hear the army

Click here to read Being Pregnant in Japan – Part 1, Up to Week 12ish

You:

This is hands down the best part of your pregnancy! At least for me it was. Yeah, you have to pack away your old clothes and start hunting down ones that fit your “new” body but the tiredness subsides, the hormones kick in – and you generally just feel good! Not to mention you now feel as though you and your baby are confirmed and safe on this journey.

This is also a very exciting time because after about week 20ish you will start to feel the baby moving AND, if you are interested and the baby cooperates, you can find out if you’re having a boy or girl!

Getting involved / Classes:

As you sift through all of the paperwork you received after registering your baby, you’ll find there are a lot of classes, etc. offered during this time. I attended one at my Ward Office (Kuyakusho), three at my clinic and a private cooking class. Classes are (obviously) conducted in Japanese, but are very visual so usually if you have a basic knowledge, you can get something out of it. Partners were welcome at all that I attended.

What to expect at the classes:
If your partner joins you at any that are not offered on a weekend, expect him to be one of the only 2 or so there (at least in my experience) and expect him to leave with an inflated head after being profusely praised by all of the other ladies there.
“oh, it must be so wonderful to have your husband here w/ you!”
“yeah, hoe lucky you are!”
“what a great husband!”
now, i certainly agree with all of the above but it started to wear on me about here:
“and you took the day off of WORK to do it!?! wow – you’re amazing!”
um, i had to take the day off of work to be there too – what’s the big deal? we’re BOTH the parents!
anyway – they are welcome and will probably enjoy it.

I believe that these classes are mainly to foster a sense of community with mothers due about the same time as most women who attend will be living in the same area. (see cold bellies, helpful husbands) I did chat it up with a couple of them, but phone numbers/emails were never exchanged so this didn’t really work out for me HOWEVER, i think it is a great idea.

The information they share at these classes you most likely have already read in your pregnacy books (see pregnancy must haves for my recommendations) or will learn at the clinic during your stay (ex. how to bathe your baby). That said, practice makes perfect and hearing/doing it more times means you’ll be more likely to remember it when the real deal arrives.

The main benefit of these classes for me was:
1) learning any differences between how everything published in English says to do it vs. what is the norm in Japan,
2) my husband gets to hear it in Japanese, giving him exposure as he’s not prone to sit around reading my English books on the subject,
3) i am more familiar with the vocabulary (for those of you in a mostly Japanese clinic environment), and
4) you get a couple of free samples, some advertisements that help you become familiar with the baby brands/products in Japan AND you get fliers for different resources in your area.

One of the differences especially of note was that of the food pyramid in Japan vs. US.

The basic pyramid recommends the highest daily intake of grains on both sides of the Pacific, but while the US recommends about the same amount of vegetables & fruits/day (1/2 cup more of veggies), the Japanese recommendation is to have 2 to 4 more servings/day of vegetables than fruit. They also recommend the same servings of fruit/day as dairy where in the US we recommend 1 more cup of dairy/day thank we do fruit. hard to compare oz. to servings but based on the size of the bars, it seems in the US we recommend a lot less meat/beans also.

Why is this? Are we so different? My theory is that fruits are ridiculously expensive in Japan so they couldn’t possibly recommend them as much as veggies and dairy is still a relatively new thing here as well as expensive so naturally they recommend what is most easily found and affordable. Would the entire US population be smaller if they at less fruit/dairy and more grains, veggies, and meat/beans?

A last note on classes in Japan I didn’t find any breathing/birthing classes offered by my clinic or the ward office. Your clinic will most likely offer maternity yoga and aerobics (maternity bix) classes where the instructor will go over breathing and exercises that will help you through labor but the general idea at my clinic was that the midwife with you during labor will tell you what to do and as long as you exercise and eat right before then, you will have no problem on the big day.

(Note: If you live in Tokyo there are a lot more options!)

At the clinic:

You will see your doctor once/month during this time and they will always:

• check your blood pressure
• take a urine sample to check for glucose (a sign of gestational diabetes) and protein (a sign of UTI or pre-eclampsia)
• weigh you
• measure your belly around and from pelvis to navel
• take an ultrasound to measure the baby’s growth, make sure everything is forming properly and let you get all teary eyed looking at it

This will all be meticulously recorded in your Mother Child Handbook (Boshi Techo).

Don’t be put off if you are gaining more weight than they think you should. Japan’s standards say someone with a normal BMI should gain about 7-11kg (16-24lbs) where my English books said up to 16kg (35lbs) was within the normal range – feel free to remind them of this if it’s getting to you but usually just agreeing that you’ll watch it and continuing to exercise and eat well as you are works.

You will also receive another blood test at the end of this trimester/beginning of next so bring more cash!

Exercise:

As mentioned earlier, your clinic will most likely have maternity yoga and aerobics but in my case they were offered only during the day on weekdays so not an option until I started my leave. I did attend one class and while they are fun also, I personally preferred doing DVDs at home (see pregnancy must haves for my recommendations).

My doctor also started suggesting more and more walking as the date got closer – the more the better as they believe it helps bring on labor and make for a quicker labor.

Clothing:

Where to find clothes!?! Most of the big department stores will have maternity sections on the floors where children’s clothing is sold. The customer service is great but the prices are insane. Also, if you are larger chested, they’ll happily fit you for a bra but you’ll end up with torpedo shaped boobs in your grandma’s bra.

For more affordable options try Akachan Honpo or even Babies R Us has a little maternity section.

With my chest size always being an issue in Japan, i tended to shop a lot online (see pregnancy must haves for my recommendations).

Also, remember that maternity clothes are only needed for about 6mths so there are usually a lot of people with some to pass along! Ask women with babies in your area – they usually are happy to clean out their closets. And DEFINITELY check out online groups like Tell and Sell Japan and Free Stuff Japan. Check what is listed and post your request – you might get some great deals!

So, I would recommend heading to as many classes as you can – even the cooking one was interesting (though stressful…i thought it would be a demonstrate step by step kinda thing but it was more: “here’s the ingredients, and the recipe in japanese – good luck!” d’oh!). Also, don’t miss being active during this time!! You felt like crap and were too nervous the first 3 months and you’re gonna feel less and less mobile during the last 3 so this is THE time – what are you waiting for?