Hello all. So as promised I am going to talk a little bit more about my adventures in prenatal care here in Japan. I'm almost 28 weeks along now. We still don't know for sure if the baby is a boy or a girl. It seems that during every ultrasound the baby decides that his or her legs need to be curled up under him or her. Which brings me to my first topic, ultrasounds!
When I was pregnant in America I had a grand total of one ultrasound, at around 20 weeks. From what I know, this is typical in the States unless you have a health condition. Before 20 weeks my Dr. would check the baby's heartbeat with a specialized stethoscope of sorts, and that was it. Here at my clinic in Nagoya, however, I have had an ultrasound at EVERY SINGLE VISIT, (my visits so far have been monthly) including the very first when they were merely confirming the pregnancy. (In America the pregnancy was confirmed with a urine test). For the first few months the ultrasounds were done vaginally, and at around 20 weeks they started the belly ultrasounds. From what I've heard it is normal to have many ultrasounds in Japan. I suppose one reason might be because of the lower health costs here; if there are any other reasons I don't know them. It's kinda of nice to be able to see the baby every month, but I think it does increase the wait time for the appointment (I typically go in around 10 am and leave after 12 pm). Starting this month I'll be seeing the Dr. every two weeks, so I'm not sure if the ultrasounds will still be done at every visit, or just monthly.
At my last visit to the Dr. I asked him when I would be doing a blood sugar test. In America I had to take a test where I was told to fast in the morning, come to the clinic for a blood draw, then drink a disgusting sugary drink, wait an hour, and then get another blood draw. The purpose of the test was to see how well my body handled the sudden sugar rush. I wanted to know when I would have the test at my clinic in Japan so I wouldn't forget to fast in the morning. (If you forget to fast, you have to come back a different day to do the test.) Well the Dr. said I had already had a blood test for blood sugar (obviously not the same test, and when I described the test mentioned above he seemed unfamiliar with it). He asked if I had a family history of diabetes. I said yes. He sent me to the blood draw room and my blood was drawn again for another blood sugar test, but it was just a blood draw, no sugar drink. It appears that the sugar drink test doesn't exist here. I told my husband about it and he mentioned to me that he had taken a class in college that had a section on genetics and he remembered something about diabetes being more prevalent among caucasians than other races, so maybe that's why the test is not done in Japan. Anywho, I'm pretty sure I'll be fine with a plain blood test, I only hope my Dr. doesn't think I'm weird for asking for sugary drinks at his clinic. XD
My husband came with me to my most recent appointment, and while there, the midwife asked him if he was planning to be present at the C section. I was a little surprised by the question because I had planned to have another talk with the Dr. about having a VBAC (Vaginal Birth After C Section), but I guess he wasn't planning on it! When I talked with him about it before, I told him I wanted to try for a natural birth, but he had given me a sort of wishy-washy answer involving the risk of uterine rupture, and had ended it with "We'll see". I asked the midwife about it and she just said "Leave it up to the Dr." I had read before that in some other countries patients don't have as much say in what treatments they get and they are basically expected to just go with what the Dr. says and not question it. I suppose the same goes here (at least at my hospital). I suppose I could still argue about it, but I also don't want to ruin my relationship with my Dr. which I think is pretty good at the moment, and I feel like it is too late to change Drs. I had actually tried to schedule my birth at a public hospital when I was about 3 or 4 months along, but was denied, and told that their maternity ward was booked for the winter. It seems that here in Japan one must schedule the birth very early in the pregnancy. The typical hospital stay for a natural birth in Japan is one week (in the States, it's only one day), and I suppose the longer hospital stay contributes to the need for early appointments.
Sorry for the long ramble, I hope it was educational at least :P. Here's hoping that next week the baby won't be so modest and we'll be able to figure out if we're having a boy or a girl :).
