How I Switched to Natural Childbirth
Childbirth is the Last Natural Process Left to Us
Yoshimura Clinic, which I have operated for about fifty years, is located in a residential area, up on a gently sloping hill. It is a ten minute walk from JR Okazaki Station, Aichi Prefecture.
If it is your first visit, you might find yourself walking towards the heavily wooded garden of the clinic. I have not allowed a gardener to enter for decades. Trees and weeds grow as densely as they want.
I like letting trees and weeds grow thick and wild. Trees are beautiful because they have been towering in the sky freely for decades, or even centuries. Sometimes people, unaware of their vitality, trim the branches and spray pesticide at will. I am not impressed by these kinds of trees. Life is haphazard and never goes as we plan, and life is full of energy. What I have seen in childbirth is that “truth of life.”
No matter how science has progressed, childbirth, in essence, has remained unchanged from ancient times.
It is so mysterious, isn’t it? A fertilized egg divides, grows in the mother’s womb, and gradually forms a human being by itself, without any assistance. Once the baby is full-term, labor comes on in waves, the uterus contracts, the cervix opens, and a baby comes out. Who could arrange these processes? Could a machine or a computer imitate this perfect mechanism?
Early humans had babies in the pitch-darkness of caves, and modern people do it with cutting-edge medical equipment. However, the act of bringing a life into this world has never changed.
Childbirth is the last natural process left to human beings. The fact that it has remained unchanged means that there is truth in it. We have sought this truth at Yoshimura Clinic—the truth of childbirth. I would like to talk about this truth in the following chapters.
A teacher from a nursing college visited us recently to see how we operate. In our clinic, women give birth on a futon mattress in an ordinary Japanese-style room, attended by midwives and their family members.
At the birth the teacher witnessed, the baby was born clean. In our clinic, newborns always come out clean with little or no blood on them. If a baby is born bloody, it is because of the doctor’s unnecessary intervention with scissors or forceps.
Our newborns are usually held by their mothers immediately after birth with their umbilical cords still attached. We do nothing unnecessary such as washing or measuring in the moments just after birth.
On that occasion observed by the nursing teacher, the baby girl cried once or twice, and then stopped crying as soon as she was picked up by her mother. She calmed down as if she was entirely content.
She was rosy-pink and wide awake, full of energy but calm. She uttered almost no wild cries as babies often do in other maternity clinics. When a mother has no stress, the baby has no stress either, and there is no fussing around childbirth. Some babies don’t cry out at all, although they are in good condition. They switch quietly to lung breathing, taking deep breaths like adults.
I believe that a baby’s cries at birth arise from fear.
“I’ve never seen such a calm birth. I wonder what was wrong in the many cases I have seen before,” the college teacher said, deeply impressed by this experience.
In our clinic, childbirth is always like this. It is truly natural. We put this naturalness at the core of our practice.
Natural childbirth means childbirth in which I, as a doctor, am not needed. Childbirth is not a disease, so a doctor is unnecessary. Nearly always, given good preparation during pregnancy, all we have to do is to be with a mother and watch her giving birth without drugs or medical intervention.
The Doctor is Only a “Garnish”
When a mother goes into labor, a staff member calls for me to come. But with an experienced midwife and her most trusted family members supporting her, I usually have nothing to do.
I just sit there in the corner, like a “garnish.” Of course, if there is a medical emergency or a problem, I go into action. But this kind of accident rarely happens, even in our clinic which accepts many deliveries that other clinics think of as “high-risk.”
Natural childbirth means that a woman gives birth using her innate ability without any medical intervention. Some maternity clinics proclaim “natural childbirth” to make themselves sound different, but most of them practice episiotomy, which is the surgical incision between the vagina and anus, intended to enlarge the vagina and get the baby out without difficulty. When the delivery is deemed too long, they perform a vacuum extraction, sucking the baby out with a vacuum extractor, or a forceps delivery, gripping the baby’s head and pulling it out.
In cases of breech presentation, cesarean section is performed as a matter of course. If contractions are weak, drugs are used to induce labor or to strengthen contractions. Although they claim to adhere to “natural childbirth,” they rarely provide true natural childbirth without any medical intervention. Their “natural” is a poor imitation of it at best.
On the other hand, at Yoshimura Clinic, we never utilize medical intervention in birthing. We have no operating room here. Some people are shocked to hear this. But it is true.
Almost all babies in difficult breech positions get through the birth canal just as other babies do. Cesarean section is unnecessary. One of the few exceptions is the condition called placenta previa in which the placenta is covering the cervix, causing serious bleeding at birth. But placenta previa is easy to diagnose in advance, so we can send these cases to major hospitals with appropriate operating equipment.
Neither do we have a delivery table as other maternity clinics do. Actually, we do have an old delivery table, but it is not used any more. Imagine that you are on that torture table, lying on your back, with your legs wide apart and strapped down and your private parts the focus of intense light. Then someone comes to you and gives the order, “Now have a baby!” Well, could you have a baby? I think any woman would try to escape that situation if she could.
So we don’t use a delivery table. Here, childbirth takes place in a traditional Japanese tatami room with a futon. You can birth on all fours like an animal, sitting on the futon, in a hot bath, or hanging on to your husband. This last birthing style is not only natural but also comfortable. Everyone’s body is different. Every woman has her favorite position for sleeping or sitting, so of course every woman favors a different position for giving birth. It is so natural for a birthing woman, who has to endure long labor pain, to take up her favorite position.
These days many maternity clinics proclaim “free-style delivery,” which means birthing women can choose their favorite position, but we have practiced it for more than 15 years. In our clinic, every birthing position is accepted. You decide everything. You can take any birthing position you want. You can do everything you want. This is how childbirth should be. Why are they making a fuss over “free-style delivery” now, as if it is a novel idea from abroad?
From Medical Childbirth to Natural Childbirth
I have not always been a natural birth doctor.
I inherited a maternity clinic in Okazaki. My father grew up in a single-father household and studied on his own to enter Tokyo University’s Medical School. I am told that he was only the second student to pass the examination for entry to Tokyo University’s Medical School through the high school equivalence exam instead of the ordinary entrance exam.
As you can see from this episode, he was excellent at studying, but eccentric and somewhat egotistical. My brothers and I suffered as a result of his egotistical behavior, but we couldn’t help loving his sense of fun. Because he was so stubborn and arrogant, I preferred remaining in the university laboratory and continuing my research to joining his practice. In the university hospital, I was very proud of engaging in top-level research with cutting-edge equipment and medicines. I believed I could control every birth and disease.
