Japanese Nursing Staff's Knowledge and Attitude toward Bereavement Care for Couples with Miscarriage/Stillbirth and Its Associated Factors.

Bereavement care is conducted to meet the emotional needs of grieving couples who are devastated by the experience of a miscarriage or stillbirth. From January to April 2022, we distributed a questionnaire that assessed the knowledge and attitudes of Japanese nursing staff (nurses and midwives) in Japan's Chugoku-Shikoku region toward bereavement care for couples with miscarriage/stillbirth. The 370 survey respondents' answers revealed that the nursing staff's knowledge regarding recurrent pregnancy loss and subsequent bereavement care was insufficient. About 41.1% and 64.1% of the respondents had received school and on-the-job education in bereavement care, respectively, and 79.2% expressed willingness to provide such care. Our analyses revealed that the following factors were associated with the nursing staff's knowledge level: parent status, age, reproductive history, midwifery license, work experience and environment, and on-the-job education. The following were correlated with the staff's willingness to provide bereavement care: work environment, midwifery license, bereavement care knowledge, and on-the-job education. Together our findings indicate that education plays a significant role in equipping caregivers to provide effective bereavement care for couples who have experienced a miscarriage or stillbirth.

Rapid thawing of frozen bull spermatozoa by transient exposure to 70 °C improves the viability, motility and mitochondrial health.

Up to now, the definitive conclusion of the positive effects of rapid transient thawing at higher temperatures for shorter durations has not been obtained yet and is still under discussion due to some contradictory findings and limited assessment of post-thawed parameters. The purpose of the current study was to evaluate the effectiveness of rapid thawing in water at 70 °C by using various post-thawed parameters of frozen bull spermatozoa. Experiment 1, monitoring the change of temperature inside frozen bull straw thawed in water at different temperatures. Experiment 2, evaluation of various post-thawed characteristics of frozen bull spermatozoa thawed in water at different temperatures by using a computer-assisted sperm analysis, flow cytometry and immunocytochemistry. The time it took for the temperature inside the straw to warm up to 15 °C was nearly twice as faster when the straw was thawed in 70 °C water compared with 39 °C. Although there were differences among bulls, viability, motility, and mitochondrial membrane potential of spermatozoa thawed at 70 °C for 8 seconds and stabilized at 39 °C for 52 seconds were significantly higher than those of controls (thawed at 39 °C for 60 seconds) at 0 and 3 h after thawing. Just after thawing, however, there were no differences in acrosome integrity and distribution of phospholipase C zeta1, whereas mitochondrial reactive oxygen species production was significantly lower in spermatozoa thawed at 70 °C. From these results, we conclude that rapid thawing at 70 °C and then stabilization at 39 °C significantly improves viability, motility and mitochondrial health of bull spermatozoa rather than conventional thawing at 39 °C. The beneficial effect of rapid transient thawing could be due to shorter exposure to temperatures outside the physiological range, consequently maintaining mitochondrial health.

Collaborative support for child abuse prevention: Perspectives of public health nurses and midwives regarding pregnant and postpartum women of concern.

Child abuse is a globally prevalent problem, and its numbers have continuously increased in Japan over the past 30 years. Prevention of child abuse depends on the support available to pregnant and postpartum women from the time of pregnancy. Public health nurses and midwives are expected to provide preventive support in cooperation, as they can support pregnant and postpartum women from close proximity and recognize their health problems and potential signs of child abuse. This study aimed to deduce the characteristics of pregnant and postpartum women of concern, as observed by public health nurses and midwives, from the perspective of child abuse prevention. The participants comprised ten public health nurses and ten midwives with five or more years of experience working at the Okayama Prefecture municipal health centers and obstetric medical institutions. Data were collected through a semi-structured interview survey and analyzed qualitatively and descriptively using an inductive approach. The characteristics of pregnant and postpartum women, as confirmed by public health nurses, included four main categories: having "difficulties in daily life;" "a sense of discomfort of not feeling like a normal pregnant woman;" "difficulty in child-rearing behavior;" and "multiple risk factors checked by objective indicators using an assessment tool." The characteristics observed by midwives were grouped into four main categories: "mental and physical safety of the mother is in jeopardy;" have "difficulty in child-rearing behavior;" "difficulties in maintaining relationships with the surrounding people;" and "multiple risk factors recognized by an assessment tool." Public health nurses evaluated pregnant and postpartum women's daily life factors, while midwives evaluated the mothers' health conditions, their feelings toward the fetus, and stable child-rearing skills. To prevent child abuse, they utilized their respective specialties to observe those pregnant and postpartum women of concern with multiple risk factors.

Relation Between Identity Disclosure to Family Members and Mental Health in Japanese Transgender People.

