About the Authors

Tadashi Yamashita

tadashi_y_kobe@yahoo.co.jp

Affiliations Kobe City College of Nursing, Nursing, Kobe, Japan, Department of International Health, Kobe University Graduate School of Health Sciences, Kobe, Japan

Sherri Ann Suplido

Affiliation Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology of the Philippine General Hospital, Manila, Philippines

Cecilia Ladines-Llave

Affiliations Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology of the Philippine General Hospital, Manila, Philippines, University of the Philippines, College of Medicine, Manila, Philippines

Yuko Tanaka

Affiliation Department of Nursing, Seisen University, Hikone, Japan

Naomi Senba

Affiliation Department of Maternity Nursing, Kobe University Graduate School of Health Sciences, Kobe, Japan

Hiroya Matsuo

Affiliation Department of International Health, Kobe University Graduate School of Health Sciences, Kobe, Japan

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: TY SAS CLL HM. Performed the experiments: TY SAS CLL YT NS HM. Analyzed the data: TY SAS HM. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: TY SAS CLL YT NS HM. Wrote the paper: TY SAS CLL YT NS HM.