ABSTRACT
This chapter examines changes in folk culture in Japan regarding pregnancy and childbirth from the modern to contemporary periods, with reference to fieldwork conducted by the author and to other significant research works. It traces a history of people’s practices around pregnancy and childbirth, including the shift from home-based births to medical facilities, and it calls for maximizing the role of the midwife in contemporary obstetric care. It also outlines folk responses to foetal death, including the memorial rituals of mizuko kuyō that emerged in the 1970s, as well as contemporary bereavement care practices in an age where such loss is a shocking, unanticipated event. It then examines images of maternal death as expressed by a yōkai (supernatural apparition) known as ubume from a gender studies perspective.
