Natural Birth Story in Japan, by Izumi Iijima

Here is the beautiful birth story of my sister-in-law. Such an amazing story – when Izumi first sent it to me I was on the train to work and I started crying when I read it. I can only hope for a similar experience with my second baby! Thank you so much Izumi for sharing your birth story. Congratulations!!

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My Birth Story – Izumi Iijima

Photo: My son Jo and daughter Ima – taken 6days after the birth, when we checked out of the clinic

Hello, my name is Izumi IIjima. I gave birth to a baby boy in last November.

It was a really amazing experience – more than I imagined even, things didn’t go the way as I planned.

When I had my first baby 4 years ago, I chose a general hospital and my experience there was not very good. It was all about pain.

Fear of the pain overtook everything and I was confused, panicked, felt hopeless and got angry afterwards.

I lost my energy struggling with the pain through the birth and I couldn’t push at the end. So that the nurse got on my belly & pushed the baby out and also vacuumed, I didn’t understand what was going on at the time. Luckily my baby girl was born safely, but I lost a lot of blood (1300ml) and I had postpartum depression for a while.

I couldn’t have a feeling that “I” gave birth. I thought this experience was produced by that hospital system such as – nurses were too busy & didn’t have time to stay with me to support – they didn’t provide the natural birth, but also I myself didn’t study & understand well about the birth.

So that this time I read a book to study about & chose a maternity center (Aqua Birth House in Setagaya) to do the natural birth. Aqua Birth House was such a wonderful place.

Each & every checkup was enjoyable. They gave their time for us fully and took at least 30 min for each checkup. They listened sincerely to even small concerns or questions and gave beneficial advice. Mainly I tried to eat well, sleep well, walk well.

I also received advice to try acupuncture which was really good for me. Everything seemed to be going well & I was really looking forward to giving birth there. But I ended up going to another clinic.

I was really disappointed things didn’t go as I planned, but thanks to all the help given by Aqua Birth House and the clinic “Tsuchiya Sanfujinka”, I had such a great birth experience. I wish my following birth story is of some help. Thank you!