6 Tips for Giving Birth Abroad
A midwife friend of mine spent time supporting birthing women in West Africa and she told me stories about women giving birth there and of how they were required to labor and birth in complete silence. Across the Atlantic, in parts of latin american, midwives are being persecuted for providing care, but hospital access can be difficult to come by, leaving many women with no choices but for institutionalized births. In Japan, many hospitals don’t offer epidurals but do routine episiotomies. Birthing options and care can vary widely depending on the culture. Here are 6 tips for birth you can use anywhere in the world.
Here are 6 things you can do to help you prepare for birth wherever you find yourself ready to bring your baby into the world.
1. Build community during pregnancy, don’t wait until after birth.
This is especially important living over seas because making mummy friends at the park or at the school drop off can be intimidating when you’re in a culture that isn’t your own. So start actively building a friend network with other people who have similar due dates to you and then make plans to meet with each other often after the babies are born! Trying to make friends in another language/country/culture when you’re sleep deprived is no small feat so set yourself up beforehand!
2. Find a care provider who speaks a language you are comfortable with.
Even if you’re good and relatively fluent in the language that you are living in, it’s helpful to have a care provider who can speak your more comfortable language. When you’re in labor you won’t want to have to use your brain to translate - it will take you out of your “birth zone” and straight into your head!
3. Don’t forget about midwives if it is an option for you!
If you live in a country where midwives are available, check them out. Midwives work in both hospital settings, free standing birth centers, and often in-home. One of the many great things about midwifery care is that midwives are ALL trained to support natural birth and the great thing about natural birth is, it’s the same world-wide for all people - it’s literally cross-cultural.
Whereas, Institutionalized birth can vary widely country to country in terms of policies, services and care providers. Midwifery care is thorough, comforting and addresses the birthing person as a whole person, which I’ll be blunt here, hospitals don’t (and can’t) do. An added benefit is that you will most likely receive some traditional care from the country you reside in. For example, in Japan midwives use moxibustion on pregnant women, which is an acupuncture technique.
4. Thoroughly interview birth centers/hospitals/midwives
When you are choosing a place to give birth think about it like you are interviewing them for a job. Ask them about cesarean rates, episiotomy rates, whether they follow birth plans, let you have the baby immediately, allow the use of pain medications.
Everything you’ve heard from your friends back home about birth may need to be completely re-written in your new country of residence. For example, episiotomies are routine in Japan, but epidurals are not. This is the opposite of the US. Once you understand the policies of the places you can give birth at, you can make an informed decision about where, how and with what care providers you want to give birth with (example, if you know you want an epidural in Japan, you’re options are limited and this will factor into how many options you have).
5. Learn about advocacy:
Some cultures are more accepting of advocacy in birth than others. How much are you supported by your place of birth in standing by your birth desires and how much push back can you expect? Unfortunately, birth is often bureaucratic so think about whether you think you and your partner can advocate for your desires, or if you want to hire a doula to help.
6. Prepare for birth like you’re prepping to summit Mt. Fuji.
You may feel less comfortable because you are not in your country of origin, and perhaps not in your mother tongue. Feeling less comfortable means you will be pulled more into your fight or flight response, so you must train your mind and body to be in a more restorative state. This is true for every birth, but especially if you’re in a different environment. Get ready to be in the birth zone so that you can focus solely on your job of birthing, not on the foreignness of what is going on around you. If you planned to climb Mt. Fuji, you would plan, train and prepare yourself as best you could. Birth is the same!
Birth is birth, worldwide. But systems, policies, and care providers can vary greatly from place to place. Do your research and use your community online and in person so you’re set up for success!
Kathleen is a certified Birth and Postpartum Doula, a Certified Pilates Instructor and a Pelvic Health Specialist. She owns Tokyo Prenatal Center, which is dedicated to supporting the women of Tokyo and women worldwide, online, by offering the highest quality maternal care.