Birth of 2nd Son in Japan 4/03

[Kansai Mama]

I woke up with contractions at midnight that were coming fast and furious. After sitting on the toilet for awhile, I managed to rouse DH who called a taxi. Within a few minutes, I was actually telling DH, "Let's get the he** out of here!" since the midwife clinic is very far away from our place. Contractions were 5 mins. apart in the taxi. Since it was nighttime and there was no traffic I found it very easy to simply flow with the contractions. Each time a contraction would come - I would close my eyes and push my palms into the seat as hard as I could. We arrived at the midwife clinic around 1:15 am and the baby was born just 28 minutes later. Basically, I told the midwife I wanted to go to the toilet. (The midwives didn't interfer in any way and basically allowed me to do my thing. They didn't even check to see how dialated I was!) My water broke on the toilet and then I felt a very strong urge to push. I got up from the toilet and I felt like my son's head was coming out. I reached down and yes, indeed his head was emerging. I remember grabbing on to Dh's shoulders and the baby slipping out red and beautiful into the midwife's hands - screaming his head off. It was truly amazing. My 2 and a half year old son was there for the entire thing and he was extremely calm. I feel very blessed and grateful.

[Quirky]

Omedetou gozaimasu!

Welcome to MDC, and thanks for posting your story! I'd love to hear more about childbirth in Japan....when I lived there ten years ago it wasn't high up on my list of interests.

[mom2tig99Nroo03]

sounds great! thanx 4 sharing

[Kansai Mama]

Birth in Japan

Birth in Japan varies a great deal depending on where you give birth. The options are big hospital with lots of rules, small hospital, small clinic with one doc that handles the births, or midwives. For both of my sons births, I chose to go to midwives. I had wonderful experiences both times. My first son was a water birth. The second time around everything happened so fast I couldn't even think about trying to get in the water.