Some of you may already be familiar with Birth & Ladies Clinic Sola – from previous posts I have made about the clinic or from me mentioning it in meetings. It’s no secret that it’s one of my favourite birth facilities here. And what better day to write again about it than Mother’s Day!
As a very quick rundown of Birth & Ladies Clinic Sola, it’s an interesting concept: it has a doctor for prenatal visits but operates as a midwife-only facility for birth (so it’s very woman-centered, flexible and freestyle). They allow full birth support with me as a doula, with husbands/partners, visiting family, other children. They also have water birth as an option (almost all my clients have had a water birth there). They also allow visitation afterwards, including allowing the husband to stay overnight if desired.
It’s approximately halfway between Tokyo and Yokohama (the closest station is Kita-Yamata on the Green Line). It’s been open for 4 years and has built up a great reputation for itself, especially during the pandemic where they never put restrictions in place. The doctor can speak English and there are a couple of midwives with some English, but for those that have me as a doula it’s not an issue anyway.
For those who want a natural birth experience and full support with no limitations, I highly suggest checking out this clinic! I can come to prenatal appointments with you, too, if you need.
Here is the English page of their website: https://www.solaclinic.jp/1696-2
Now, onto some recent births there….
I’ve been meaning to write up about a few more births I attended there over the past few months. They were in September 2021, October 2021, December 2021, and January 2022! 2 were very quick births and 2 were longer.
September 2021: My client was expecting her 1st baby. At her original hospital (in Minato Mirai) in Yokohama, her parter was not allowed to attend. She had been hoping that they’d make an exception/become more flexible…but they didn’t and the closer it go to birth, the more she started to not like idea of giving birth alone without her husband or me present. I suggested Birth and Ladies Clinic Sola to her in her 3rd trimester and she was (fortunately) able to make the switch.
Fast forward to her labour. The previous day, she’d had a check-up which showed her cervix was soft but no dilation yet. But then later that night (just after midnight), I got a message to say she was having contractions but wasn’t sure if it was Braxton Hicks or real yet. 30 minutes later it became obvious that it was the real thing and they contacted Sola and were on their way, as was I. And then an hour after that, baby was born! Her waters had broken just as she arrived at the clinic, they managed to just get her into the bath for a water birth, and then out came baby. A very fast first birth experience!
October 2021: For this client, it was baby number 5 but her first baby in Japan. They chose Sola due to the location which was close to where they live. She never had long labours (3 hours or less was common for her), so she didn’t want to go far for birth. Sola was the perfect fit as it suited her with their birth philosophy, too.
A day before her due date, her labour started in the middle of the night. She went to the clinic straight away (after her neighbor came to help with her other children) given her history of fast births and I also headed out to Sola as well. She arrived at around 3am and I arrived before 3:30am. When I got there, she was relaxed, breathing deeply and was focused during contractions but coping just fine – it wasn’t “so strong”. She had IV antibiotics due to being GBS positive (pretty common) and tried to use the active chair to rest on. A little after 4am she wanted to use the toilet (no bottom pressure yet) and a few minutes later we heard “Baby is coming!”. We all rushed in, the midwives got into position to help catch, and out slid baby as she was hovering over the toilet – honestly, the toilet is an excellent tool to use in labour to help with progress!
December 2021: For this client, it was her first baby. She had contacted me early in her pregnancy about using my Doula support and wanted some suggestions on birth facilities that supported her desire for a natural, unmedicated birth with full support and visitation allowed for partners. Sola was again the perfect fit.
My client had a much longer labour than the 2 described above – certainly a labour that was a lot more typical for a first birth that took place over 2 days. Her water started leaking in the early hours of the morning of Dec 13th with some mild contractions. Sola was fine for her to wait at home and come in later that morning, which they did.
They went in at about 7am and she was 3cm dilated. I arrived shortly after. Contractions were not so strong, so Sola suggested she could actually go home if she wanted to. We all stayed a bit, went out for a walk outside the clinic (Sola allows that) and then in the early afternoon nothing significant had changed, so my client decided to go back home for a change of scenery and a rest.
Later in the afternoon, while she was at home and after a bath, her contractions started to get stronger and closer, so she decided to go back to the clinic. I joined then again. At this point, she was 4cm which was great to hear and what I was personally hoping for. From this point on, she continued to labour through the evening, through the night, and into the morning of the 14th. Eventually, just before 8am, she gave birth – again a water birth.
My one overriding image of this particular client in labour is how calm, quiet and still she kept, even when things were getting stronger. She never made a sound, maintained deep breathing throughout, and was very much “in her zone”. So much so, in fact, that we didn’t talk to her or touch her as she really didn’t want anything to disturb her. Sometimes in labour, just being there is enough even if there is no physical or practical help – everyone’s needs will be different.
January 2022: It was also this client’s first baby. We initially connected earlier in 2021 when she was newly pregnant. I did a session with her and her partner on birth facilities – going through various options, leading them to eventually decide that Birth & Ladies Clinic Sola was the place for them. After that session, they decided to hire me as a Doula for the rest of their pregnancy, birth & post-partum.
Hers was another 2 day labour. Contractions had started after midnight in the early hours of the morning on January 26th. By 11am, my client decided she wanted to go to the clinic and I also made my way over. At this point, she was 4-5cm dilated which was good to hear. By 2pm she was at 7-8cm, and then by 3:30pm she was 9cm. I remember saying “You’ll have a baby by dinner time!”. The urge to push was strong and she was fully dilated at 5pm. The midwives had allowed her into the bath in the afternoon for her water birth (as we all thought baby was on the way) but even though she was 10cm, it started to become clear that pushing would take some time. We didn’t expect quite how much time it would actually be…
Well, for the rest of the evening of the 26th and into the early hours of the 27th, my client tried everything – different positions on and off the bed, walking around, sitting on the toilet, using the active chair and so on. The midwives did occasional monitoring with the doppler every so often to make sure baby was doing well (she was!) and continued to let things go naturally.
By 12pm of the 27th, things were still no different – strong pushing contractions, but no change in baby coming further down, so it was decided to do a bit of pitocin (they are able to offer this once the upstairs doctor is on duty). That was all the boost my client’s body needed and immediately baby was on the move (we could literally see baby’s head coming lower with the pushes now). Baby was born 2 hours later, and it was another water birth! Yes, that’s right, even with the pitocin IV they still allowed her to go back in the bath for the water birth.
For sure, based on my own experiences as a doula, this was the longest pushing phase any of my clients have ever experienced. Literally around 20-21 hours of actual pushing. In any other hospital, this would have been sped up a lot – with other interventions potentially being used. As it was, whilst it may seem like it took a long time (which it did), the clinic didn’t apply a one-policy-fits-all approach and decided to do what was the best for my client and her baby – letting things go naturally as long as possible as there was nothing wrong.
I hope you enjoyed these different write-ups of births at Sola! I tried to be relatively concise because otherwise I could write for days and days!
You can see previous posts here:
https://tokyodoulasupport.wordpress.com/2021/07/26/testimonial-a-birth-at-birth-ladies-clinic-sola/
Tokyo Doula Support 