Photo/Illutration Jikei Hospital in Kumamoto city (Rina Horikoshi)

KUMAMOTO--An expectant mother who point-blank refused to divulge her identity to doctors treating her had a sudden change of heart after giving birth, the hospital here that admitted her said Nov. 10.

Jikei Hospital operates a confidential birth system that allows women faced with an unplanned pregnancy to consult with hospital staff about giving birth anonymously.

The mother’s name is revealed only to the staff member in charge of the childbirth. This is so a child can learn the identity of his or her mother after they reach adulthood.

Takeshi Hasuda, the head of Jikei Hospital, told a Nov. 10 news conference that the underage woman came from eastern Japan and visited the hospital in October. She was near to term and placed under observation by the hospital.

She revealed her identity to only some members of the hospital staff because she wanted to keep her unplanned pregnancy secret from her family, according to Hasuda.

He said the woman gave birth to a daughter weighing 3,400 grams a few days earlier but refused to enter her name as the child’s mother in the birth report to be submitted to a local government office. 

If she had stuck to her decision to remain anonymous when reporting the birth to a local government, it would have been the first such case in Japan since the hospital introduced its system of confidentiality regarding births in December 2019.

Hospital staff, hoping to convince the woman to reveal her identity, continued to explain about the child’s right to know after she gave birth.

She told hospital staff on the morning of Nov. 10 that she wants to raise the child by herself and contacted her family through the hospital, Hasuda added.

He said the woman will temporarily leave her daughter in the care of the hospital after being discharged. She is expected to consult with her family before taking the child home and submitting the birth report to local authorities in her district of residence.

Japan has no legal provisions for confidential births, which poses a problem for local governments when it comes to accepting a birth report without a mother’s name.

Last year, the Kumamoto city government asked the justice and health ministries for advice on how to handle such cases within the existing legal framework.

“Confidential births are not a direct violation of the law,” the health ministry replied.

However, the ministry said local governments need to instruct hospitals to make certain matters clear to the baby’s birth mother, including a child’s right to know about his or her parent and the importance of disclosing the mother’s identity to the child.

The Justice Ministry did not provide specific answers to the inquiry.

City authorities still fear that confidential births could violate the law and have urged Jikei Hospital to refrain from getting involved in such situations.

The hospital in the past has sought advice and support from the local government about confidential births. Because the woman was nearing full term, the hospital in October asked Kumamoto Mayor Kazufumi Onishi what the city government intended to do.

A Kumamoto city government official pledged at the time to provide an answer later while urging the hospital to put priority on ensuring a safe delivery.

“A system should be quickly created (to deal with confidential births carried out with the prospect that the child will never know about its birth mother) because similar cases could occur,” Hasuda said at the Nov. 10 news conference. “I want (the central and local governments) to find a way to solve the problem instead of giving reasons why they can’t.”

Jikei Hospital also operates a drop box system, called Konotori no Yurikago (cradle of storks), to save unwanted babies that the mother can safely leave in the care of the hospital.

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