A 40-week Project: V

I haven't updated about the progress of this growing project in my belly for some time. There have been many things deserving to be written down, especially some cultural shocks that I haven't thought of in terms of the concept of motherhood.


I have been feeling sorry that I can never sound joyful, but I do hope that my little person is growing to like his small habitat now and the world in the future.

The project has progressed into the 20th week. At the beginning of the second month of pregnancy, K and I went to the city council to get a pack of maternity information and coupons for maternity check-ups from the government and officially reported that a new member is on the way. This morning, a lady from the city council called to check on me and my little person.

In the beginning it was a general chat about my well being as an expectant mother as a whole, about the hospital where I am going to deliver, and about the general assistance that they would be happy to provide whenever I call. Then she asked me a question, which is quite interesting in the current Japanese social context in which the world of career is still quite unfriendly to mothers. She asked if I had had any trouble with taking maternity leave from my workplace. Fortunately I don't, because my due date would be around the spring break here. A very convenient timing for my bosses, I would say. I do not have to ask for any special leave, but I have had that sort of anxiety about what their reactions would be and how I can cope with a new life.

My lucky case is not applicable to all other expecting mothers, as far as I know. I got to know one case in which a lady continued to conceal the fact of her pregnancy during the whole time. In the period of ten months, she avoided entering a shared office or mentioning it to any of her co-workers. She also tried hard to conceal her protruding belly and immediately returned to work two weeks after having given birth. No one in work ever knew or shared her joy. Her particular caution resulted from an unpleasant experience with another workplace. Upon knowing her pregnancy, the authority refused to renew her contract as a part-time lecturer in the university in order to avoid the 6-week leave that any expecting mother is entitled to.

Although the current government is claiming that they would provide women with more work opportunities, and that they value and respect women's contribution to society, it is hardly the case when one takes a close look at the reality. Sadly, the reality is that pregnancy is treated almost like a scandal. The cultural environment and the patriarchal framework still object women's stepping outside domestic sphere to enter a career. The discrimination is not even implicit, as it is taken for granted that motherhood is a natural truth and calling of all female sex.