Okinawa Hai!

CONTRIBUTED BY AMANDA DODSON/PHOTOS BY DANIELLE MATLOCK Editor’s note: Many expectant mothers have heard the term “doula” but not understood its meaning. Amanda has offered to explain what a doula is, what a doula is not, and where to go for more information. Thanks Amanda! The phone rings at 2:00 a.m. The voice of an [...]

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CONTRIBUTED BY STACY ROSE Adventist Med Center I recently gave birth at Adventist Medical Center and wanted to share my experience for anyone considering this option. At my first appointment, they gave me a plastic card (like a credit card) with my name on it, and at each subsequent appointment I had to give the [...]

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CONTRIBUTED BY HEATHER GELORMINE We have two types of posts on Okinawa Hai that receive a huge amount of comments from our readers, both in the form of questions and answers.  One of these is about housing, for pretty obvious reasons: we all have to sleep somewhere at night.  The other is about being pregnant [...]

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CONTRIBUTED BY HEATHER GELORMINE My daughter was born when we were stationed in Germany, and I always felt grateful that the society we lived in was not only accepting but encouraging of mothers who chose to breastfeed their babies. No matter where we went, it was easy to find special “Mother Rooms” in public locations, [...]

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CONTRIBUTED BY JOELLE YAMADA She loves having babies. No, really. She loves being pregnant. She loves laboring and birthing her children into this world. So much that she’s done it three times. Each time she chose to experience things naturally, without drugs, and with little to no intervention or assistance. As I listen to her [...]

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CONTRIBUTED BY KIMBERLY MITCHELL I think everyone’s parenting style is unique. You do what works for your family and what you think is right. And sometimes it fits in nicely with what your friends and family think you should do. And sometimes it doesn’t. I would venture a guess that at some point in your [...]

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CONTRIBUTED BY KIMBERLY MITCHELL I have a love/hate relationship with breastpumps. Mostly hate actually. You have to get the thing out, assemble it, use two hands to pump, then clean the thing and put it away somewhere “sterile” so that you can use it again next time. And it never fails, I’m always doing this [...]

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CONTRIBUTED BY LAN If you live here on Okinawa, you’re bound to see a few expanded bellies that are probably not from good eats.  Call it living the island life, post-deployment marital activities, or just ol’ wanting to expand the happy family, there always seems to be an abundant number of expecting moms here on [...]

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A monster-sized thanks to Kim for sharing the details of her journey to get the birth she wanted. Grab a tissue or two. It’s hard to believe it’s been 2 weeks since the birth! In some ways I feel like she’s been part of our family forever and can’t remember life before her with much [...]

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CONTRIBUTED BY MEREDITH NOVARIO We recently received this e-mail. Let’s help a lady out, shall we? A couple of months ago my husband and I learned that we would be  moving to Okinawa in the fall.  There have been ups and downs through the process of finding out where to live, how to get there, [...]

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