Now, looking through my old photos, I see a big-headed, arrogant young man. I am sure that if I had stayed in the university hospital, I would have become a very nasty man.
My turning point came at the age of 28, when my father suddenly got sick. I was called back to manage his clinic. I had mixed feelings, because this meant that I had to abandon the university hospital and my dream of becoming a researcher. But somewhere in my mind, I was relieved, because I no longer had to please professors or run around after meaningless data or evidence in that closed society.
At length, I chose to take over for my father. At first, I spoke out in favor of cutting-edge equipment and the latest medical practices. I believed in what I had learned in medical school, and I never doubted the idea that advanced medicine was the best and safest way to give birth. During this period, I made use of the whole range of medical procedures as other maternity clinics do now, including cesarean delivery, labor-inducing medications, forceps delivery, and vacuum extraction. In fact, I was recently surprised to find an old signboard that says “Painless Birth” in my storeroom. I had forgotten that I had done such things.
I was the young, flippant hospital manager of my father’s clinic, a typical doctor, riding around proudly in my Porsche sports car. What changed me was the experience of seeing many births for myself. I learned many things from these births. Among the hundreds I attended, I had some marvelous cases in which even the doctors were visibly moved.
A delighted mother welcomes her baby, with joyful family members sharing her delight, and beautiful, almost divine expressions on the baby’s and the mother’s faces. Attending such a birth and sharing this delight with its spark of life, everyone at the scene is filled with the desire to see other such births. Everyone wants to share this feeling again and again; it’s addicting.
When the woman is relaxed and has no fear of childbirth, and needs no medical attention, she is more likely to have a good birthing experience.
Furthermore, a woman during a good birthing process has a mystic beauty. Sometimes, she looks so awe-inspiring that we cannot look straight at her. I think good childbirth changes a woman into a more feminine, or true Woman, the quintessential essence of a woman. Through these experiences, I gradually came to believe that the fewer the medical interventions, the better the childbirth.
Medical Intervention Interferes with Birth
It was the 12th year since I had taken over Yoshimura Clinic. I was 40. Something happened that made me fundamentally reconsider my attitude towards childbirth. At that time, I had just rebuilt my clinic as a three-story, reinforced-concrete building and introduced the advanced Electronic Fetal Monitoring System.
With this monitoring system, we can observe the labor process from another room. Doctors and nurses don’t need to be with the birthing woman all the time, something I had been taught was critical for safe childbirth.
But shortly after I implemented this monitoring system, I happened to witness a terrible scene. I put a birthing woman who was in early labor into the delivery room, turned on the monitoring system, and left the room. After a while, I looked up at the monitor, and was astonished by the expression on her face. She was paralyzed with fear, alone in the delivery room with electrodes and wires attached to her belly.
I rushed to the delivery room because I knew that too much strain or uneasiness impedes the progress of childbirth. We can observe this phenomenon in herbivores.
Herbivores preparing for birth separate themselves from the group to repair to safer places when labor begins. If they are free from fear, the contractions steadily increase. But if they are approached by a predator or catch any scent of danger, a branch of the autonomic nervous system called the sympathetic nervous system activates and gains the upper hand because of fear. As a result, the contractions decrease, allowing the mother to make her escape. When the mother has reached a safe location, the contractions increase again culminating in delivery.
Thus, herbivores experiencing fear or uneasiness stop the birth process instinctively to protect themselves. It is the same for human beings, but human beings, unlike other mammals, can be frightened simply by ideas about childbirth. So when they become aware of their uneasiness, even when there is no actual danger, the sympathetic nervous system takes over and contractions grow weaker because of the stimulus of fear.
Because of this special thinking and excitable imagination of human beings, women experience birth-delaying stress without there being any actual danger and their contractions decrease. This situation can cause a difficult birth. The monitoring system intended to promote the safety of birthing women produces this adverse result and impedes the normal progress of birth.
After my realization following this experience, I have tried to refrain from using this monitoring system as much as possible. I wasted a lot of money on this system, but actually, it taught me quite a lot. Today, childbirth is treated like a surgical operation and the delivery room is like an operating theater. This arrangement is very convenient for the doctor.
But we should not put birthing women in such an environment. We must not allow unnecessary medical intervention. The way toward good childbirth is to keep a birthing woman calm, help her relax, and bring out her innate ability to give birth.
Little by little, in this way, I began to seek ways to make a transition from medical childbirth to natural childbirth.
Every Day was Full of Joy
That transition meant trying not to use drugs, avoiding cesarean delivery as much as possible, and encouraging mothers to breastfeed their newborns. As I stepped closer to natural childbirth, I earned less money, which was not surprising.
Cesarean delivery is profitable. Each drug given to induce contractions or accelerate childbirth generates profit. The more interventions doctors use, the more money they earn. That is the way the existing health care system works. That is the reason why doctors want to intervene. To tell the truth, cesarean section is the easiest operation in the world. Even a doctor with only a year’s experience could successfully perform it. Making an incision in a healthy woman’s uterus promises a successful outcome with little risk.
Except for emergency cases, you can choose the operation date to suit your timetable, making it much easier than natural childbirth for the doctor. In addition, the birthing woman will be grateful to you, because she believes she has been spared a dangerous natural delivery. Profit, appreciation, ease, and convenience. What more could you ask for? Using drugs to induce or accelerate labor, the delivery can be completed in a shorter time and on schedule, which means the working hours of doctors and nurses can be cut.
At Yoshimura Clinic, we have tried to avoid these kinds of medical interventions as much as possible. As a result, salespeople pushing medications, formula, or medical equipment no longer visit us, because there is no need for such products here. I think we are probably the only maternity clinic in Japan which attracts no salespeople from formula or drug companies.
My clinic became unprofitable, and furthermore, I was treated as a freak and isolated by colleagues. Strangely, the more I cut myself off from the society of doctors, the more I found every day joyful and pleasant. The more I encouraged natural birth, the more often I observed good childbirth. It was just delightful to see brand-new babies and mothers experiencing good childbirth.
Although I was becoming poorer, I was feeling great. I had never known that leaving everything to nature, being natural, could be so comforting.
Becoming a True Woman through Childbirth
Women change as a result of their childbirth experiences. The most striking example was a female detective I met. She had had her first baby by cesarean section in another maternity clinic and had a less than ideal experience, so when she became pregnant with the second baby, she came to me seeking a natural childbirth.
The first time I saw her, I was a little scared. Even though she was a beauty, her stern eyes and rigid all-or-nothing attitude was enough to intimidate me. But after experiencing natural childbirth, she totally changed. She was a totally different woman.
