Hello all!
I am currently 10 weeks pregnant and in a bit of an annoying situation. When I realized I was pregnant I did a lot of research on good hospitals that offer English service and I ended up selecting Aiiku Hospital in Tamachi which seemed to have good ratings and had an entire international department. I figured my peace of mind in the case of an emergency was worth the fact that it costs quite a bit more than average for a delivery and is a little far from my house.
When I called though, they said that they didn’t have an international department anymore but they still had a decent amount of staff that spoke English and would arrange for me to have English speaking staff for my appointments as much as possible. They also said they had three doctors who were fluent in English.
This has largely not been the case. One doctor was proficient and not fluent and the other could barely speak a word of English. I can speak enough Japanese to get through a doctor’s appointment without much confusion, but I didn’t feel like I could ask important questions or understand the answer in detail. When we brought it up later, they said that because my spouse can speak Japanese they thought it would be okay, but he’s not a medical translator and I’m the patient!
At this juncture I don’t see the point in sticking with a really expensive hospital far from my house that doesn’t provide the level of support I had been hoping for. If I have to struggle through a Japanese only appointment with my spouse playing medical translator, I would like save the 250,000Â¥!
All of this to ask: are there any recently post partum people here who have a recommendation for a hospital in northern Tokyo (think like, nippori, Oji, Akabane, etc) or in Saitama (Kawaguchi, Urawa, Omiya)? I don’t need or expect perfect English service but if there’s a hospital or clinic you were satisfied with, with or without English speaking staff, I would love some insight!
Thanks in advance, sorry if I rambled on a bit about the topic.
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Yeah, the international unit was actually at Aiiku Clinic (with Dr.’s Sen and Sakamoto) but you gave birth at Aiiku Hospital under their exclusive care. However they both retired very recently.
As someone who gave birth there (with Dr. Sen) and is currently pregnant again I’m choosing somewhere else. One midwife during my whole stay spoke English which made things really difficult given I expected more.
Sorry, I haven’t given any good advice but I think you’re doing the right thing at least looking around!
Also, join Tokyo Pregnancy Group on Facebook. It’s really useful for questions like this.
First of all Congratulations 🥳
Where in Saitama? If its around fujimishi then i will recommend keiai.
My wife is now on 6 months pregnant, we booked [this](https://www.keiaihospital.or.jp/) one. It doesnt have international speaker or doc/nurse, but they speak English. My wife have 0 level of japanese 😅. But most of the doctor in the hospital speak english during our routine checkup (only receptionist doesn’t english).
We used Takashimadaira Clinic 8 years ago and were very happy. Fantastic staff and very nice facilities. They also offer epidurals which is relativly rare in Japan. Birthing cost was, of course, equal to the distribution you got from the government at the time and the epidural was an extra ï¿¥150,000 on top which we paid gladly. Another big factor is that the doctors have admission rights with the large hospital a few hundred meters away so if anything does go wrong that’s there just in case. There was no English speaking doctor on hand 8 years ago and as it was a father, son, wife combo of doctors at the time I’d guess that hasn’t changed since then. They also seemed to be insanely busy so you may want to get on it asap if you want to secure a spot. (we also live in Kawaguchi and it’s about a 15 minute taxi ride from Kawaguchi station there over the Toda bridge)
I’d recommend finding an English speaking clinic for your appointments and then a local hospital for the last few weeks and giving birth. It’s called the semi-open system and is more expensive but you’ll save time instead of waiting on end at hospitals. My wife went to the Minegishi Clinic in Hiroo and then Red Cross hospital. Also consider joining Tokyo Pregnancy Group on Facebook. It’s a great resource.