解説・定義

Maternal and child health handbook
A ‘maternal and child health handbook’ consists of two parts; one is information and another is a set of systematic recording forms for a mother to keep from the very beginning of her pregnancy till her new child to be 7 years of age. The handbook is given to a pregnant woman for free when she reports her pregnancy to the local government. She is expected to bring this handbook along to all medical examinations of both herself and her new child. Some information is to be completed by doctors or other health professionals and the other is to be filled in by herself.
This handbook has been utilized as a tool in the promotion of maternal and child health. It serves as a reference to guide doctors, public health nurses and other health professionals in their work with the mother and her child. The mother is expected to acquire essential knowledge from the handbook and to use it as a basic reference to keep herself in a good condition and to check up the health and growth of her child. This handbook has been used by the great majority of mothers since 1948.
The first part of the handbook has 15 sections. Their titles are 1) Certificate of birth registration, 2) Pregnancy health reference (medical history), 3) Woman’s occupation and home situation, 4) Course of pregnancy, 5) Record of delivery & mother’s postpartum condition, 6) Weight gain and loss during pregnancy and after childbirth, 7) Dentist’s report on mother’s teeth during pregnancy and after childbirth, 8)Parenting class record, 9) Your baby’s development & health check-up for your baby, 10) Height and weight growth curve for infants, 11) Immunization record, 12) Record of childhood diseases, and 13) Dental check-ups, education and preventive care.
The second has 17 sections of information. Some furnish us essential education; otherwise provided by a book on maternal and child care. Others give information of the services and organizations available in the local area for medical, psychological, financial or childcare problems.
There are eight versions of foreign languages available as of March 2003; those are English, Chinese, Hangul, Indonesian, Tagalog, Portuguese, Spanish and Thai versions.
There is a guidebook in each language instead of having information sections of the Japanese version translated and included in the foreign version, since priority of information needed is different between the Japanese and the foreigners in Japan. Common problems foreigners may have in Japan are not always the same as the ordinal Japanese face with, partly because medical system and service available in Japan may be unfamiliar to the foreigners, also, manners and customs in the area of maternal and child care might not be identical.

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