About two years after having the second baby naturally in our clinic, she became pregnant with her third child and came to me again. This time, her face, bearing, and attitude were so feminine that I didn’t recognize her.
The insurance card said she was the same woman I had met before, but when I saw her coming into my office, I thought she was a totally different woman. When I told her my impression, she laughed and said, “My husband says the same thing.” She looked so feminine.
There was another woman who also had her first baby by cesarean in an ordinary maternity clinic, and came to us to have the second baby naturally. She experienced a good natural birth just as she wanted. But when I visited her room the day after delivery, she was weeping with her baby in her arms.
When I asked her what was wrong, she replied that she had been dying to see her husband from the moment she gave birth.
“From the minute I had my baby, I have been missing my husband so much. I want to go home now,” she said.
I was surprised because she seemed to be the last person to say such a thing.
True childbirth transforms a woman into the essence of a woman, the essence of a mother, a true Mother and a true Woman. That’s what I came to think after seeing many women including the two mentioned above. During the experiences of having sex and giving birth, a woman returns to being a Woman. Childbirth, especially, is a precious experience a woman can enjoy several times. Given the significance of the act of giving birth to a life, childbirth may be a critical experience to feel the essence of womanhood. Childbirth has such significance for a woman.
If the doctor makes an unnecessary intervention such as roughly cutting the precious part of a woman’s body, extracting a baby with tools, or strapping her on a birthing table and forcing her to give birth, she misses the chance to be a true Mother, and a true Woman.
She can become a mother biologically, but mentally or culturally, she cannot. That means she fails to become a true Woman. Childbirth is the most important process that can enable a woman to become a Mother and a true Woman. Modern childbirth practices in most maternity clinics are destroying this process.
In fact, the female detective mentioned above could not become either a true Mother or a Woman through her first birth by cesarean. The experience of natural childbirth in our clinic made her aware of her femininity in a way the operation could not.
I love women. I think nothing is more wonderful than a woman. Because I adore and worship women, I feel so good to see women change into true Women. I want to help them become true Women. I want them to be aware of the splendor of women. Maybe that is the reason I became dedicated to natural childbirth.
Weak Contractions Happen for a Reason
In my clinic, even when the contractions are not progressing, we don’t use drugs to augment them. We continue to observe the conditions of the fetus and the mother, and if both are normal, we wait until the natural birthing process continues. Once we had a case that took ten days from the first contraction to eventual delivery.
Sometimes new midwives or visiting obstetricians are shocked by the cases in which the labor contractions continue for two or three days, and they rush over to me.
“Dr. Yoshimura, shouldn’t you be augmenting her labor with drugs?”
No problem. Provided we are observing the condition of the fetus and the mother, and they are good, we don’t have to worry, no matter how long it takes. Weak contractions mean the conditions are not yet perfect for birthing. All you have to do is to wait until they are right.
I will give you an example. Once a woman, aged 37, came to see us from about 150 miles away to give birth to her first child. During her labor, she was in a birthing room in our clinic. But even when her cervix was fully dilated, the baby didn’t come out because of the weakness of the contractions. At that point, I drove her and her husband to our old village woodland about 20 minutes from our clinic to breathe fresh morning air. Her cervix was fully dilated and the baby had already come down through the birth canal; we could actually touch the baby’s head. The baby was about to come out, but didn’t. It meant that the mother’s body and baby were telling us it was not yet time for delivery.
The baby’s heartbeat was very strong, so I just waited and watched for three days. In the meantime, she walked to the supermarket nearby with her husband and the midwife. After shopping, she listened to soothing music and dozed off, then talked with the midwife about life in general.
She was having a relaxing time. It was the night of the third day when full-scale contractions began and she gave birth to a bouncing baby.
In most cases involving weak contractions, labor-inducing medications are used. They say prolonged delivery involves a risk of infection, and is painful for the birthing woman, as well as exhausting both for her and the baby. In the above case, she would have been given an injection of some labor-inducing medication, or been delivered by forceps or vacuum.
But in this case, I did no such thing, because, as I said before, weak contractions have a purpose. Either the mother or the baby is not ready for delivery.
A hundred different women have a hundred different bodies. Usually a baby is pushed out of the uterus through the birth canal. But in some cases, the birth canal is too tight for a baby to come through. In other cases, the pelvis does not open as expected, or takes more time than expected. Every woman has her own body condition, so it is no wonder that every labor is different. The human body coordinates itself correctly in accordance with its own condition.
Of course, the baby also adjusts his or her body in a way that is conducive for the birth. For example, a baby with a head too big to come through the birth canal can easily displace the movable bones of the skull, changing the size of the head.
Some babies change the shape of their heads, from the original round shape into an oval shape, in order to come through the birth canal. While the weak contractions continue, the baby is checking the size of the birth canal by pushing his or her head into it. After changing the size of his or her head temporarily, the baby comes through it.
The mechanism of birthing is amazingly delicate and mysterious. If the baby is big, it takes longer to come out. Even if the baby is small, a tight birth canal might impede smooth delivery. Whether the contractions are weak or strong reflects each woman’s condition. It is so precise and miraculous that, although I am a doctor, I cannot help thinking it is an act of God. If we leave birthing to Nature, or God, babies are born at the proper time. That is the truth of childbirth.
No Labor Inducing-Medications, No Antibiotics
However, if somebody makes an unnecessary intervention during the birthing process, it may damage the newborn. For example, if a doctor gives the birthing woman some medicine to induce strong labor contractions artificially, strong uterine contractions occur, and the baby is squeezed out into the birth canal. But it is obvious that the baby cannot come out, because the mother and/or the baby is not ready for delivery.
If the baby cannot come through the birth canal, it may cause his or her brain to bleed or a rupture of the birth canal. There is little doubt that the baby or mother comes into some danger. So, doctors make the shortsighted decision to perform a cesarean section or drag out the baby with forceps or a vacuum extractor. This action can lead to a difficult birth or a handicapped baby.
If they had left it to Nature, they would have had a healthy baby. Unnecessary intervention poses additional risks to both mothers and babies.
How could they do such a thing? I cannot understand.
I know that obstetric textbooks define the failure of delivery within two hours of the cervix being fully dilated as “abnormal labor,” which requires some kind of medical attention. But who decided this time limit?
Is this time limit applicable in all cases? Each birthing woman and baby has its own condition, situation, and labor. How can they apply this “abnormal labor” definition to all labors that last more than two hours?
In our clinic, we have not used any labor-inducing drugs for years and almost all the babies have been born without any trouble. Why do they use these meaningless medicines and incur additional risks? Obstetrics today is full of things I don’t understand.
