Keiko Tsuji: Care and Empowerment

July 24, 2023

Daily life has returned to campus. Through face-to-face interactions with students, including in classes, I am once again reminded of the challenges and strengths of that uniqueness. This may be because it resonates with the concept of "care," which provides direction to nursing and healthcare and facilitates understanding.

Currently, I am mainly in charge of midwifery subjects. The role of a midwife is to maintain and support the normal progress of pregnancy and childbirth. Inherently, pregnancy and childbirth are viewed as healthy, physiological changes. However, even if the progress seems to follow a generally common pattern, it differs from person to person (and even for the same person each time). Therefore, the care required is truly unique to each occasion. I am currently conducting research focusing on labor duration and health outcomes for mothers and infants, as well as the experiences of midwives who support pregnant women and their partners facing difficult decisions during pregnancy.

Due to the declining birthrate, bed occupancy rates in obstetric wards continue to fall, and as the number of facilities handling deliveries decreases, there are increasing situations where midwives cannot exercise their full potential. However, there are facilities where doctors and midwives collaborate to provide evidence-based care that draws out the latent potential of the pregnant woman herself. Currently, our faculty provides midwifery education with the cooperation of such facilities. It is said that when women and their families choose a method of childbirth based on their own values—or even if that is not possible for some reason, if the individual experiences childbirth while being respected—there is a high probability that subsequent childcare will also go well. With the support of experienced midwives, students provide unique care to pregnant women and gain experiences that simultaneously increase their own sense of self-efficacy.

I was reminded of the words of biologist Shin-Ichi Fukuoka, who, drawing an analogy to plant photosynthesis and symbiosis, said, "Humans also have their own empowerment, and perhaps altruism occurs when the resulting excess is passed on to someone else without a specific purpose." As someone in a position of education who provides care to students, this gives me much to consider.

Since the beginning of this year, the phrase "unprecedented measures to combat the declining birthrate" has been heard frequently. The current flow of discussion centers on women's employment, marriage, and whether or not they have children. However, rather than fragmenting women's positions, could we not share this issue by focusing on women's health and rights? I hope that discussions on the environment for women to "give birth" and measures against the declining birthrate will progress while keeping in mind health support for people of all positions across generations within society.