Pregnancy: Supporting Networks and Families in Disaster

The aim of this research is to analyze pregnancy in its social contexts: privatization and familism. In post-WWII Japan, pregnancy has become privatized as a family issue. The disaster in 1995 and 2011 revealed us that there was much limitation of supporting system in these social contexts. My research is based on data as follows: (1) statistics on pregnancy, (2) relevant laws, (3) articles in professional journals, and (4) 10 interviews of women who were pregnant in disaster. My presentation is as follows: (1) To review development of laws for pregnant women in disaster as well as in peacetime for these twenty years in Japan, (2) To show what happened to pregnant women and their families in disaster, (3) To figure out a chain of caring support and women’s power to change disaster into opportunities, (4) To point out further issues left to us, especially in Fukushima.  In more concrete terms, I show invisibility of pregnant women in 1995, and then development of networks to support pregnant women and their families by the third sector since 2011. We can find a great deal of change in Eastern Japan Disaster in 2011, in comparison with Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake in 1995. The voices of women who had babies in the disaster show us that the disaster became a turning point to support pregnancy beyond privatization and familism. On the other hand, Fukushima remains as a harsh reality for families and mothers especially with babies. The facts tell us the way we construct families and supportive networking as well as their limitations after disaster.