Keiko Tsuji: Care and Empowerment

Daily life has returned to campus. Through face-to-face interactions with students, including in classes, I am once again conscious of the difficulty and strength of that one-time uniqueness. This may be because it relates to the word "care," which guides nursing and medical care and aids understanding.

Currently, I am primarily 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 and physiological changes. However, even if the process appears to follow a generally common pattern, it differs from person to person (and even for the same person each time). Therefore, the necessary care is precisely a one-time, unique occurrence. I am currently conducting research focusing on the duration of labor and maternal and child health outcomes, as well as the experiences of midwives who support pregnant women and their partners when they encounter difficult decisions during pregnancy.

Due to the impact of the declining birthrate, the bed occupancy rate in obstetric wards continues to decline, and as the number of facilities handling deliveries decreases, there are increasing situations where midwives cannot exercise their original abilities. However, there are facilities where doctors and midwives collaborate to provide evidence-based care that draws out the potential power of the pregnant woman herself. Currently, our faculty is conducting midwifery education with the cooperation of these facilities. It is said that when women and families choose their method of childbirth based on their own values—or even if that is not possible for some reason, if the parties involved experience childbirth while being respected—there is a high possibility that subsequent childcare will also go well. Students gain experience in providing one-time care to pregnant women with the support of skilled midwives, while simultaneously increasing their own sense of self-efficacy.

I was reminded of the words of biologist Shin-Ichi Fukuoka, who compared it to plant photosynthesis and symbiosis: "Humans also have their own empowerment, and perhaps altruism occurs when the excess created there is passed on to someone else without a specific purpose." As someone involved in education, I am also made to think about my own role in caring for students.

Since the beginning of this year, I have heard the phrase "unprecedented measures to combat the declining birthrate." The current flow of discussion is centered on women's employment, marriage, and whether or not they give birth. However, rather than subdividing women's positions, could we not share this issue with a focus 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 view health support for people in all positions across generations within society.