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Summer 2008 Update
I am so happy to say that what I said about Hiroshima Daigaku Byoin (at the bottom) in 2004 (Hiroshima University Hospital) is now no longer true! I would like to think that at least in
part to my letter and conversations with the staff, nurses and doctors during my stay there as well as transferring to a different hospital after the
30th week of my pregnancy (to go to Tsuchiya General Hospital) because as I told them I wanted to hold my baby directly after birth, have my baby with me in my room
and have my family able to hold my baby and feed her while I was in hospital. But now, thankfully you can do that at Daigaku Byoin too!
University Hospital because of these new policies, has now become my top recommendation of hospitals in Hiroshima for women who have any complications
or issues during pregnancy. They (as well as Tsuchiya General opposite the Peace Park) have an excellent NICU in case your baby is born with health problems
or complications on the same floor as the rooms for mothers. They can perform bikini cut c-sections (horizontally) which makes for less recovery time
and less bleeding for mama. And most importantly they are a full general hospital where you can be treated for any complications that arrive without
any need to be ambulanced off to another hospital.
Your Hospital Might be Great too, but make sure you talk about these questions with your doctor well before you decide to have your baby there (don't assume that they will or
won't do anything, you won't know for sure unless you ask):
- 1. What kind of pain medication if any is given during labor? (Usually nothing, sometimes you can schedule an epidural beforehand, but this (from what I have been told) sometimes just prolongs labor and does not completely stop the pain)
- 2. In what situation would you recommend a c-section? What are the conditions of the labor room? (i.e will I be able to walk/move around during contractions or am I confined to a bed?)
- 3. If I need a cesarean section, would you be able to do the procedure here and what kind of cut is done? (Many clinics do not have surgery
capabilities and many hospitals in Japan still prefer the old-fashioned, vertical cut but many places now offer the horizontal incision which has
shown to cause less recovery time for the mother and a possibility of a vbac (vaginal birth after cesarean) the next time around if you are back in your home country.)
- 4. If the baby needs special care, do you have an NICU here? (Many private clinics do not have adequate facilities for babies with special needs and would have to transfer your baby to another hospital while you were kept in the clinic to recover on your own).
- 5. Is it possible to hold the baby in kangaroo care style and breastfeed the baby immediately after birth? (Many hospitals do not allow holding or breastfeeding immediately after, but Tsuchiya General Hospital (opposite Peace Park) now encourages this and uses this concept in their promotion).
- 6. Will the father/my husband/partner be allowed in the delivery room or operating theatre?
- 7. Will the father/husband/partner be allowed to hold the baby after the birth?
- 8. Does this hospital/clinic allow rooming in? (Rooming-in means you can keep the baby with you in your room as long as you like)
- 9. How long will I need to stay in hospital after birth? (Normal delivery= 5-7 days, cesarean section= 10-14 days)
- 10. What does my insurance cover? How much will I be expected to pay when I am discharged from hospital? (Usually you pay the total amount (200,000-800,000 depending on the hospital and procedure; private clinics are more expensive than public general hospitals) and are paid back by insurance companies and the government gives all people on national insurance a standard monetary gift of ?350,000 per child once you register the birth (or death) at your local ward office.)
(This is now outdated, but a good reference for how a hospital can change for the better)
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Although Hiroshima Daigaku Byoin has a brand new building (2004) for in-patients and has some of the most advanced and progressive treatments available in Hiroshima city, some of their policies concerning parents and their newborns is horribly outdated, some might even call it downright cruel.
Not all hospitals in Hiroshima allow rooming-in (allowing mothers to keep babies in their rooms with them after birth) but most clinics and hospitals seem to at least allow fathers a chance to hold their own children during regular visits to the nursery. I have just found out that this is not the case at Hiroshima's University Hospital (Daigaku Byoin) in Danbara, Hiroshima city.
After a friend had been through the trauma of having to be brought here in an emergency situation and going through c-section surgery, they blatantly discouraged her from seeing her baby from 7pm after she was back in her room after surgery to 1pm the next day.
Despite our pleas and arguments they said she was not to be moved until midday and the baby was not to be moved from the nursery and there was no way around it. Luckily after arguing and offering serveral different solutions to the problem, the staff eventually conceeded and wheeled her down to the NICU. But even once I argued for her to be wheeled over to see him, they didn't let her do Kangaroo care (hold your baby skin to skin like in the picture at the top) and didn't let her try to breastfeed (the argument to give the baby pre-milk, nutritious colostrum, and a need for bonding fell on deaf ears) until 2 days later. During which time they were giving him formula without clearing it (or even mentioning it) to the parents!
Then, they also told her and her husband to abide by the visiting hours and only allowed her to see him a few minutes a couple times a day. Once the baby was moved out of the NICU (neonatal intensive care unit) into the general nursery, there was absolutely no way the father would be allowed any time to hold him. He can only visit the baby once a day, but soon they will only allow him to view his son from outside the window! Now it is a bit better since my friend's milk has come in, she is allowed to go and breastfeed every 3 hours throughout the day and night.
I met a Japanese mother and her Scottish husband in the baby viewing area looking at their son and complaining about the lack of access for fathers since he had to leave in a couple of days to go back to the UK and wouldn't have any chance to hold his son until he saw him in November of this year when his wife and child joined him there. This almost brought me to tears and when I argued on their behalf with the nurse she apologized and said it was a shame, but there was nothing to be done about it (shoganai ne). I asked, "what would happen in the horrible event that the mother died in childbirth, would the father then be allowed to come in for bonding and feeding with the child?" and they looked at me dumbfounded and I never got an answer. I will be writing a letter about this policy to the hospital management with a petition from parents which hopefully will make some changes somewhere down the line.
In reference to how inflexible many Japanese organizations and companies are as well as debate over how to deal with the declining birthrate by making policies that treat both parents equal in childrearing, this hospital has a lot of improvements to make.
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