In Japanese folklore, the ghost of a woman who died during pregnancy or childbirth is called an ubume.
Ubume is a female yōkai or ghost associated with pregnancy, childbirth, and death. Stories often portray her as a woman who appears near a village, road, or shrine carrying a baby or asking someone to hold it. In some versions, the child becomes strangely heavy or disappears after the encounter.
The tales express grief, unfinished maternal responsibility, and the dangerous boundary between life and death. Some narratives connect the ubume with a woman who died before she could care for her child, while others describe a ghost returning to ensure that her baby is protected.
Ubume is not the same as yuki-onna, whose folklore centers on snow and winter, or jorogumo, the spider spirit that takes human form. The term may also appear in historical and religious writing with regional variations, so individual stories do not all contain exactly the same supernatural events.