BACKGROUND:
Efforts to improve maternity care for migrant women have often focused on the concept of cultural competency, which encourages healthcare providers to accommodate perceived cultural differences. However, recent qualitative studies have criticized the potential for cultural competency to stereotype or otherize migrant women.

OBJECTIVES:
This study explores how Japanese migrant women in the Netherlands engage with local maternity care practices, and - inspired by Lo and Stacey’s (2008) concept of hybrid habitus - analyzes their responses to clinical encounters. The concept explains how migrants' practices evolve through clinical encounters with healthcare providers in the host country, acknowledging the complexity and dynamism of patient practice, considering the interplay between individual experiences, cultural orientations, and structural forces.

METHODS:
Ethnographic fieldwork was conducted from February to May 2024, involving interviews and participant observations with Japanese women who had experienced or were experiencing pregnancy and childbirth in the Netherlands. Interviews were also conducted with midwives, a postpartum nurse, and a doula.

RESULTS:
Japanese migrant women in the Netherlands navigated Dutch maternity care by flexibly combining three patterns of response to clinical encounters. Most of them accepted the Dutch emphasis on shared decision-making and personal autonomy. Some of them also negotiated to incorporate Japanese medicalized practices, such as hospital births and frequent ultrasounds. Additionally, some found alternatives for aspects of Japanese care that were not offered in Dutch maternity care, such as crafting massage tools or by involving Japanese maternity care providers residing in the Netherlands.

CONCLUSIONS:
This dynamic response illustrates how migrant Japanese women in the Netherlands actively reshape their maternal care experiences, highlighting the need for individualized, culturally sensitive care beyond fixed cultural categories.

KEY MESSAGE:
This study suggests that recognizing migrant women’s adaptive strategies in clinical encounters can promote more individualized, respectful, and responsive models of maternity care that transcend static notions of cultural identity. Poster session 2 (Group A)