On 26.03.2024, the HWG LU received a visit from Nagoya City University, NCU for short, from Japan.
The meeting of three lecturers and three Master's students from Japan with lecturers and students from the Department of Social and Health Sciences as well as staff from the International Office and the East Asia Institute took place on the department's premises in Maxstraße and was primarily dedicated to the topic of midwifery science.
The two institutions have already been working together in the field of business administration for around 15 years. This partnership is now to be expanded to include the field of midwifery. Accordingly, the meeting focused on the training of midwives, aspects of care and research priorities in a German-Japanese comparison.
The program included mutual introductions between the two universities, presentations by lecturers and Master's students from both sides and a visit to the skills lab at HWG LU. The main focus of the exchange was on the study programs in the field of midwifery science and the research focuses of the two faculties: at NCU, students first complete an eight-semester Bachelor's degree in the field of nursing science before going on to complete a four-semester Master's degree program to gain professional certification as a midwife. It is then possible to complete a PhD at the NCU. Midwives in Japan are mainly employed in public and private clinics. A small number work freelance in out-of-hospital obstetrics. In the public healthcare system, there are positions for midwives with extended competencies of a so-called Advanced Practice Midwife. The NCU's research in the field of midwifery focuses on the care of women in assisted reproduction and in the management of miscarriages, as well as the role of midwives in sexual and reproductive health education.
Both sides found the different framework conditions of midwifery studies particularly interesting. While students at the HWG LU receive tuition fees as part of their dual study program, students at the NCU have to finance their studies themselves.
The following day, the partners visited the Women's Clinic at the University Medical Center Mannheim. Professor Barbara Filsinger, MD, who works at the HWG LU and is also head of the Mother and Child Center at the UMM, together with midwives Maja Seebach and Viktoria Bender, presented the obstetrics department at the UMM. The concept of the midwife-led delivery room, which already exists in some clinics in Japan, will soon be introduced there.
"Overall, it was a successful two days, which we look back on with joy and confidence for future collaborations," said Michaela Michel-Schuldt, Professor of Midwifery Science, summing up the Japanese guests' visit.
