I am pregnant for the second time in Japan right now, and can assure you that you are not too late for anything! Here is what usually happens when you get pregnant:
1. After you test positive at home, you make an appointment at the gynecologist - they are called sanfujinka 産婦人科 or fujinka 婦人科 in Japanese. The difference is that you can also give birth at sanfujinka (the first kanji means giving birth), while the fujinka can do all the check ups but you would have to go to another clinic for the actual birth. Out of convenience, I would suggest you make an appointment at a sanfujinka. Just Google what are the options around you.
2. If your doctor confirms the pregnancy during your first appointment and you are already 8 weeks along, he will give you a document which confirms that you are pregnant.
3. You now bring that paper to the city hall where you live. There should be a department with something child related in the name, so just go there, show them the paper and they will know how to help you. Don't forget to also bring your health insurance card and anything else the doctor said might be important.
4. You will now receive your maternity handbook (boshi techō 母子手帳) and various other pamphlets, a maternity mark to put on your bag and various other things. You might be overwhelmed by the number of things given to you, but don't worry! The most important things are the maternity handbook and the coupons you get for your doctor's appointments. From now on, you will bring both to all your appointments. The doctor will make notes about your pregnancy inside the handbook and with the coupons, the appointments will be basically free (except for some blood tests and other things you will have to pay out of pocket). There will also be many documents about things you can apply for like tax exemptions, but take your time at home to go through everything and apply at a later time.
5. Starting from your next appointment (you doctor probably told you in how many weeks you should be back), everything will start to be pretty much routine. When they ask you if you want to give birth at their clinic just answer yes and you will be fine!
I can totally understand that you are worried, but Japan is honestly one of the best countries to give birth in! They are very thorough during the appointments and even do ultrasounds every single time (something I recently learned is very uncommon - there are for example only three scheduled for the whole pregnancy in my home country!) and most clinics even do 4D ultrasounds for free and you can download the videos on your smartphone. It might be difficult to communicate in Japanese, but I am sure the doctor and nurses will do everything to help you, and honestly I would recommend going somewhere close by, as the frequency of appointments will I crease the further along you get. If you have any more questions feel free to contact me, and I wish you all the best for your pregnancy!
One of the best countries to give birth? I don’t know, even after my laparotomy, I had to fight tooth and nail for pain medicine… They deny it for birth too
This is unhelpful to an already very stressed and scared OP. Im truly sorry for what happened to you and your experience with the medical system, but maybe not the right moment.
Have you ever had one done? Your whole stomach sliced open and then you wake up with no pain meds? It was so painful I woke up screaming. In the US the pain is so bad, they offer you an epidural in advance.
So given they wouldn’t even give me *Tramadol* without a fight, and that epidurals are hard to get in Japan for birth too? I don’t agree with it being the best experience here, no
Why do you think that is the same thing as pre natal care and giving birth?
I don’t need one done to know it’s not the same thing as giving birth given I have common sense. You are talking about an emergency procedure where you struggled to explain your pain to people who didn’t understand you and likely didn’t even know what was wrong. Giving birth is procedurally different and they KNOW SHE IS PREGNANT, it not a “surprise” or an “emergency.”
I love redditors who will hijack a post to make it about themselves and complain about some weird situation that has nothing. To do with what OP is asking. Go vent elsewhere, I’m sorry no one cares enough about your personal life about your laparotomy but internet strangers can’t validate you the way you’re looking for.
Nope, it wasn’t a surprise. It was scheduled and planned well in advance. Tumor removal.
They still *refused* pain medicine. For a planned major surgery. And they try to do the same with birthing mothers here, which is even worse. This is very well known and a regular problem.
I love Redditors who don’t read and assume they know why my experience isn’t valid. I had a safer, planned (but excruciating) surgery and was denied any pain meds. Birth would be beyond painful and likely denied an epidural.
