Healthcare in Japan

[SteelBlue]

My brother and his wife moved to Kobe this past summer and will be there for 3 years. She was pregnant when they moved and she really wanted to have the baby in Japan (she's from Kobe). She had it last night and in the email my brother sent he mentioned that she is required to stay in the hospital for a week for rest and recuperation. That's amazing to me. We've had four children and have been booted out the next day all four times.

[myboynoah]

Awesome. We had our youngest in Japan (Tokyo). Yes, they did "require" my wife to stay for a week, but she got so bored that she came home after two days. Some other fun things:

-- All the women in the maternity ward nursed their babies at the same time (about every three hours) and had to trek over to the nursery versus having the babies brought to them. My wife said it was a bit eerie to see this procession of half-awake Japanese women at 3:00 am.

-- None of the staff spoke very good english so they pretty much left her alone between feedings. The only visitor other than me was an old Irish Catholic Father who wore one of those brown robes.

-- The hospital was an old Catholic hospital which looked like it hadn't been upgraded since the war, complete with a birthing room with that funky old-fashioned birthing chair. No well appointed private birthing room with cable TV (which made it hard on me). I didn't understand this since other hospitals in Japan were fairly modern.

-- When we pulled up at 2:00 am, the only person at the front desk was a know-nothing security guard. I had to go find a wheel chair for my wife on my own and then leave her in the front lobby while I parked the car (the guard said I couldn't leave it out front).

-- Japanese men don't attend births, so they made a special exception for me. My Japanese counterparts sat outside the ward door smoking cigarettes, just like on I Love Lucy. They could hear their wives screaming inside, as could we.

-- It seems like every Japanese baby is born with a full head of boofy hair. Made it easy to find our pale and bald little boy.

-- Being born in Japan does not make one Japanese. I don't know the details, but I think one must show Japanese lineage dating back a few generations.

-- Caucacian babies are celebrities on the Japanese street.

[Clark Addison]

My wife starts going stir crazy after about 24 hours and gets home ASAP. No way would she stay for a whole week.

[SteelBlue]

Originally Posted by myboynoah

-- Japanese men don't attend births, so they made a special exception for me. My Japanese counterparts sat outside the ward door smoking cigarettes, just like on I Love Lucy. They could hear their wives screaming inside, as could we.

My brother was working on getting that same exception. He didn't mention in his email whether they let him in or not, but judging by the pictures I'm thinking he was.

Another different thing they did over there was to hospitalize her when they felt she had gained too much weight toward the end of the pregnancy. I can't imagine that'd go over real well in the states.