Plans are underway for the Tokyo Metropolitan Government to start offering, from April, a subsidy for epidural births, which have traditionally been the exception rather than the norm in Japan.
While many women welcome the news, some experts point to the limited capacity of institutions ready to offer epidurals and the potential risks of inexperienced doctors rushing to provide them.
The subsidy — which Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike first proposed during her reelection bid last year — will likely cover women who live in Tokyo and give birth at institutions in the capital, where anesthesiologists or doctors versed in anesthesia are present.
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