Photo by Tianshu Liu

Sixteen hundred births over 31 years without losing a mother or baby—that’s an impressive statistic for any birth practitioner in any country. This was the first thing that Kiyoko Inoue, a Japanese midwife who will celebrate her 80th birthday next year, proudly told me in a recent interview in Japan. She was nervous about talking with me until she realized I speak Japanese and understand midwifery; then she was a fountain of knowledge and stories.