Doctors are providing support to parents before the birth of disabled children to allow them to make an informed choice after they receive the results of prenatal tests.
Yasuo Takeda, a 64-year-old dentist at the Kitakyushu Rehabilitation Center for Children with Disabilities in Fukuoka Prefecture, has been working with hospitals in the region for around 30 years to help parents accept children who have cleft lips and palates or other birth defects.
Takeda visits women's hospitals for prenatal and postnatal counseling. Recently after finishing his day's work as a dentist, Takeda hurried by car to a hospital in Kitakyushu to meet a couple whose baby had been born the previous day with a cleft lip and palate.