The risk is the same for antibiotics.
When the amniotic sac, the membrane which surrounds the fetus, ruptures and amniotic fluid leaks out, we say that a woman’s water has broken. Usually, after the water has broken, labor moves rapidly to the next stage and the baby is soon born after.
But Nature doesn’t work at the doctor’s convenience. Even if her water has broken, we cannot always expect that the contractions will get strong enough and the baby will come out quickly.
According to obstetric textbooks, the failure of delivery within 48 hours after rupture of the membranes is regarded as “abnormal labor” and requires cesarean section or labor-inducing medications. If they only took more time and waited for the natural progress of delivery, they would reduce risks for the baby. But, they cannot wait.
Obstetric textbooks also say that rupture of the membranes makes the baby, who was immersed in and protected by amniotic fluid, come into direct contact with the external world, a situation which demands the doctor give the mother antibiotics to prevent infection.
In my early days, I would often use antibiotics in line with obstetric textbooks, which said that without them, the fetus would become infected. That was what I learned in medical school. But after I began to provide natural childbirth and saw many healthy babies born, I came to the conclusion that we don’t have to use unnecessary things, we don’t have to worry, and we can leave childbirth up to the Universe.
I reduced the usage of antibiotics little by little, and at last I stopped it completely, and we have not seen any infection since then. Textbooks are full of lies!
Doctors like words such as “evidence” or “data.” But this evidence or these data should prove what they say. They never did experiments as I did, did they? At least, I have hundreds of proven examples to disprove their theory.
And Then, Even Coached Pushing Fell to the Wayside
When a woman gives birth in her chosen birthing position in a dimly lit, Japanese-style room, she has an animal-like look on her face. She is experiencing a moment when reason must be put away and she can revert to a wild state. It is also the beginning of the mystery of childbirth. At Yoshimura Clinic, we leave almost all the delivery process to Nature. As animals give birth in dim caves or hiding places, birthing women in our clinic give birth in a relaxing atmosphere with dim light. We prepare a Japanese-style room with a futon instead of a glaringly lit delivery room.
Midwives don’t exhort a birthing woman to push with each contraction. Even when the head of the baby is about to come out, they don’t press down on her abdomen or urge her to push. They help the baby out only by relying on natural uterine contractions and involuntary abdominal muscle contraction.
Once we adopted this approach, all our birthing women ceased pushing in the way I had been taught in medical school. This puzzled me. They didn’t make up their minds not to do so. I quit giving instructions, and the natural contractions just happened by themselves. It was great.
Delivery means pushing. Everyone thinks so. I thought so, too. But natural childbirth requires no deliberate pushing. This was a startling finding. It is nothing but the genius of the universe.
This birthing style is not based on any conventional manuals, ideas, or methods promoted by doctors. Our manual is created spontaneously, naturally, through our observations and the open discussions we have among the staff at my clinic.
This is neither the high-handed command of a doctor or a manual based on academic books. It is based on what we are doing. I established this clinic, not this birthing style. It is nothing but the work of the Universe.
This birthing style often takes dozens of hours before delivery. However, childbirth brought about by a woman’s innate ability is full of joy. Now, there are many breathing methods designed to turn the woman’s attention away from the pain of contractions and there are lots of classes for pregnant women. But I think these types of breathing make them focus their attention on breathing itself so that they cannot be guided by the natural flow of childbirth. When the Lamaze Method became popular, I felt something was wrong. In fact, many women told me that, although they practiced the Lamaze Method very hard, it was utterly useless at the actual childbirth.
All methods have this sort of absurdity. These things come into being because they ignore Nature.
Once, a group promoting the Lamaze Method made the big mistake of inviting me to one of their sessions. Maybe they thought we had something in common in terms of “natural childbirth.” But I criticized the Lamaze Method to their faces. I went so far as to call it “The Deceiving Method.” After that, they never invited me again.
All affected ways of living make people unhappy. Childbirth is not an intellectual activity. It is a sensory activity. All you have to do is to give yourself over to God, or to Nature. If you have no fears and give yourself over to the universe, the natural mechanism which has generated innumerable lives on earth for billions of years, you can have a perfect childbirth.
Artificial Childbirth Deprives Mother and Baby of Their Happiness
The most important consideration in the process of childbirth is to keep the mother from fear or uneasiness. As we have already seen in the case of herbivores’ birth, women under strain have difficulty giving birth. Therefore, one must not take her to the operating room, strap her on the delivery table, direct a strong light on her, or let doctors in operating gowns with scary scalpels and tools in their hands stand around.
Birth under strain often turns out to be difficult, resulting in an incision having to be made into a precious part of the mother’s body and dragging the baby out. Any mother who saw her baby covered with blood, terrified and in pain, would never want to have a baby again.
If the mother is tense, it affects the baby. The mother’s uneasiness and fear engender panic in the baby. When the mother is not relaxed, her birth canal remains tight and causes great stress to the baby. But more than anything, a dazzling light in an operating room is frightening for the baby who has emerged from pitch-darkness. The baby gets frightened and holds back.
When the baby hesitates, suddenly someone drags him or her out with forceps or a vacuum extractor. I’m sure it is a terrible experience for the baby. Doctors press the suction cup of the extractor tightly on the baby’s head, suck the air out of the cup to create a vacuum, and give a strong pull. Forceps are even more terrifying. They grip the baby’s head with a pair of tongs and pull. I can imagine it being extremely painful.
Such childbirth can be a dreadful experience for both mother and baby, one which they would never want to be reminded of again. Traumatic childbirth might cause the mother to hate her own baby instinctively, or the baby to be a nervous and hard-to-raise child because of the frightening experiences burned into his or her memory. We must not make childbirth such a traumatic experience.
I believe that artificial childbirth is destructive to the mother-child relationship. If you believe in Nature and follow through by putting this belief into words and actions, almost all childbirth will go well. All doctors have to do is to bring out women’s birthing ability, as is the case with animals, instead of intervening unnecessarily. The doctor’s role is to teach her how to give birth by herself.
Born with Unclenched Hands
When the time comes, the cervix softens like a ripe persimmon. Normally, it feels like cartilage, similar to how your nose feels to the touch. But when labor begins, it gets softer and softer. And when the baby is about to be born, it gets softer than anything else on earth. How can the cervix, which is usually hard and tight, change into such soft and pliant material only at the moment of childbirth? No one knows. I cannot describe it as anything other than a Mystery.
Once I talked to a woman who had touched her own birth canal during her delivery. “It was warm, wet, and light like air with no resistance, a symbol of motherhood which accepts everything,” she said. How does the baby feel when he or she passes through it? I don’t know whether it is comfortable or painful.