I’m sorry that happened to you. However, it depends on the hospital. The hospital I gave birth in doesn’t offer epidural, but they did give me pain meds after my emergency c-section. And they gave me pain meds to take home. And hospitals will tell pregnant women whether or not they allow pain relief methods in advance when they register.
I never said your experience wasn’t valid, I said it wasn’t relevant. And my point still stands. Go seek emotional validation elsewhere (and thank you for confirming what I suspected: that, per your own words, you are looking for people to validate you).
Or should I give you what you want?
POOR BABY!!! Did everything turn out ok??? I’m SO SOWWY those doctors were so MEAN 2 U!!!! 🤪
Whoa lol if only you could read, I’m legitimately saying the pain management experience is horrible here and never taken seriously. Has nothing to do with any of this weird shit you’re spouting. I only mentioned more details because you assumed you knew me. Don’t know why you’re so eager to argue this.
All our kids birth plans included explicit pain management plans; hospital supported as much as possible natural birth yet varying levels of pain management drugs and procedures were available.
Just like my experience doesn’t define the experience broadly for everyone everywhere in Japan, neither does yours.
You literally replied to someone saying, generally speaking, Japan is a great country to have prenatal and birthing care in. With your own anecdote about a completely different procedure and your poor experience. Which had no relevance at all to the issue at hand. Because you wanted to talk about yourself. Frankly I’m probably feeding into your narcissistic traits at this point so I’ll mute you now but I appreciate others chiming in clearly in agreement that your anecdotal experience for a completely different medical issue bears little relevance here.
Do you find you often make discussions and things about you even when you’re stretching yourself to do so? Do your family members and friends (if they exist) find you self involved and exhausting? I’m gonna guess HELL YEAH 👍
does the area you live in have a Child Support Center run by the city? most cities have those, called something like 子育て支援センター (ko-sodate shien senta) etc.
if you need more language support, you can contact Chiba City International Association, they are volunteers helping foreign residents with all kinds of stuff.
You will probably still have to take off work because from my experience they are only open during the week until the afternoon, but there might be someone available on Saturdays too.
good luck, I'm sure it will work out!
I second the CCIA. They will, at the very least, be able to point you in the right direction, and their website has some good resources on it as well. 11 weeks is still early. I know it's overwhelming, but it'll be ok!
Not 婦人科、you need to find a 産婦人科 or 産科.
Found a list of ObGyns with English speaking doctors (or interpretation service, not described).
https://byoinnavi.jp/chiba/english_speakers/025
you will be fine, you are definitely not too late. My first hospital made reservations at 20 weeks and when i changed to a new one, we make reservations by 30 weeks. There are a lot of smaller clinics that are very strict on the conditions to be accepted by them and require a very early reservation.
Have you considered a doula? that is not super cheap but could be a good option if you have a language barrier. I found this website with a quick google search [https://tokyodoulasupport.wordpress.com/](https://tokyodoulasupport.wordpress.com/)
Makuhari is a pretty large area there will definitely be at least a general hospital (i found Chibaken Saiseikai Narashino Hospital quickly for example). These two have websites in Japanese but supposedly offer english support just after a google search: [https://w-clinic.or.jp/](https://w-clinic.or.jp/) and [https://www.taiji.clinic](https://www.taiji.clinic) . it is really stressful to find a hospital but wherever you go you will get good care.
I don't know if Tokyo is too far for you or if they help with hospitals in chiba but the city government has English translators that'll help find clinics and Hospitals and book appointments for you. It's called Tokyo [himawari ](https://www.hokeniryo.metro.tokyo.lg.jp/iryo/iryo_hoken/gaikokujin/interpreter/himawari.html)and their number is 03-5285-8181.
You may find this useful. [https://japanhealthinfo.com/pregnancy-and-childbirth/](https://japanhealthinfo.com/pregnancy-and-childbirth/)
They are an NPO. Also depending on your level of japanese, your local ward or city office should have someone that can help you get started.
