First Time Patient in Japan
December 20, 2016
Before moving to
Japan I worked as a nurse. I was always a nurse and never a patient (other than
slicing my hand open as a kid and getting a few sutures). I knew it was going
to be a challenge but I really had no idea what to expect as a patient in
Japan. I was pretty nervous and like I explained in previous post, I was happy
to find out Japan was a great place to have a baby. I prepped as best I could
and looked high and low on the internet to find information on birth and what
it was like to be a patient in Japan. Thankfully, a lot of what I read rang
true to my experience. There were some pretty odd things but nothing that
caught me off guard completely.
I'm going to
start by saying that this is my own experience in one area of Japan in one
hospital. I'm not claiming that this is how health care is all over Japan, just
what it was like for me. Pre baby appointments were pretty similar to what I
had done in the US. I had vitals, urine, labs and baby heartbeat checks. One
thing I loved was that I got an ultrasound every time I went. This was different than the US. It was great
to see her and have that reassurance that she was OK in there. The language
barrier was definitely a challenge but thankfully there was a receptionist who
worked at one of the buildings that spoke English. We became friends and she
came over to every one of my appointments and made sure I knew what was going
on. My doctor spoke English but none of the other staff did. One thing that was
really different was the wait time at appointments. I would normally go around
10 and not leave till 1-2. It was all first come first serve and sometimes
the wait felt like forever. Thankfully I had nowhere to be and I’m sure I
needed to work on my patience.
As an inpatient
I seriously cannot say enough good things about my experience. The positives
way outweighed the negatives. A lot of what I experienced was not because I was
in a hospital but because I was in Japan.
Slippers are a big deal.
This sounds silly but it's not. It's Japanese culture to wear house shoes or slippers
indoors. This is not just for inside your house. It's also for buildings. And
there are different ones for the bathroom. You generally leave your shoes at
the door facing away from you and step up to a different surface. The hospital
I went to had cubbies filled with slippers. You take a pair and then put your
shoes in that spot. This sounds so simple right? Well after having a baby and
feeling like I lost all my brain cells in the process. I can't tell you how
many times I forgot to put my slippers on before walking out into the hall. Or
forgot to put on my bathroom slippers and take my other ones off. I ended up
sitting there looking down and realizing the bathroom ones where on the ground
next to my feet still in my outside slippers.
Food is SO important.
Meals were delivered three times a day and they were seriously good. Thankfully
I didn’t have an appetite just the first day because the pressure was on to eat
the entire tray. It was a lot of food and quite the challenge. Every time a
nurse came in one of her questions was if I ate my entire tray. Good nutrition
was talked about at every appointment as well as in a diet book I was given pre
baby. Examples of meals were on posters all over the clinic. Nutrition was
stressed as an essential part of healing. Overall I think I did OK with
complying with this, however Mama wanted her Starbucks and I did have a bag of
chocolate that sat by my bed because let's be real, hormones.
Visiting hours were very
limited. Family was allowed in from 2-8. That includes the father of the baby. I
talked to the staff before our admission and they were super accommodating and
flexible with this issue. Japan is still very traditional in the process of
birth with it being a time for the baby and the mom. The interpreter I had
explained that this thought process is changing a bit and I even got a book
about how important it was for husbands to be supportive and present. Sean
stayed with me and they kindly put us in a double room our first admission so
he had a bed. We really didn't have a problem during our stay, it didn’t even
come up. Sean came and went as he wanted so that was awesome. Very sweet of them
to bend the rules for us.
Medications for my entire
stay were given to me after having Lucy. This was shocking but awesome. I got a
little chart and a baggie of meds. I took them when I was supposed to and the
nurse trusted me to do so. It was so nice to go hours without having the hospital
staff needing to scan me and bring in meds. While I was in inpatient everything
was done in the morning at 9 and at night at 7. Sometimes I would go all day
without seeing anyone. I say this in a good way. I did have a call bell that I
used a couple times and nurses were eager to help in any way possible. We communicated
with an iPad and Google translate. It took some time but we never had a
situation that we couldn't figure out. Thankfully birth is universal.
Duration of stay is generally 5
days with a vaginal delivery and 7-10 with a C-section, depending on the mother
and baby. To be honest, at first this sounded awful to me. Thankfully I found
some blogs where woman explained that hospitals in Japan are generally not like
hospitals in the US when having a baby. I would have to agree. I had a quiet
private room where I could call for help at any time but had minimal interruptions,
amazing meals delivered to my bedside, and a scheduled massage was a pretty
great way to recover. Don't get me wrong, by day 5 I was ready to go home.
But overall I think it was a wonderful experience.
Baby stuff: OK so this was
the hard part for me. Being a new mom I had an idea of how I wanted things.
Supplementing with sugar water and formula is very common here. Especially
before a moms milk comes in (in the States I was taught that a baby trying to
nurse even with no milk yet would be what made a mom’s milk come in). So that
part confused me. They explained that it was important for the mom to sleep
heal and rest and the baby would prevent her from doing that if they were
nursing all the time. We agreed to disagree on this one. This was the only
thing that was kind of a bummer. It made me feel like I couldn't leave her in
the nursery. One time I did it was to
shower and that was even hard. Then I left her there when I went down to get my
last check before I left. When I came back she was crying and the nurse was getting
a sugar bottle ready. Both times Sean had needed to step out to get paper work
started for Lucy’s birth certificate and registration.
There was
also a uniform they wanted Lucy in. I had a bag of goodies for Lucy that I was
dying to put her in. After they checked her in the morning I would change her
into her own clothes. And then at night before bed I put the yellow back on so
she was in that for the morning check. It was silly I know but I didn't want to
make waves and be that foreigner that had to be different. There were some
silly things that didn't bother me like identifying her by writing my name on
her leg, even though she and I both had a band.
Baths are
a big deal culturally here. If you have never heard of public baths called onsen
I would take a minute to look them up. The bath was a bit of a process but Lucy
absolutely loved it and fell asleep she was so relaxed. The first day the nurse
demonstrated bathing and bathing safety and the second day she observed Sean
giving the bath to make sure we understood.
Overall
Lucy and I both had a great experience. When we left all the staff came out to
take pictures with us. I have gotten pretty used to being the only non-Japanese
person in every room and forget sometimes how strange we must look. I noticed
when we went back that the pictures we took are now on the staff board at the
clinic for all to see J
1 comments
Interesting still Hannah, and yes you are an excellent story teller. I would also have some concerns about the sugar water. When the baby cries to be fed, usually the mild just drains out because you and her are one and it is time to feed. Maybe it teaches Lucy Mei to be patient, but I'm glad you are nursing and that it is going well. I love nursing all my children, the are so healthy, I can't speak enough of the benefits for both mom and child. Good Job, Hannah!
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