But at least, if we try to avoid unnecessary medical intervention, remove the mother’s tension, and wait until the natural birthing process begins, the baby will pass unharmed through this soft birth canal into the world. There is no doubt about it.
Babies born without any stress have a mysterious beauty. And they sometimes make strange movements beyond our imagination. For example, I saw a baby who was born with all his hands and feet wriggling like a dancing caveman. I wonder what it meant. It was a really strange sight.
Some babies are born with their arms outstretched and all fingers open. Our new midwives are always surprised to see these babies because they have been taught to believe that all babies are born with their fists clenched.
I know the reason why these babies are born crying, with their fists clenched and eyes closed tightly. That is because they are scared. As I said before, some of our newborns take deep breaths rather than utter wild cries.
Once, a nurse under training rubbed a newborn girl vigorously on her back because she didn’t cry at birth.
I told her, “Don’t do that. Such a violent reaction causes trauma to the baby. Look at her. She is already breathing by herself. Why would you force her to cry?” The nurse was shocked to hear this.
There is one similarity among the newborns born in our facility. They have an extremely relaxed expression on their faces. None of them are born with their eyes closed tightly from fear. Some open their eyes soon after their birth, look around curiously, and fall peacefully asleep.
But babies who were pulled or dragged out by force are different. They look scared and tense, and always on their guard. They often have trouble sleeping. Also, they are so nervous that they get startled at the slightest sound and cry. Many of them are hard to raise, because they had a frightening experience at birth.
Babies who had no stress at birth grow up differently. All the babies revisiting our clinic for their one-month health-check look as if they are on a natural high. Once a young doctor in training looked at our babies and said, “Babies born in your clinic look as though they have lost their intelligence. Every baby looks half-dazed.”
That’s because they don’t have any worries. Because they are in the arms of their mothers, breastfed, and satisfied. But upon getting hungry or losing sight of their mother, they would scream. In life-threatening situations, adrenaline kicks in and they become aware. It is the same in wild animals.
Babies born naturally can develop this sort of instinct.
Birthing Women Experience Total Bliss
As I said before, babies who have experienced stress-free childbirth have a somewhat carefree expression on their faces. The same can be said of the mothers. If the birthing woman in the middle of delivery worries about how she looks, fears what is coming, wonders if the baby is handicapped or not, or has many things on her mind, it causes her stress. As a result, she cannot give herself over to Nature.
The human brain is divided into two parts. The cerebral cortex or “new brain,” which is the advanced brain, controls reason, theory, and consciousness. The other part is “the old brain” which is responsible for the basic functions for sustaining life including the autonomic nervous system, the endocrine system, and the immune system.
The “old brain” and “new brain” are in conflict with each other. When the “old brain” is active, the “new brain” is inactive, and when the “new brain” dominates, the “old brain” calms down. When we are doing intentional activity like working, studying, or participating in social engagement, the “new brain” gains the upper hand.
Childbirth should be performed primarily by using the “old brain.” If the birthing woman uses the “new brain” and suppresses the “old brain,” childbirth will not go well. You cannot give birth by reason, theory, or intention. For childbirth, you should release the primitive brain; use the “old brain,” so that the autonomic nervous system, endocrine system, and immune system will work better. As a result, the birth process will function well.
When the birth process functions well, the birthing woman has a special and wonderful expression on her face. It is because the “old brain” is excited and the production of female hormones reaches a peak, resulting in this true feminine expression. Also she is filled with a loving feeling for her baby. The desire to love her child is irresistible because of this outpouring of love hormones.
This loving feeling never comes from the intellect. She can breastfeed her baby repeatedly through the night because she loves her baby instinctively. Mothers who give birth intellectually say, “Oh, I’m sleepy. Please let me sleep through the night.”
Some mothers feel so much love, happiness and pleasure that they lose all the memories of the moment of childbirth. Others look as if they are on another planet because they are so happy. True natural childbirth is obviously such a great joy.
Childbirth should not be something that you would never want to go through again. True childbirth is something that you should want to experience again and again to have the same feeling of immense delight, love, and happiness.
Once a young mother around twenty had a baby in my clinic. After the birth, she was staring at her baby in wonderment and then said, “I will do my best to bring up this baby with my whole heart.” Her words moved me very much.
Natural childbirth is the work of the Universe. And a woman who has experienced such childbirth gets closer to God. She feels she could give her life away for her child as God does. The profile of such a woman looks like a bodhisattva.
Childbirth is an act of God. I have become convinced of that.
Natural Childbirth Requires No Guidebook
Acting by instinct is essential for good childbirth. In childbirth, you should not use the cerebral cortex, or the new brain, which controls reason, because it makes for intellectual and self-conscious childbirth. If you are thinking with your head, or “on cerebral cortex,” in the course of childbirth, thinking about something such as “Such behavior is disgraceful” or “This should not be done” or “I wonder if the baby is a boy or a girl,” you hold back your instinct. It will interfere with the function of the primitive childbirth mechanism including hormone secretion and autonomic nervous system function.
Inducing contractions or pulling and pushing the baby using medical equipment lessens the vitality and spiritual energy essential for childbirth.
On the other hand, if you activate your instinct and the old brain, you can maximize the capability of the childbirth mechanism. You can have a baby in the most joyous and relaxed condition. The delight is deeper than what we can imagine.
And in this kind of childbirth, babies are born in peace and happiness. Some babies fall asleep right after birth. In one case, when I was loading film to take photos of the newborn right after birth, I heard a big snore. Looking back, I saw the newborn was already snoring. Recently, we have had many of these laid back “big guys,” uninterested in the cares of the world.
After the delivery, the love hormones are released inside the mother’s body so that she loves her baby without reason. She can love her baby instinctively, so she needs no guidebook for childcare. When her baby cries, she holds the baby in her arms, feeds him or her at the breast, or checks the diaper.
Newborns live instinctively, so if their mothers love them instinctively, they can feel it. Such babies will grow up into sensitive children without the need for expensive infant education.
APGAR Scores are Surprisingly High
Obstetricians use a special score called the APGAR score to evaluate the condition of newborns right after birth. It assesses the baby’s Appearance, Pulse, Grimace, Activity, and Respiration on a 10 point scale to quantify the health condition.
Our newborns’ APGAR scores are very high. Most babies born in my clinic get a perfect 10. Put simply, naturally born babies are always in good health. But I don’t mean that all the women coming to our clinic are having a normal pregnancy or are in good health. On the contrary, we have more high-risk pregnancy cases than other clinics. Many high-risk women travel long distances to visit our clinic, hoping to have a natural childbirth. Some of them have already been diagnosed as requiring a cesarean. Others are concerned about late-in-life pregnancy or babies that present in the breech position.
