From a Spiritually Premature Baby to a Perfect Child of God

I worked as a midwife before. Midwives are specialists in pregnancy, childbirth, postpartum care, and infant care.

My mom had a big influence on my decision to be a midwife. When I saw how hard she had to work to raise her four children, I always wondered, ‘Why does she have to live for her family with no time for herself? Will I be able to become like her?’

I began to think deeply about the role of a mother, and it made me decide to become a midwife.

The questions that I had whenever I looked at my mom were all solved after I received the truth in my school days. The love and sacrifice of mothers reminded me of Heavenly Mother’s love and sacrifice.

It was when I worked as a midwife that I experienced God’s power, love, and sacrifice the most. I gained great realization especially while caring for premature babies in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit [NICU]. Babies admitted to the NICU are very small. Some extremely premature babies weigh only about 400 g (0.9 lbs).

The babies, who come out into the world when they are not fully ready, need to have intravenous [IV] lines placed inside their bodies and ventilators in their mouths. They can’t breathe or drink even a sip of formula by themselves. Particularly, the extremely premature babies are often in dangerous situations, and unfortunately some of them lose their lives.

The reason the premature babies are at risk is because they are not fully ready for life outside the womb which provides them with an optimal environment for growth. Babies in the womb are protected from all kinds of harmful bacteria and viruses. They maintain their body temperature in the amniotic fluid, and receive oxygen and nutrition through the placenta and the umbilical cord. While in the womb, they get strong enough to protect themselves against infections for a while after birth, although they are still weak. That is why babies born prematurely are too weak and fragile to protect themselves from the outside world.

It was really hard to take care of the extremely premature babies who were so weak. I had to look after them very carefully day and night, because their lives could be in danger or they could have severe disabilities if something went wrong with them.

As I cared for them so much, when one of them no longer needed the ventilator and cried with his own strength, I felt something indescribable. I had the same feeling when a baby, who had been fed with formula through the tube connected to his nose, became able to suck formula from the bottle on his own, and when another baby, who hadn’t been able to have a bowel movement on his own, managed to do it. I was so happy to see them getting healthy. I could fully imagine how happy their parents were at that time.

Seeing how babies grow in the womb helped me understand how our souls grow. Just as babies can live with oxygen and nutrients coming from their mothers in the wombs, our souls can live with the protection of Heavenly Mother. We are such weak beings who cannot live even for a moment without Heavenly Mother.

Mother pays close attention to us, Her children, who are weak and feeble in the world, and takes great care of us with love. When we grow healthy and strong enough to be the perfect people of God, Mother must be happier than anybody else. So, I commit myself to being healthy, both physically and spiritually, for Heavenly Father and Mother who have saved me. Not only me, but all the other members of the Osaka Zion will have mature faith that pleases Mother and do our best to save many precious lives.