Family members are critical mediators of the experiences of transgender people. We studied whether transgen-der subjects had disclosed their identity to their families and their families' reactions after the disclosure. We also evaluated the subjects' mental state and its association with disclosure status. Transgender people were recruited for this anonymous questionnaire survey in the Okayama University Hospital gender clinic. Subjects disclosed their identity to family members at the following rates: 68.7% to the father, 89.1% to the mother, 59.1% to a brother, 77.8% to a sister, and 47.6% to grandparents. Fathers had the lowest rate (26.7%) of posi-tive reactions, while over 50% of fathers showed an ambiguous response. Approximately 20% of parents showed a negative response. The majority of parents agreed to hormonal treatment and sex-reassignment sur-gery and that the transgender child should live with the gender they wanted to express. However, the rate of subjects with mood and anxiety disorders according to the Kessler 6 scale was significantly higher in those who experienced negative or ambiguous reactions from family members compared to those who experienced posi-tive reactions. Educational and mental health professionals should support the disclosure process of transgen-der people as well as their family members.

Rapid thawing and stabilizing procedure improve postthaw survival and in vitro penetrability of boar spermatozoa cryopreserved with a glycerol-free trehalose-based extender.

Thawing process is important in semen cryopreservation as it brings back the sperm cell to physiologic temperature reactivating the metabolism. Aims of the present study were to evaluate survival rate and in vitro penetrability of boar frozen spermatozoa after rapid and transient thawing at a high temperature followed by a warming procedure at 39 °C. Ejaculated semen samples were diluted in an egg yolk-based glycerol-free extender containing 100-mM trehalose and then cryopreserved in 0.5-mL straws according to a common protocol. In experiment 1, when temperature inside the straws was monitored after thawing at 40 °C, 60 °C, 70 °C, and 80 °C, the calculated average warming rate in the straws from -196 °C to 15 °C was much faster when thawed at 70 °C and 80 °C than at 40 °C (P < 0.01). The warming temperature rate inside the straw was 7 to 12 folds faster during the first 2 seconds than the second 2 seconds after immersing in high temperatures. In experiment 2, when frozen straws were thawed at 80 °C for 9 seconds, the viability, motility, and acrosomal integrity were significantly improved (P < 0.05), as compared with controls (at 39 °C). In experiment 3, frozen straws were thawed at 39 °C, 60 °C, 70 °C, and 80 °C for 60, 10, 8, and 6 seconds, respectively, and then maintained at 39 °C for 0, 50, 52, and 54 seconds. Higher viability, motility, mitochondria membrane potential, and acrosome integrity were observed (P < 0.05) when frozen straws were thawed at 70 °C for 8 seconds and then maintained at 39 °C for 52 seconds as compared with the control (39 °C for 60 seconds). In experiment 4, in vitro penetrability of frozen spermatozoa thawed at 70 °C for 8 seconds and maintained at 39 °C for 52 seconds was higher than that of controls. In conclusion, the rapid transient thawing at 70 °C for 8 seconds followed by stabilizing procedure at 39 °C for 52 seconds maintained the viability, motility, mitochondria membrane potential, acrosome integrity, and in vitro penetrability of spermatozoa frozen in a glycerol-free trehalose extender and recommended as an optimum thawing conditions.

Trehalose in glycerol-free freezing extender enhances post-thaw survival of boar spermatozoa.

Cryopreservation of boar semen is still considered suboptimal due to lower fertility as compared with fresh samples when glycerol, a permeating cryoprotectant, is used. Trehalose is a non-permeable cryoprotectant and nonreducing disaccharide known to stabilize proteins and biologic membranes. The aim of this study was to evaluate the cryosurvival and in vitro penetrability of boar spermatozoa when glycerol was replaced with trehalose in a freezing extender. Ejaculated Berkshire semen samples were diluted in egg yolk-based freezing extender containing glycerol (100 mM) or trehalose (0, 50, 100, 150, 200 and 250 mM) and cryopreserved using a straw freezing procedure. Thawed samples were analyzed for motility, viability, mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP), and acrosome integrity. In experiment 2, penetrability of spermatozoa cryopreserved with 100 mM glycerol or trehalose was examined. Replacement of cryoprotectant glycerol (100 mM) with trehalose had no effect on sperm viability, but replacing it with 100 mM trehalose improved motility, MMP and acrosome integrity significantly. Sperm motility and MMP were considerably higher in 100 mM trehalose, whereas the acrosome integrity was substantially higher in 100-250 mM trehalose. The in vitro penetration rate was also significantly higher in spermatozoa cryopreserved with trehalose (61.3%) than in those cryopreserved with glycerol (43.6%). In conclusion, 100 mM non-permeable trehalose can be used to replace glycerol, a permeating cryoprotectant, for maintenance of better post-thaw quality of boar spermatozoa.