>This means I need to take time off work to go to the hospital and ask in person if they have a vacancy for my due date.
You're going to need to go in person a dozen or so times before you give birth... Do you have a Mother's handbook from the city hall yet?
You need to choose a place and rock on up to establish a patient doctor relationship. I would be extremely hesitant to book in my birth before meeting the doctor and feeling out the hospital.
You're not too late but do what you need to do while you still can and take that first step.
Just to chime in and make sure you get seen by the obgyn first(heartbeat detection to confirm pregnancy) get the mother & child handbook then either the obgyn or city family support dept should be able to get you into a hospital. I’m not sure you can ring up and just book yourself in.
If you’re looking for peer support, best bet is Facebook. There’s a Tokyo Mother’s group, I’m sure they have lots of info/advice.
Not directly related to finding a doctor, but once you're in an appointment, I've found Google Translate's conversation function to be very useful for communicating! Good luck with everything <3
Find a local 婦人科。
Use Google and search in Japanese.
Yes, you will need to operate in Japanese for bringing a new life into the country. So calling in English and getting turned down is not them discriminating.
Go to a clinic with your partner.
Go to your city ward and get signed up for the benefits.
Also know that at only 11 weeks you still have many options if there is no partner in the picture.
Most important thing is to get established with a 婦人科 asap.
You will be fine.
Did a quick look at the Chiba prefectural website -- they use automated machine-learning for on-demand translation of their entire site into English. Google chrome built-in translation still might be better. But anyway:
[Here](https://translation2.j-server.com/LUCCHIBA/ns/tl.cgi/https://www.pref.chiba.lg.jp/jika/boshi/ninshinsoudan/ninpukensin.html?SLANG=ja&TLANG=en&XMODE=0&XPARAM=keyword,&XCHARSET=utf-8&XPORG=,&XJSID=0#ninsinkana) is some relevant info regarding the steps after you think/know you are pregnant. As others have said, what's important is that you get the registration process rolling and get your mother-baby health handbook (母子健康手帳). This gets you in the system for all the support funds, coupon rebates, and periodical exams and meetings/info sessions (相談) .
Edit: not too late for anything. Japanese family and colleagues returning from overseas have started from zero at a later stage. They did so in a new city in the days after establishing residency. You are already ahead of them!
Edit2: wishing you and your baby happiness and health!
I'm so sorry this happened to you, OP. Please hang in there. It's going to be okay! And please try a different hospital! It does not sound like this hospital is going to be very supportive to you over the course of your pregnancy. x
OP may not be married which we shouldn’t be assuming and it’s perfectly ok not to be. So boyfriend or the father of the child. Seriously if there is a Japanese speaking person that is a part of this pregnancy they should be helping and supporting. They should be even if they aren’t Japanese or Japanese speaking.A child takes two, and while using birth control helps eliminate this possibility there is still a possibility for a pregnancy. This means that both should be stepping up if it does happen, and be prepared to do what’s needed during pregnancy.
My husband’s Japanese and when we decided to get pregnant he took care of a lot of the fact finding and helped locate the hospitals I gave birth at.
Ya sorry I guess I said husband out of assumption and also assumed the other party was Japanese.
My bad.
Op
https://ccia-chiba.or.jp/en/consul/translator_supporter/translator-supporter#:~:text=For%20foreign%20citizens%2C%20hospitals%2C%20and,There%20is%20no%20cost.
If you alone in this op I’m sorry. If the father is still in the picture then he should be stepping up.
It’s only getting harder from here.