Even these women can give birth naturally and have the healthiest babies. Although I don’t like data or numbers, I will show you the data for my clinic.
At the Yoshimura Clinic, the percentage of cesarean sections (the cases transferred to another hospital which has a good operating facility) is 3.2 percent for these 3 years. This is compared with 20-25 percent in other maternity clinics. Hence, you can see how low this rate is in my clinic.
Also, the percentage of forceps deliveries in my clinic is 0 percent, and that of vacuum extraction is 0.5 percent. We choose vacuum extraction on rare occasions when the heartbeat of the baby slows at the last stage of delivery, and perform it very carefully and gently. Anyway, medical intervention is very rare. Most doctors would be surprised to hear these figures and wonder how it is possible.
In my clinic, women diagnosed as having high-risk pregnancies have babies naturally, and the babies’ APGAR scores are high. What does this imply? It means that women who give birth naturally without unnecessary medical interventions are more likely to have healthy babies. I think these babies are not only healthy but also are less prone to problems.
Recently, we had a baby who appeared to be stillborn. Although there was no problem during the process of delivery, the baby boy was not breathing at birth. Generally speaking, all childbirth is unpredictable. Sometimes we cannot find the reason for the trouble. Since childbirth is an act of God, sometimes we can find no other words than “we don’t know the reason” to describe these problems.
That baby boy appeared to be stillborn, but as soon as we patted him on the back and rubbed his skin, he began breathing by himself. And in 30 minutes, he became as vigorous as other babies born in the normal way. When I was young, I saw many babies who appeared to be stillborn in the University Hospital, but few of them recovered in such a short time. In most cases, doctors immediately took resuscitative measures such as inserting a tube into the throat to restore respiration artificially, or putting the baby in an incubator and monitoring it closely for days. Despite these measures, some babies still grow with difficulty.
If the mother gives birth with her innate birthing ability, the baby revives quickly even if he or she seems to be stillborn. I am sure that naturally born babies have just as strong an instinct for survival as animals born in the savanna.
Never Choose Cesarean Section Lightly
I hear that more and more hospitals perform cesarean sections even for normal pregnancy and some women regard a cesarean as “cool” and are proud of having their babies by this method. That is dreadful. These women only swallow the bait of those doctors seeking an easy way to make money. Wake up, dear women! Doctors only want to make money through cesarean sections, hoping to offset the decreasing income from abortion these days.
I don’t understand why these women take a short-cut by choosing a surgical operation under anesthesia instead of enjoying the precious experience. Childbirth is too important an experience to miss by taking a short cut. A woman who has a baby artificially by cesarean misses the chance to be a true Mother or a true Woman. Childbirth by cesarean does not give her a real feeling of giving birth by herself, so she doesn’t feel the overwhelming affection for the baby that she would have had from a natural birth.
If a birthing woman has a baby by surgical operation, she sees the baby after awaking from anesthesia or feeling only the pressure and tugging she feels if she has had an epidural. She is told, “This is your baby.” Does she feel the same affection welling up as she would have through childbirth using her “old brain”? My observation tells me it is different.
A mother who skips labor pain and delivery cannot have the release of love hormones that is triggered by fully-realized vaginal birth. Sometimes, she has to purposefully convince herself that the baby is “her baby.” Some might find it difficult to love their baby.
Another reason I am against cesarean section is that it can be harmful for the baby. Babies removed from the uterus by a surgical incision often look pale and have problems such as rapid breathing.
These babies are brought out suddenly before they are prepared, so it is understandable that they tend to have problems. Nature intends for babies to work hard to traverse the birth canal.
For example, when a baby is passing through the narrow birth canal, his or her body is compressed and the amniotic fluid in the lungs is squeezed out. This helps the baby breathe easily after she or he comes out. On the other hand, a baby who is brought out via an operation does not go through this process, so he or she tends to have breathing difficulties.
Also, the increasing stimulation experienced as a result of the strengthening of the contractions makes the baby stronger and more vigorous. In other words, only strong babies who manage to survive this struggle come into this world. Cesarean section deprives them of the chance to experience this natural hardship.
Labor pain is the hardship Nature has given to us, through which a woman becomes a mother and a baby becomes a human being. I sincerely believe that women who choose an easy way and avoid this hardship will have to pay for it later.
Even Breech Babies are Born Smoothly
How about cesarean sections for medical reasons? For example, in almost all hospitals these days, doctors choose cesarean section for a breech baby. But in my clinic, most breech babies are born naturally, through the birth canal.
Please forgive me for saying this if you are a woman who had to choose cesarean section because there was no other choice. I would never deny that you love your baby from the bottom of your heart. I actually know many mothers who are raising their children very well, despite having experienced a necessary cesarean. I would like you to accept my comments as my personal and extreme view.
If a baby is in the breech position, most hospitals advise the mother to choose cesarean section. In fact, in the case of a double footling breech (a birth in which both feet present first), I am sure that all hospitals perform a cesarean section.
The real threat with the breech position is that the baby’s foot may come out first and the head, which is the biggest part of the body, may stay behind. If the baby’s head gets stuck, both the mother and the baby will be in danger. Recently, more and more doctors choose cesarean section for breech babies in advance for fear of getting sued for medical malpractice. This has resulted in a situation where many doctors have never attended a vaginal birth for a breech baby.
However, in my clinic, even footling breech babies are born through the birth canal. I think it is important that all birthing women, including breech babies’ mothers, have a chance to experience natural childbirth. I have gone through a lot of trial and error in coming to this position, and at last I have reached a conclusion. If a pregnant woman does physical labor as hard as her ancestors did one hundred years ago, eats Japanese traditional food for almost every meal, believes in Nature instead of doctors, and lives a nature-based life, almost all breech babies can be born smoothly, through the birth canal.
In medical schools, we have been taught that all breech babies need cesarean section. But this is wrong. A vaginal birth for a breech baby is possible. Even during the Edo Period (A.D. 1603-1867) when there were no obstetricians, women had babies. They were able to do it. Why shouldn’t we be able to? Yoshimura Clinic has proved it is possible.
At first, however, it required considerable courage for me to choose a vaginal birth for a breech baby. Breech babies with the buttocks coming out first are not so difficult to assist because the size of the head and the buttocks is quite similar. The most serious type of breech position is the footling breech. Even now, when I attend a delivery for a footling breech baby, I am extremely tense. All of us risk our lives to have a baby.
