On June 19th, Aomori's visiting midwifery clinic "you" held a "migrant mother exchange meeting" at KITTO PARK (Yanagawa, Aomori City) in collaboration with Aomori City.

You is a midwifery clinic that specializes in online consultations and business trip visits. Yuka Hanada, a midwife, opened a business in March 2022, and started a project "you's club" for the purpose of interaction between mothers and children from this year. This event is part of that.

Hanada's friend and talent cooperating with the project, Yui Kosaka, an Aomori City immigration PR ambassador, told the city's collaboration promotion section, which is in charge of promoting immigration to Aomori City and public-private partnership, "For mothers who have moved to Aomori. I want to expand the circle of exchanges and provide support."

On the day of the event, 9 groups, including those from outside the prefecture, participated. Photographer Fumiho Hiradate, who works under the name of "belle foret," and members of the Aomori City Regional Revitalization Cooperation Volunteer also joined the event, and they interacted for about an hour and a half, including footprint stamps, conversations between mothers, and consultation with Ms. Hanada.

"When you're raising a child, you tend to feel isolated," Hanada says. "I want you to enjoy child-rearing and parent-child time that you can feel now," he said. Ms. Kosaka said with a smile, "It would make me happy if participants could share information and take a break from childcare."

Participants said, "It was good to be able to consult about breastfeeding," "It's easier to participate in the event if there are children around," and "I thought it would be good for children to interact, but I myself enjoyed it." In addition, a woman in her 30s who moved from Kanagawa Prefecture said, "I don't have many friends in Aomori, so it was nice to have the opportunity to talk with other mothers who have children of similar ages."

Regarding the future, Ms. Hanada said, "I would like to organize regular classes in cooperation with the city while dividing classes by age and having public health nurses join the program. Mothers who have not participated yet should also participate. I want it."