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> The military is just not supportive of anything outside the "norm" We were
> told that if we didn't vaccinate our (then) 12 month old he would be denied
> all medical care even in an emergency!
> How does the Japanese gov handle homebirths? They are illegal here and I
>

Hi,

I had some "challenges" with the military and the vaccination issue too.
Before we went to Ok. we had to have physicals and were told by the military
that all had to be updated with shots. We went to the lawyer on base (he was
so thrilled thinking it would be a big case - he was tired of power of
attorney). In the end I found an ad in Mothering magazine to write to this
"church" and get a letter from them saying that vaccination was against our
religion. I sent them a donation!!! That worked to get us exempt from the
govn requirement. Used that old letter again when my oldest son was in the
college dorm and they said he needed to have something - I think MMR??
Anyway, we went to Okinawa in our sadly unvaccinated state :-).

An American friend had Ok. midwives at her homebirth. Her husband was not
military. I went to an Ok. clinic to get set up for my Rh- shot after birth.
Told the young doctor there that I had had all my babies at home (not true,
unfortunately). He just gave me tubes to collect cord blood. When we went
in for the shot, an older doctor was there and was VERY disapproving of what
we had done, but did give me the shot.

I think attended homebirths were ok there, but the majority of women went to
birth centers and had doctors for "western" style births.

Connie


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