Care In Normal Birth Research Articles

A survey of maternity care in practice in Japan

The present survey was carried out to examine maternity care on the basis of Care in Normal Birth: A Practical Guide by the World Health Organization (1996). The present study surveyed 76 hospitals and 25 midwife clinics in Osaka, Japan. Comparison of the two groups showed that midwife clinics primarily considered the right to women’s informed choice and offered consistent support from the same nurse-midwives during labour and delivery. In hospitals, maternity care was basically aimed at protecting mothers and babies from infection. Many inappropriate practices were still carried out in hospitals, such as the use of enemas in the first stage, pubic shaving, prophylactic insertion of an intravenous cannula and the lithotomy position. These results suggested that the collaboration of hospitals and midwife clinics is imperative for the practice of safety and empathic care in childbirth.