Life Experience: A visit from two public health nurses in Japan
In October 2020, two public health nurses from city hall paid us a visit. They’re called hokenshi in Japanese.
One of the tasks assigned to hokenshi is called shinseijihoumon (literally: visiting a new born baby). It’s the practice of visiting families a few months after the birth of a child to check on the child’s welfare.
They came to check on our daughter (renamed Ellie in the story below) who was almost four months old at the time. Our son (renamed Sam) was also there and was two at the time. My partner (renamed Mother) is Japanese and I (renamed Father), for my sins, am British.
Hokenshi are licensed by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare to offer postnatal guidance and counseling to new mothers and fathers. In this particularly case, the emphasis was clearly on mothers rather than fathers.
What follows is a dramatized recreation of that event.
Mother and Father are in the living room of their two-bedroom flat in Osaka. There is a table and chairs at centre, a cot to the right, a sofa and a TV set. A mattress lies on the floor left and there is a large wall of windows that look onto a raggedy park. Father is playing a car game with Sam on the floor. Mother is lying on the mattress, breastfeeding Ellie.
Mother: I forgot to tell you — two women are coming from city hall tomorrow.
Father: Yoghurt.
Mother: They’re coming at 10.
Father: That’s what it smells like.
Mother: What?
Father: Ellie’s poo, it smells like yoghurt.
Mother: Did you hear what I said? They’re hokenshi coming for the shinseijihoumon.
Father: Hokenshi?
Mother: Yeah, I’m not sure what you call them in English. Something like a nurse or a midwife, but they work at city hall.
Father: Social workers?
Mother: Maybe.
Father: I hope they’re not social workers.
Mother: Why, what’s wrong with social workers?
Father: What did you say they’re coming for?
