The little lady has arrived!

On May 2nd our daughter was born. It has taken me a while to find the time and coherence of thoughts to sit down and write this entry.

First off, I feel it is necessary for me to write about my time spent as a pregnant lady in Japan before I dive into the details of the birth and the babe.
It was quite the experience being pregnant in Japan and I quickly came to discover that there are some major differences in attitudes towards pregnancy between Japan and the west so I found myself trying to find a good balance between the two. Here are some things I discovered on my journey:

-In Japan, prenatal vitamins are not common, nor do doctors prescribe them as they would in the west. I ended up finding some on the shelf at a baby goods store and did my best to take them everyday. I was told the Japanese perspective is that a pregnant woman should be getting all these nutrients from the food she is eating and not from a vitamin.
- Japanese doctors are extremely strict about weight gain! My first doctor was extremely insistent that I not gain any more than 10 kilos (22 pounds) throughout my pregnancy. She also strongly encouraged I only eat brown bread, brown rice, lots of vegetables, NO fruit and only drink water throughout my pregnancy. Had I have the willpower to give up chocolate and fruit and the ability to find brown bread I might have considered this to be a viable diet option. Unfortunately some women take this strictness a little too far. A friend told me about her sister in law going on a diet exclusively of bean sprouts while pregnant to avoid being reprimanded by her doctor. While I agree a pregnant woman should not follow the "eating for two" idea, I also think pregnant women should not be preoccupied with worrying about their weight gain. I think I gained about 13 kilos total for my pregnancy and most of that is gone as I type this. :)
- The question of exercise - I encountered two very different opinions from the two doctors I saw for my pregnancy. My first doctor recommended I stay very still, definitely not exercise and do minimal housework. My second doctor encouraged pilates, yoga, long walks and squats throughout my pregnancy.
- Ultrasounds! We got an ultrasound at every appointment, it was great to see our little girl grow month by month and then week by week. In Canada, a friend said she only had one ultrasound for her entire pregnancy!
- In Japan, women are encouraged to give birth naturally without pain killers with the belief that mothers should feel pain while they deliver in order to feel close to their baby. (or so I was told) If I wanted to have an epidural, it would only be available if the anesthesiologist wasn't busy and it was between 9 and 5 on a week day for a large fee, of course. With that in mind, I spent my pregnancy mentally preparing for an unmedicated childbirth.
- TOUCHING! People I had never met before would come up to me and pat my stomach without even asking! I've heard this happens in the west as well but it was very annoying none the less.
- Post partum recovery - Most Japanese women when they are close to their due date return to their hometown to give birth and recover at their mother's home for the first few months.

The months leading up to her birth, I did everything I could to educate and prepare myself as much as possible for labour, the birth and the early months as a new mum. You name it, I probably looked into it. Since I was having her in a foreign country I found it especially important to do my research. When I found out I was expecting, my husband and I discussed options for the pregnancy and birth to make my first pregnancy as stress free as possible. The first option was to return to Canada and the other was to stay put. I was very tempted to return home so I could have an English speaking doctor and be close to my mum for this major life experience but didn't want my husband to miss out on the birth of his first child. For my husband's sake, I decided to stay in Tokyo, I was lucky to find a hospital with some English speaking doctors for all my appointments. I struggled at times with the differences in attitudes towards pregnancy but in the end it was the best decision for us.