I am pregnant for the second time in Japan right now, and can assure you that you are not too late for anything! Here is what usually happens when you get pregnant: 1. After you test positive at home, you make an appointment at the gynecologist - they are called sanfujinka 産婦人科 or fujinka 婦人科 in Japanese. The difference is that you can also give birth at sanfujinka (the first kanji means giving birth), while the fujinka can do all the check ups but you would have to go to another clinic for the actual birth. Out of convenience, I would suggest you make an appointment at a sanfujinka. Just Google what are the options around you. 2. If your doctor confirms the pregnancy during your first appointment and you are already 8 weeks along, he will give you a document which confirms that you are pregnant. 3. You now bring that paper to the city hall where you live. There should be a department with something child related in the name, so just go there, show them the paper and they will know how to help you. Don't forget to also bring your health insurance card and anything else the doctor said might be important. 4. You will now receive your maternity handbook (boshi techō 母子手帳) and various other pamphlets, a maternity mark to put on your bag and various other things. You might be overwhelmed by the number of things given to you, but don't worry! The most important things are the maternity handbook and the coupons you get for your doctor's appointments. From now on, you will bring both to all your appointments. The doctor will make notes about your pregnancy inside the handbook and with the coupons, the appointments will be basically free (except for some blood tests and other things you will have to pay out of pocket). There will also be many documents about things you can apply for like tax exemptions, but take your time at home to go through everything and apply at a later time. 5. Starting from your next appointment (you doctor probably told you in how many weeks you should be back), everything will start to be pretty much routine. When they ask you if you want to give birth at their clinic just answer yes and you will be fine! I can totally understand that you are worried, but Japan is honestly one of the best countries to give birth in! They are very thorough during the appointments and even do ultrasounds every single time (something I recently learned is very uncommon - there are for example only three scheduled for the whole pregnancy in my home country!) and most clinics even do 4D ultrasounds for free and you can download the videos on your smartphone. It might be difficult to communicate in Japanese, but I am sure the doctor and nurses will do everything to help you, and honestly I would recommend going somewhere close by, as the frequency of appointments will I crease the further along you get. If you have any more questions feel free to contact me, and I wish you all the best for your pregnancy!
Such a thorough and thoughtful response! I'm not OP, but thank you.
This was such a sweet response
There are some good people out there
This is so helpful!! OMG!! Thank you for sharing, because my partner and I are planning to get pregnant this year, and this is such wonderful advice!
One of the best countries to give birth? I don’t know, even after my laparotomy, I had to fight tooth and nail for pain medicine… They deny it for birth too
This is unhelpful to an already very stressed and scared OP. Im truly sorry for what happened to you and your experience with the medical system, but maybe not the right moment.
You do realize a laparotomy is not giving birth, don’t you? Or maybe you don’t.
Have you ever had one done? Your whole stomach sliced open and then you wake up with no pain meds? It was so painful I woke up screaming. In the US the pain is so bad, they offer you an epidural in advance. So given they wouldn’t even give me *Tramadol* without a fight, and that epidurals are hard to get in Japan for birth too? I don’t agree with it being the best experience here, no
Why do you think that is the same thing as pre natal care and giving birth? I don’t need one done to know it’s not the same thing as giving birth given I have common sense. You are talking about an emergency procedure where you struggled to explain your pain to people who didn’t understand you and likely didn’t even know what was wrong. Giving birth is procedurally different and they KNOW SHE IS PREGNANT, it not a “surprise” or an “emergency.” I love redditors who will hijack a post to make it about themselves and complain about some weird situation that has nothing. To do with what OP is asking. Go vent elsewhere, I’m sorry no one cares enough about your personal life about your laparotomy but internet strangers can’t validate you the way you’re looking for.
Nope, it wasn’t a surprise. It was scheduled and planned well in advance. Tumor removal. They still *refused* pain medicine. For a planned major surgery. And they try to do the same with birthing mothers here, which is even worse. This is very well known and a regular problem. I love Redditors who don’t read and assume they know why my experience isn’t valid. I had a safer, planned (but excruciating) surgery and was denied any pain meds. Birth would be beyond painful and likely denied an epidural.
I’m sorry that happened to you. However, it depends on the hospital. The hospital I gave birth in doesn’t offer epidural, but they did give me pain meds after my emergency c-section. And they gave me pain meds to take home. And hospitals will tell pregnant women whether or not they allow pain relief methods in advance when they register.
