The introduction of Western medicine and trained "modern" midwives in Meiji Japan (1868-1912)

This paper discusses issues concerning the introduction of the “modern” midwives trained in Western medicine in the initial stage of modernizing the medical field in Meiji Japan. I focus on the following two points. First, although Japan ended up adopting the German medical model by the turn of the twentieth century, the medical traditions of other nations, such as the Netherland and the United States, influenced midwife training in Japan in its early stages. Second, I discuss the process where the use of surgical instruments by trained midwives was gradually banned. As a result, the autonomy of trained midwives was circumscribed, and it was mandated that midwives work with male obstetricians who could use surgical tools, shots, and medications, of which use by midwives was prohibited. However, European and American obstetricians residing in Japan in the mid-nineteenth century had taught how to use various obstetrical tools. For example, in 1875, the Dutch obstetrician, Christian Jacob Ermerins (1841-1880), taught how to use surgical tools to handle complicated childbirths at Osaka prefectural hospital. In 1877, instructors for midwife training courses established by Kanagawa prefecture used a Japanese translation of a medical text by an American physician, Henry Hartshorne (1823-1897), to teach how to use obstetrical instruments, such as forceps. Because an American medical doctor, Duane B. Simmons (1834-1889), was supervising the Kanagawa prefectural hospital where the local government created midwife training program, early midwife education in Kanagawa received strong influence of the U.S. model.