The mother risks her life and I risk my life, too. The baby also risks his or her life to be born. That is the truth of childbirth. There is no easy or convenient way to produce a life. I always make this point clear in our parenting classes.
However, I am a doctor. I don’t want to cause anyone to die, including myself. When I attend the birth of a breech baby, I dissemble my tension completely in order not to worry the mother.
But once again, the Universe gives us great mysterious power and blows away our little fears or worries. When the baby is descending through the birth canal, we cannot see what is going on inside. We just wait and wait, and at last the baby is born smoothly. I have experienced such childbirth hundreds of times and am always overwhelmed by the great power of God.
If we leave it in nature’s hands, almost all childbirth goes well. Even a breech baby can be born without difficulty. The problem is whether we can be courageous enough to wait or not. An indecisive woman who gets frightened in the middle of birth and begs for the operation will never experience true childbirth.
No Vegging Out, No Pigging Out, No Freaking Out
In Yoshimura Clinic, breech babies are born smoothly. Even high-risk pregnancies end up in natural birth. In addition, the APGAR scores of our babies are always high. Can you guess the reason?
It is because we encourage all expectant mothers to live a natural life. For example, they have to do hard physical exercise every day. All wild animals find their food by themselves, move around, and protect themselves. Only human beings are denied this way of life. This is the reason we have difficult births and pregnancy complication such as toxemia.
Look at animals which grow up in the zoo or pets domesticated by human beings. They often have difficulty in getting pregnant or giving birth. It is because they stopped living naturally and lost their innate vitality. It is the same for human beings. Modern people take naps in air-conditioned rooms, watch television, and eat snacks constantly. This kind of lifestyle is unnatural for living things and causes problems in childbirth.
In addition, we live in an information-oriented society. Pregnant women are bombarded by a lot of unnecessary information that makes them scared. To make matters worse, doctors give advice in a threatening way and forbid them to do things. So pregnant women become intimidated and lose their vitality. As a result, they cannot experience good childbirth.
Lazing about, stuffing oneself, and worrying; these are enemies of good childbirth. This is why, in the Yoshimura Clinic, we urge all expectant mothers to do hard physical exercise. They should walk at least three hours and do three hundred squats every day. Also they should eat natural food as much as possible, while being careful not to eat too much.
Physical exercise in nature liberates your mind and body, and improves immunity. It increases the circulation of blood in the body, stimulates the dynamic release of hormones, and strengthens bones and muscles. When you exercise enough, you stop worrying about little things and lose the fear of childbirth. If you lead a nature-based life as normal living things do, everything goes well. Humans are designed to operate like this.
Physical exercise has a positive effect on the fetus, too. If the mother is a couch potato and eats snacks all the time, the baby also grows lazy in the absence of stimuli. When a big stimulus like a contraction begins, the baby gets exhausted easily. But if the mother is physically active, the baby is jolted and stimulated all the time. Appropriate stress helps the baby to increase its vitality.
In medical textbooks, we can find explanations such as “the size of the baby’s head doesn’t fit the shape or size of the mother’s pelvis” or “the angle of entry of the baby’s head is not appropriate,” but these things cannot be the essential causes of difficult childbirth. The problem is whether the mother has led a natural life or not.
In fact, it is very rare that such biological abnormality causes trouble in childbirth. Almost all kinds of obstetric abnormalities arise due to the mother’s lifestyle. No vegging out, no pigging out, and no freaking out. If you have no guts or vitality, you cannot have a healthy baby. You have to do a lot of physical activity in a natural setting to release your mind and body, and boost your vitality to its peak. If these conditions are met, then almost all babies will be born without any problem, including those in the breech position, babies with big heads, and high-risk babies.
Working in “The Old House” Builds up the Body for a Smooth Birth
An expectant mother with her belly protruding raises an axe above her head and splits firewood. The log is split in two and rolls on the ground. Her colleagues cheer her on, shouting, “Hey, put your back into it!”
There is an old Japanese-style house with a thatched roof called “The Old House” next to the Yoshimura Clinic. In the front garden of The Old House, expectant mothers enjoy chopping firewood every day. The Old House is the true traditional house of the Edo Period, which is rarely seen these days. Here, expectant mothers carry out traditional tasks like chopping firewood, hauling water up out of a well, or kneeling down and cleaning the floor with a wet rag.
This “Working in The Old House,” which surprised all the early visitors, started about twenty years ago. I found this house in a mountain village an hour’s drive from Okazaki, and I moved it and rebuilt it next to my clinic. It had been ten years since I took over the clinic, and I had just finished the renovations of the main building.
At first, I used this old house for drinking parties with my buddies, but after a while, I opened it up to expectant mothers in the clinic. In the middle of the earthen floor of the kitchen, we installed a traditional Japanese cooking stove. The living room has bamboo flooring. In this house, expectant mothers do the sort of domestic work that women of the Edo Period did. At noon, they eat rice cooked on the old stove for lunch and enjoy chatting. All the mothers who have participated in such activities in The Old House say this gathering provided them with precious moral support during their pregnancy, a period in which women tend to become isolated.
But why do they chop firewood with axes or clean the floor with wet rags in these modern times? It is because I think the lifestyle of the Edo Period gives us helpful hints for having a smooth childbirth. I am interested in childbirth in the agrarian society of the Edo Period. I know that many babies died of infectious diseases or malnutrition at that time, but despite that, women usually had babies smoothly and reared them easily. No matter how many babies they had, they didn’t lose their good health, because they lived nature-based lives. They rose at dawn, cultivated their fields, attended domestic work, and ate the crops they grew in moderate quantities. Even though pregnant women spent their time working in the fields, they had healthy babies.
Physical exercises soften muscles and joints, making childbirth much easier. As long as the mother doesn’t eat too much, the baby will not grow too big for her to deliver safely and naturally. In addition, a nature-based life brings out women’s innate vitality as living beings. That is the reason women of the Edo Period gave birth smoothly with midwives, and without doctors.
Of course, our expectant mothers could walk three hours or do three hundred squats by themselves, but doing exercise naturally through domestic work in The Old House, while chatting with friends, is more enjoyable. With friends, they can forget their anxiety about childbirth and relax.
That is how “Working in The Old House” began. Thanks to this “work,” all the women who regularly visited The Old House during their pregnancy had an easy childbirth.
In addition, we sometimes hold a picnic for expectant mothers. The destination is a park near the Yoshimura Clinic. A pack of pregnant women with lunch baskets and water bottles march in line, showing off their big bellies and offering a spectacle rarely seen elsewhere.
