Every Life Has Value: A Nurse’s Perspective on Short-Lived Children

Tsu, Japan — A nurse in Mie Prefecture is working to provide proper coffins for stillborn babies, aiming to give grieving mothers a dignified way to say goodbye to their children who often arrive in paper boxes after loss.

The initiative, led by 66-year-old nurse Yukiko Tanaka, responds to a longstanding practice in some Japanese hospitals where stillborn infants are placed in simple cardboard containers due to limited resources and cultural hesitancy around discussing perinatal death. Tanaka said that even if the lives of these babies were short, their existence has value, and families deserve respectful means to mourn them.

Tanaka, who has worked in maternal and neonatal care for over four decades, began advocating for change after witnessing numerous mothers receive their stillborn children in paper boxes with no option for a burial or memorial service. She noted that many parents leave the hospital without having held their child or seen them properly, which can complicate the grieving process.

Her effort focuses on partnering with local funeral homes and municipal authorities to secure small, affordable coffins made of wood or biodegradable materials that can be provided free of charge to families. Tanaka has personally funded early prototypes and is seeking donations and government support to scale the program across clinics in Mie Prefecture.

In Japan, stillbirth is defined as the loss of a fetus at or after 22 weeks of gestation. According to data from the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, over 20,000 stillbirths occur annually nationwide, though many cases go underreported due to stigma and lack of standardized recording in some medical institutions.

Tanaka emphasized that providing a coffin is not about religious ritual but about acknowledging the child’s existence and allowing parents to begin healing. “When a mother can hold her baby, wrap them in cloth, and place them in a small coffin, it changes everything,” she said in a recent interview. “It says: you were real. You mattered.”

Some hospitals in Mie have begun piloting the program, accepting donated coffins and offering quiet rooms where families can spend time with their child before transfer to a crematorium or cemetery. Staff trained in bereavement care are being consulted to ensure the process is handled with sensitivity.

Advocates say the initiative aligns with growing calls for improved perinatal bereavement support in Japan, where cultural silence around pregnancy loss often leaves families isolated. Tanaka hopes her work will encourage broader national discussion on how hospitals handle stillbirths and what resources should be made available to grieving parents.

As of April 2026, Tanaka’s project has distributed over 150 coffins to hospitals and clinics in Tsu, Yokkaichi, and Ise, with plans to expand to rural health centers later this year. She continues to collect donations through local community networks and hopes to establish a permanent fund to sustain the effort.