Friday, September 27, 2019, the day I attended the childbirth seminar in my clinic. This was scheduled a week before, during my last prenatal check-up. It was scheduled for an hour and a half, from two o’clock to three-thirty in the afternoon.

I was the first one to arrive (about fifteen minutes before the time) at the clinic. It was held in the waiting area of the clinic. Upon arriving the nurse asked for my maternal and child handbook. The chairs were rearranged to form a U and a table and chair were set-up in front. There were single chairs and double chairs. I chose to sit on the double chair on the second line, right side of the room, so I could see whoever is conducting the seminar without anything blocking my sight.

Just a few minutes later, the waiting area was filled with very pregnant women like me. The bumpers paraded and settled on the chairs. Quiet and still.

This is very naturally Japanese. Nobody talks to anyone. We were just strangers (in one shape-bumpers) packed in one area to listen to something.

I could not help but compare them in my country where situations like this will surely give you an instant friend through random questions and conversations. Like “Hi! How are you? How many months along are you now?”, “Is it your first time?”, “Do you live close?” “Oh, my baby is so active, she kicks my bladder.”, “Oh, I’m so tired. It’s getting heavier each day.” Etc, etc.

But not in Japan. People respect and value each other’s space and privacy (sometimes too much they tend to be so cold). They don’t want to disturb and annoy anyone with random questions and comments.

So I sat there in my chair and minded my own business. I used that short waiting time to try to comprehend what was in the paper given to us. Everything, of course, was in Japanese and I had to use google translate and imiwa? applications to help me understand the written material in my hand. I encountered the word 陣痛 for the first time and found out it is read as jintsuu, which means ‘labor pains’. Another word, 破水 read as hasui, meaning ‘water breaking in pregnancy’. There was a lot of information in that paper it was too overwhelming.

At two o’clock, the doctor came and sat in the chair in front of everyone and started to speak in a very fast, difficult to understand (for me) Japanese. I was expecting him to greet us and let us introduce ourselves one by one and maybe tell how many weeks we were on ( like what I saw on Youtube how they conduct childbirth seminar). But nothing like that. The doctor went straight talking about the things he summarized in a small piece of paper. He was looking at it and obviously used it as a guide for his speech. I didn’t understand everything he said but I could figure out that he was talking about when to go to the hospital. I understood that he said if water breaking and bleeding occurs, go straight to the clinic. Don’t wait any longer. Also, if the labor pain occurs twice in ten minutes then go to the clinic. Other than that, it’s just a false labor. Stay at home and wait. Out of everything he said, I think I understood about less than fifty percent.

After the doctor, a nurse came in front and told us that we would all be going to the second floor and give us a tour of the clinic. We were given five minutes of toilet break before going up. During this break, another nurse gave each one of us a drink and a bag of “gift”.

Then, we headed to the elevator to take us to the second floor.

We had to be split into two groups.

The first room that was shown to us was the “beauty room“. I didn’t understand precisely what the nurse said about this room. I just followed the flock of bumpers.

In front of this room is the viewing room. I was imagining to see my baby in one of those bassinets.

And then we were guided to see the private room, they call it 病室 byoushitsu.

 

On the bed, things were laid. The nurse explained that those are things that will be given to us during our stay. It includes a robe, maternity pads, underwear, toiletries. I can’t remember everything. The nurse also showed the bathroom that we can use and that we get fresh towels every day. There is a small sofa, a TV, a phone, a water boiler and a small fridge inside the room. And most important, it has a WiFi connection. It was pretty good. I liked the sofa and the carpet in a deep red/maroon.

They also have a lounge we can use to have meals or waiting area for guests.

We were then taken to the delivery room.

Inside the delivery room, the nurse told us that during delivery, it is requested for the watcher to refrain from taking videos. Taking videos is allowed after the delivery of the child. This is to avoid distractions and also the nurse said no mother would want to record the pain and the struggle of delivering a baby. But deep inside me, I would love to record that very precious moment. I might not be able to experience it again. Might as well video record it. I don’t care how I look when in labor pain. Also, young children are not allowed to stay in the delivery room to avoid distractions as well. After giving birth, the mother can stay in the delivery room for two to four hours before moving to the private room. There were two delivery rooms in the clinic. The other one was smaller than the one in the picture.

We were then guided to the breastfeeding room. It was just a small room with chairs lined up on the sides of the room and a changing table filled with diapers and baby clothes under it. We can use them freely. There were also baby bottles we can use. I couldn’t take a picture of that small room since we were packed in there. No space to take a snap without photo-bombers.

And that was all for the tour on the second floor of the clinic.

We went back to the waiting area and another person came in front to talk. It was the nutritionist. She asked us to take out the pamphlet inside the gift bag and then she explained and showed us it’s content. It talks about the right food to eat, a balanced diet chart, fighting anemia, BMI and so on and so forth. The gift bag also contained a diaper, baby wipes and a very cute baby shoes.

That was the end of our seminar.

I left the clinic past three-thirty in the afternoon feeling excited for the delivery day.