband helped by bringing her hot water to drink if she needed it, cutting the umbilical cord, and tying it with string. He also buried the placenta, under the bed if the baby was a girl and near the base of the central pillar of the house if it were a boy. The Hmong believe that a person's soul travels back from place to place until it reaches the placenta, which it must put on like a jacket in order to continue its journey to the place where it reunites with its ancestors and will someday be reborn. Without the placenta, the soul is condemned to wander for all time.