I used to take the women on drives to the countryside, though I rarely do it now, since my legs have become weak. Fields of rice swaying in a gentle breeze, clear streams running through fields, and unpaved pathways going on forever; the scenery recalled long-forgotten memories from the depths of my mind. Walking with pregnant women in the countryside, I sometimes felt I was slipping back in time to the Edo Period.
Activities such as picnics in the countryside or the traditional domestic tasks in The Old House eventually bring about the miracle of childbirth.
Premature Birth Disappeared
Nowadays, a significant proportion of pregnant women receive medical treatment to stop premature labor. But in my clinic, we never have a case of premature birth. To many, this would seem a miracle.
How have we achieved this miracle? By requiring all expectant mothers to do hard physical exercise. Normally, when a pregnant woman says she can feel her uterus tightening, doctors order her to take complete rest in order to avoid the threat of a premature birth. They give her shots of Ritodrine to control uterine contractions, which is a very expensive medication, making it very profitiable for doctors to prescribe it. I believe this is one reason they inject it for the slightest contraction.
When the cervix is opening early or the fetus is descending, doctors take it very seriously. The expectant mother is rushed off to the hospital and placed on complete bed-rest from the sixth month to the eighth or even ninth month, as well as receiving repeated shots of Ritodrine. And even in these cases, she often has to have a cesarean section and have the baby prematurely. So why did she have to receive the Ritodrine shots or stay in the hospital?
At the Yoshimura Clinic, we do the opposite. “You can feel your uterus tightening? Take a long walk” or “The cervix is opening slightly. You should do some hard exercise.” That’s what we say. And we never have premature births. If it happens at all, it is not earlier than the 35th week. In most cases, expectant mothers in our clinic have healthy babies at full-term, ranging from 38 to 40 weeks. Doctors say physical exercise causes premature birth, but this is an absolute lie. If you want to prevent premature birth, you have to do hard physical exercise.
Physical exercise boosts the vitality of the uterus. If you stay in bed, how can you boost your vitality? To make matters worse, medication decreases vitality.
The uterus has its own vitality and provides the function of nurturing, protecting, and developing a baby. Once the contractions begin, they provide another function: pushing the baby out of the mother’s body. If the vitality of the uterus increases, both functions work well, which means they prevent premature birth during pregnancy while making the delivery easier during the last stage.
Doctors visiting our clinic are often totally shocked to hear my advice to the patients. “Dr. Yoshimura, how can you give such risky advice?” they ask.
They have been taught that pregnant women who develop signs of premature labor should avoid physical exercise so as not to cause premature delivery. But I always answer, “How do you know this is an indication of premature labor? Have you ever proved it yourself? Are you sure the textbooks always tell the truth?”
I have put everything to the test and seen the results for myself. Although I advise pregnant women to do hard physical exercise, they never give birth prematurely. We have accepted many women who have been rushed to my clinic, having been warned by doctors, “You are going to have a premature birth.” However, in my clinic, very few of them actually have given birth prematurely.
Doctors are afraid of putting this to the test themselves. I took the risk and proved I was right. If mothers work as hard as they did in the Edo Period, as well as refrain from vegging out, pigging out, and freaking out, they don’t have premature births. Almost all births will go well.
The Growing Circle of “The House of Childbirth”
In 1999, I built a new wooden house behind The Old House using traditional Japanese construction methods. With this house, I wanted to revive home birth which used to be very common in the olden days before hospital birth became popular. Thus I named it The House of Childbirth.
This house has three Japanese-style tatami rooms facing south, a wide open, veranda-like corridor encircling the rooms, a Japanese-style bath, and a kitchen. As you enter, you inhale a pleasant woody smell as well as experience a very relaxing atmosphere. You may be assailed by a sense of nostalgia and vividly imagine that an old Japanese family is living there.
The expectant mother enters The House of Childbirth when her contractions begin. She can live normally here together with her family, including her husband, children, and parents, as if she were in her own home. With all her family members watching over her, the birthing process begins and a new life is born. This is the type of childbirth the Japanese have experienced throughout the ages.
The supportive and warm atmosphere, as well as the presence of family members, maximizes the woman’s innate birthing ability. In contrast to childbirth in a delivery room in a hospital, getting scolded by a doctor and trembling with fear, laboring in The House of Childbirth encourages hormone release and proper functioning of the autonomic nervous system. Thus, the mother is able to experience wonderful, natural, and true childbirth.
In The House of Childbirth, a midwife always stays with the expectant mother. No matter how long it takes, the midwife keeps waiting until the natural process of childbirth begins. It requires a lot of patience on the part of the doctor and the midwife, but nothing can replace this experience in The House of Childbirth.
Then when the time comes, the woman can choose any place, any position, or any style for her childbirth. In the Japanese-style birthing room, there is a rope called the “Chikara-Zuna” (Rope of Strength) hanging down from the ceiling. Some take up a half-crouching position, holding on to this rope, and others choose to give birth in the bathtub. Others get down on all fours to give birth. The woman can choose any birthing style or position. This is true natural childbirth.
In case there is a medical problem, we are always ready to take her to the Yoshimura Clinic next to The House of Childbirth, but we have never had such a case. At childbirth where the birthing woman is aware of her innate ability and ready to maximize her vitality to the fullest, doctors have almost nothing to do.
After the baby is born, the family shares the time together until the mother and the baby are discharged. All mothers who have experienced childbirth in The House of Childbirth say that the days spent with their husbands and children gathered around the newborn were the happiest days of their lives. One mother called this house The Sanctuary for Childbirth.
When I built The House of Childbirth, we had three midwives dedicated to childbirth. At that time, we were able to accept anyone who applied. But now, we are short of hands so that we cannot accept more than one or two cases a month. Nowadays, most mothers are obliged to choose the Yoshimura Clinic rather than The House of Childbirth. You have to be extremely lucky to have your baby in The House of Childbirth. If there are too many applicants, you may have to give birth in a Japanese-style birthing room at the Yoshimura Clinic.
To be honest, I would like every woman to have her baby in The House of Childbirth. However, so many pregnant women continue to visit us that we cannot accept them all. I wish more people would adopt this approach to childbirth all over Japan, but in fact, it takes too much effort and makes very little profit. Only alternative doctors like me adopt this method. Still, the network of mothers, midwives, and doctors who have experienced our type of childbirth is gradually expanding throughout Japan.
I have no doubt that true childbirth will fire everyone’s imagination. We need true childbirth, rather than the childbirth of today in which the doctor’s convenience and profit come first. I just continue to pray for the day when every woman will become aware of her dignity and greatness as a woman.