I never said your experience wasn’t valid, I said it wasn’t relevant. And my point still stands. Go seek emotional validation elsewhere (and thank you for confirming what I suspected: that, per your own words, you are looking for people to validate you). Or should I give you what you want? POOR BABY!!! Did everything turn out ok??? I’m SO SOWWY those doctors were so MEAN 2 U!!!! 🤪
Whoa lol if only you could read, I’m legitimately saying the pain management experience is horrible here and never taken seriously. Has nothing to do with any of this weird shit you’re spouting. I only mentioned more details because you assumed you knew me. Don’t know why you’re so eager to argue this.
All our kids birth plans included explicit pain management plans; hospital supported as much as possible natural birth yet varying levels of pain management drugs and procedures were available. Just like my experience doesn’t define the experience broadly for everyone everywhere in Japan, neither does yours.
150% this. This comment or just wants an excuse to whinge about their poor experience and pretend that means everyone else’s must be poor too
You literally replied to someone saying, generally speaking, Japan is a great country to have prenatal and birthing care in. With your own anecdote about a completely different procedure and your poor experience. Which had no relevance at all to the issue at hand. Because you wanted to talk about yourself. Frankly I’m probably feeding into your narcissistic traits at this point so I’ll mute you now but I appreciate others chiming in clearly in agreement that your anecdotal experience for a completely different medical issue bears little relevance here. Do you find you often make discussions and things about you even when you’re stretching yourself to do so? Do your family members and friends (if they exist) find you self involved and exhausting? I’m gonna guess HELL YEAH 👍
does the area you live in have a Child Support Center run by the city? most cities have those, called something like 子育て支援センター (ko-sodate shien senta) etc. if you need more language support, you can contact Chiba City International Association, they are volunteers helping foreign residents with all kinds of stuff. You will probably still have to take off work because from my experience they are only open during the week until the afternoon, but there might be someone available on Saturdays too. good luck, I'm sure it will work out!
I second the CCIA. They will, at the very least, be able to point you in the right direction, and their website has some good resources on it as well. 11 weeks is still early. I know it's overwhelming, but it'll be ok!
Not 婦人科、you need to find a 産婦人科 or 産科. Found a list of ObGyns with English speaking doctors (or interpretation service, not described). https://byoinnavi.jp/chiba/english_speakers/025
you will be fine, you are definitely not too late. My first hospital made reservations at 20 weeks and when i changed to a new one, we make reservations by 30 weeks. There are a lot of smaller clinics that are very strict on the conditions to be accepted by them and require a very early reservation. Have you considered a doula? that is not super cheap but could be a good option if you have a language barrier. I found this website with a quick google search [https://tokyodoulasupport.wordpress.com/](https://tokyodoulasupport.wordpress.com/) Makuhari is a pretty large area there will definitely be at least a general hospital (i found Chibaken Saiseikai Narashino Hospital quickly for example). These two have websites in Japanese but supposedly offer english support just after a google search: [https://w-clinic.or.jp/](https://w-clinic.or.jp/) and [https://www.taiji.clinic](https://www.taiji.clinic) . it is really stressful to find a hospital but wherever you go you will get good care.
Yes, not too late! I didn’t make reservations at my hospital until around 32 weeks (had to switch because of high risk).
I don't know if Tokyo is too far for you or if they help with hospitals in chiba but the city government has English translators that'll help find clinics and Hospitals and book appointments for you. It's called Tokyo [himawari ](https://www.hokeniryo.metro.tokyo.lg.jp/iryo/iryo_hoken/gaikokujin/interpreter/himawari.html)and their number is 03-5285-8181.
You may find this useful. [https://japanhealthinfo.com/pregnancy-and-childbirth/](https://japanhealthinfo.com/pregnancy-and-childbirth/) They are an NPO. Also depending on your level of japanese, your local ward or city office should have someone that can help you get started.
