The first episode of the NTV drama series "First Cry: Mother and Child Emergency Medical Team," starring actress Manami Higa, aired on July 8th and was reported to have an average viewership rating (according to Video Research, Kanto region) of 6.8% for households and 4.0% for individuals.
The drama is a medical entertainment piece depicting obstetricians who protect new lives behind the scenes of a glamorous celebrity hospital. Higa plays Mitsui Aki, the protagonist obstetrician who works tirelessly to hear a baby's first cry.
The first episode was titled "A Top Secret Project Begins at a Celebrity Hospital!"
The episode features guest appearances by Tamaki Shiratori, Rio Teramoto, Haruka Dan, and Ayaka Konno.
Akiko Mitsui (played by Higa), a highly skilled obstetrician working at one of Japan's top celebrity hospitals, is secretly appointed chief of the "Maternal and Child Emergency Medical Team" by the hospital director, Reiko Kamiya (played by Maya Miki). Despite having hearing loss in one ear, Mitsui fights with all her might to hear the first cries of babies. Just as she forcibly recruits Kaito Nagasaka (played by So Matsushima So), a resident doctor who tends to get involved in troubles, a pregnant woman who hasn't received prenatal care and doesn't have a maternal and child health handbook is brought in by ambulance... and the story unfolds from there.
