Baby Makes Three: Tokyo Birth Story

So....little Cora-chan ("chan" is the Japanese diminutive for baby girls) is finally here!  I suppose I should first tell the "birth story" and then I'll get into some of what I experienced giving birth in a Japanese hospital.  Please be warned that I tried not to be too graphic, but it's hard when you're talking about childbirth....it's a graphic process.  ;)

On the morning of the 6th, I woke up having contractions.  I assumed it was false labor (I was pretty cynical about all of my pains by that point) but Chad was watching me and determined that he was not going to go to work.  Two and a half hours later, when they hadn't gone away and were still every 5 minutes, I called my doctor's cell phone.  He didn't answer.  I ended up calling the clinic we go to to see if they could locate him---turns out he was in a delivery.  I described my pains to one of the nurses there, who consulted with another doctor and told me to go to the hospital.

When we arrived at the hospital, I fully expected to be sent home.  But they admitted me, and labor started for real pretty quickly.  The doctor finally called me back and said that he would be there by 4pm and that I would probably have the baby by midnight.  By 4pm he still wasn't there (and he was the one who did the epidural) and I was in some pretty major, almost-ready-to-push pain (8-9 centimeters).  Chad had been fanning me and forcing jello and water down my throat (so you can eat and drink during labor here) for several hours by this point.  The doctor had authorized the nurses to give me some muscle relaxers too.  If you've ever heard labor contractions described as "toe-curling", know that that is a very accurate description.  And speaking of, there were other women there in labor as well and most, of course, were Japanese.  For the record, this business about Japanese women being stoic and quiet during labor is nonsense....I can assure you that they screech and moan just like the rest of us.  I do think that most of them were going without the epidural intentionally though.

About 6pm the doctor finally showed up and I begged him for the epidural, even knowing that I was really close to pushing.  I will always wonder if I could've just done it without (and had the bragging rights :D) but at that point I just wanted some relief.  He inserted it, and while it did help, it didn't help quite as much as I thought---I'm a little disappointed in the epidural.  Things slowed down some which gave me the chance to rest a little before pushing. 

When it came time to push I was still pretty tired but gave it all I had---her head still had to be vacuum extracted because she got stuck.  After that she came pretty quickly.  That part was pretty amazing.  Suddenly....there's a baby!

Unfortunately things went downhill from there.  I spiked a 103 temperature and had been sick during labor and my blood pressure dropped.  The placenta didn't want to come out either and had to be forcibly removed.  I held her for a little bit and then they took me to recovery and Cora to the nursery.  I continued to be sick and when they tried to get me up at one point I passed out (I don't remember this--Chad and I pretty much had to go back through this entire process because I totally blocked some parts out).  I think I was having a hard time coming down off the drugs but who knows.  The doctor said it was a pretty "smooth" and "typical" labor all in all......I gotta say, that was a little much to take from a dude who was two hours late with my drugs.  But he got Cora out in perfect shape and got me through it, if not in exactly perfect shape.... Chad and I were both a little traumatized and at this point I can't quite bring myself to think of doing it again anytime soon. :(

Edit: The whole shebang was 21 hours long and she was born around 2am.

So from here, some specifics about the hospital experience here:

Nurses & Staff: The poor nurses who took care of me immediately after labor were great.  While I was in labor they didn't do too much but a few of them rubbed my lower back.  After labor they didn't want to bring Cora to me until they determined that I wasn't really ill with something she could catch but they did bring her to me to feed at one point for a little while. They helped me get to the bathroom numerous times and dealt with my sickness and passing out.  Overall, the English was good, but the longer I was there the more the constant little bit of lost-in-translationness started to really wear on me.  And when I eventually got well enough to go to my room in the recovery ward, I started to have even more trouble with the nurses, but that is in the section on feeding below.

Paperwork: While we were in the recovery room I had to track Cora's diapers and feeding, certain aspects of my recovery and every time I took pain pills.  I had about four different forms that I had to keep up with.  I'm not sure if you have to do this in an American hospital too?  Please comment and let me know if this is standard practice.  By the time I got discharged, I was pretty sick of writing all this stuff down constantly.

Outfit: Another annoyance was the enormous outfit they insisted on dressing her in while we were there.  She wasn't swaddled but instead was dressed in what I called the "flying Elvis getup".  Everytime I tried to take her out of part of it they would come get her for a weighing or a check and she would end up right back in it.  I was ready to burn it by the time we left.

viva Las Vegas...there are little arms thrown up somewhere in there

Breast-Feeding:  I wanted to attempt exclusively breast-feeding so I had requested (and written on my birth plan) that she not be given formula or sugar water at all.  So, as happens, she lost some weight the first few days.  She ended up losing a little more than the 10% that is considered acceptable and the nurses started kinda harassing me about supplementing with formula.  I ended up getting kinda peeved about it (they were treating me like I was an idiot plus the communication between myself and the nurses suffered because of the language barrier) but I stood my ground.  At one point I even contemplated calling up the La Leche League and inciting a turf war (there's a sentence I never thought I'd write).  I ended up cutting a deal with a nurse to the effect of "if she doesn't start gaining by <this time> we'll supplement".  Fortunately, the milk showed up and I managed (over a pretty sleepless night) to get her gaining weight.  In retrospect, I understand a little better where they were coming from.  I'm glad I stood my ground but I also realize a little better exactly how close I was cutting it.  Feeding is going well now, and we bought a scale to monitor her growth which is good so far.

Room & Food: I had a private room and shower which were great.  I even had a view of the SkyTree.  And the Western-style meals were shockingly good.  There was a good bit of fish, but it was always Western-style broiled or baked salmon, tilapia etc.  No funny business.  For lunch and dinner there was always fruit, a soup, bread, cookies, salad, tea (with milk) and a main dish meat and vegetables.

room

view, but you can't really see the Skytree in this shot...
the blinds wouldn't come up

lunch

the common room

halls

Bathing: The nurses did give Cora a bath on day four and dunked her right in the water.  Chad and I got to see demonstration of another baby being bathed the day before that.  Her umbilical cord fell off during the bath and I'm still nervously watching it heal.  If I had my druthers, I would probably choose the American way of waiting until it heals to dunk the baby.

Free Supplies: I didn't get as much stuff as I had imagined.  No sprays or creams or bottles or medicinals of any kind for my healing other than pain pills.  Which are good, but some other options might have been nice.  None of the famous mesh underwear I've heard about either.    Diapers, wipes, Q-tips and alcohol (for the belly button) were provided for Cora while we were there.  And the awful outfit mentioned above.

Midwife: I signed up for my doctor's midwife service---we've had one home visit so far and it went great.  I really like the midwife---she checked me and Cora and declared us both fit.  She weighed Cora and confirmed that she is gaining on track.  She was very calming and helped me make my feeding schedule a little more manageable.  Her English is fantastic too.

So that's it!   I would love to hear what women who have given birth in America find odd or unusual about my experience!