AAUW Dialog

Rieko Kishi

Staff nurse midwife at Showa University Northern Yokohama Hospital

Rieko Kishi, 2007–08 International Fellow, is experienced in bridging gaps in many ways. About 10 years ago, Rieko was working as a nurse-midwife in a hospital in Japan, and she witnessed a gap between clients and professionals. “It is very important to understand my clients’ feelings in order to provide humanistic care,” she explains.

She thought that this gap could be bridged by introducing doulas — women who assist during child labor and birth — into the practice of Japanese midwifery. “I expected that the concept of doula support would be key in my becoming a good nurse whose care [could] support women’s true confidence and hope,” says Rieko. But there is no formal doula support system in Japan and little information about it written in Japanese.

During her doctoral studies in nursing science at the University of Illinois, Chicago, Rieko developed a culturally and linguistically Japanese version of the “Listening to Mothers-II” questionnaire, which was first developed and implemented in the United States in 2002 and revised in 2006 by Childbirth Connection. Her goal was to capture Japanese women’s holistic experiences based on their own perspectives.

Rieko called her time studying in the United States her milestone, saying that the experience made her more culturally sensitive and more comfortable interacting with people of different backgrounds. In addition to personal gains, Rieko also made career strides during her time in the United States. In 2006 Rieko was facing a financial burden as a student in American when she came across the documentary A Doula Story. She volunteered to translate the documentary into Japanese because she believed in the need for more information about this profession in her country. As a result, the first two symposiums about doula support were held in Japan in 2007.

Rieko also worked as a graduate assistant at the World Health Organization Collaborating Center at the University of Illinois, Chicago, College of Nursing, where she attended scholars and international students visiting the college.

Having completed her doctorate, Rieko has returned to Japan, but she has not lost all of her connections with her “reconstructed identity.” One way she keeps in touch with the United States and her “new identity” is through her membership with AAUW. “When I left the U.S., I realized how deeply my experience in the U.S. reconstructed my identity. I would not want to lose my sense of connections with the U.S., and the AAUW membership helps in that sense,” says Rieko. As Rieko looks ahead to the future, which she hopes will include a position as a nurse-midwife in a clinical setting, she says, “I would like to keep returning my gratitude to society and to future generations as well as to AAUW.”

Rieko feels she has begun bridging a gap between Japan and the United States with more insights and a deeper understanding about Japan and herself from her experience living in the United States. She concludes by saying, “If you would like to appreciate and understand yourself more deeply, it may be good to devote yourself to understanding others.”