Social consequences of recurrent pregnancy loss and maternal myths, past, present, and future in Japan

In Japan, the myth of motherhood, the idea that every woman harbours maternal love and that a woman only becomes a full-fledged woman after giving birth, has existed for a long time. However, there has been a limited number of studies concerning this motherhood myth in patients with recurrent pregnancy loss (RPL). The present study aimed to examine the experiences of maternal myths in patients with RPL and to determine whether maternal myths affect depression. Participants in the study included 61 patients in 1995, 71 patients in 2002, 503 patients from 2008 to 2012, and 318 patients and 1210 pregnant women from 2017 to 2020. Patients who sought an examination of their RPL visited Nagoya City University Hospital, while pregnant women requiring a prenatal checkup visited Nagoya City West Medical Center. Both groups completed a questionnaire concerning seven maternal myths and how they rated their level of depression (K6). It was found that not only patients with RPL but also pregnant women with no pregnancy loss had encountered maternal myths and many of them felt some discomfort. It has become clear that exposure to such myths has decreased over the 25 years from 1995 to 2020 (p < 0.05). Additionally, opportunities for exposure to maternal myths clearly had an impact on depression (p < 0.05). It is imperative that we recognize the distress caused by these myths. One potential solution to this problem is to improve education on gender issues.