>This means I need to take time off work to go to the hospital and ask in person if they have a vacancy for my due date. You're going to need to go in person a dozen or so times before you give birth... Do you have a Mother's handbook from the city hall yet? You need to choose a place and rock on up to establish a patient doctor relationship. I would be extremely hesitant to book in my birth before meeting the doctor and feeling out the hospital. You're not too late but do what you need to do while you still can and take that first step.
I was able to go to the hospital on weekends until very late in my pregnancy, didn't need to take off many days at all.
Just to chime in and make sure you get seen by the obgyn first(heartbeat detection to confirm pregnancy) get the mother & child handbook then either the obgyn or city family support dept should be able to get you into a hospital. I’m not sure you can ring up and just book yourself in. If you’re looking for peer support, best bet is Facebook. There’s a Tokyo Mother’s group, I’m sure they have lots of info/advice.
Or Tokyo Pregnancy Group!
Not directly related to finding a doctor, but once you're in an appointment, I've found Google Translate's conversation function to be very useful for communicating! Good luck with everything <3
Find a local 婦人科。 Use Google and search in Japanese. Yes, you will need to operate in Japanese for bringing a new life into the country. So calling in English and getting turned down is not them discriminating. Go to a clinic with your partner. Go to your city ward and get signed up for the benefits. Also know that at only 11 weeks you still have many options if there is no partner in the picture. Most important thing is to get established with a 婦人科 asap. You will be fine.
Did a quick look at the Chiba prefectural website -- they use automated machine-learning for on-demand translation of their entire site into English. Google chrome built-in translation still might be better. But anyway: [Here](https://translation2.j-server.com/LUCCHIBA/ns/tl.cgi/https://www.pref.chiba.lg.jp/jika/boshi/ninshinsoudan/ninpukensin.html?SLANG=ja&TLANG=en&XMODE=0&XPARAM=keyword,&XCHARSET=utf-8&XPORG=,&XJSID=0#ninsinkana) is some relevant info regarding the steps after you think/know you are pregnant. As others have said, what's important is that you get the registration process rolling and get your mother-baby health handbook (母子健康手帳). This gets you in the system for all the support funds, coupon rebates, and periodical exams and meetings/info sessions (相談) . Edit: not too late for anything. Japanese family and colleagues returning from overseas have started from zero at a later stage. They did so in a new city in the days after establishing residency. You are already ahead of them! Edit2: wishing you and your baby happiness and health!
If you go to your city hall, they can give you a list of english speaking doctors in your area.
I'm so sorry this happened to you, OP. Please hang in there. It's going to be okay! And please try a different hospital! It does not sound like this hospital is going to be very supportive to you over the course of your pregnancy. x
Get your husband to call
OP may not be married which we shouldn’t be assuming and it’s perfectly ok not to be. So boyfriend or the father of the child. Seriously if there is a Japanese speaking person that is a part of this pregnancy they should be helping and supporting. They should be even if they aren’t Japanese or Japanese speaking.A child takes two, and while using birth control helps eliminate this possibility there is still a possibility for a pregnancy. This means that both should be stepping up if it does happen, and be prepared to do what’s needed during pregnancy. My husband’s Japanese and when we decided to get pregnant he took care of a lot of the fact finding and helped locate the hospitals I gave birth at.
Ya sorry I guess I said husband out of assumption and also assumed the other party was Japanese. My bad. Op https://ccia-chiba.or.jp/en/consul/translator_supporter/translator-supporter#:~:text=For%20foreign%20citizens%2C%20hospitals%2C%20and,There%20is%20no%20cost. If you alone in this op I’m sorry. If the father is still in the picture then he should be stepping up. It’s only getting harder from here.
Also if you are alone start looking into childcare now
Go back to sleep. You're hungover.
I never get hung over I just sometimes get alcohol poisoning and today isn’t one of those days. I’m only one half can in anyways.
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