Women's healthcare in the People's Republic of China

American researchers, who traveled to China in the 1970’s during the late Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), found that there were numerous conferences in factories and in health centers about the importance of family planning and uses of contraceptives. In the Cultural Revolution, the People’s Republic of China began implementing women’s health care policy. It is individualistic in each case but most people follow the one child policy. In some instances the male or female would be sterilized, or more commonly abortion was recommended (Wegman, 222). Healthcare was something that women workers are entitled too. It was required that every female worker in China receives urinalysis and systematic vaginal examinations every year (Wegman, 222).

Maternity
The researchers found that pregnant women received a large amount of attention from their supervisors, community, and local health workers. Those who worked on farms were not allowed to work after their 28th week of pregnancy. After the child was born, mothers could leave their child at a day care center, though they were usually left at home for the grandmother to take care of. Those who worked in factories received check ups at work, were allowed less work hours, and when their child was born, day care was provided with hours to breast-feed. Breast-feeding was a common practice with factory workers, and farmers were able to take every few hours off to feed their child. Many females during their first month of pregnancy visited the local midwife, to make sure everything is fine and establish a comfortable relationship. Every month after, the midwife would take blood pressure to check for toxemia. For those working in factories, the in house health worker was the person that administered the biological pregnancy test. This is because every female worker had to fill out a menstruation card and it was the responsibility of the heath worker to notice when a few days have been missed. (Wegman, 221)

Education
The Nursing School at the Peking Union Medical College was established in 1920. During the beginning years before the Nursing School, male nurses trained at missions took care of the sick (Wegman, 33). The Nursing students were trained at the Special Health Station for hands-on experiences with public health. The female patients at the Special Health Station, were cared for by family members or an untrained amah. It was not allowed for unrelated males to handle the body of a female because of the social constrictions (Wegman). The emphasis on public health was a major step in the spread of value of personal hygiene and sanitation. Midwives were also able to provide birth control help.

The first program created to deal with maternal and child needs was established by Marian Young. She was part of John B. Grant’s pilot program to promote public health for the Peking Union Medical College. Young had a survey conducted to examine the mortality rates of both mothers and their children. There was a higher maternal mortality in China than Japan, England and the United States. 17.6 out of 1000 mothers died, mainly from puerperal infection. This number is staggeringly low compared to the deaths of the children, which claimed 275 out of 1000 infants, usually from tetanus neonatourm. Young believed these high rates were due to a lack of education of midwives. In 1929, there were only about 500 trained midwives in all of China, forcing the majority of citizens to trust in the care of the 200,000 without formal training. These untrained midwives ran the risk of failing to notice signs of infection or disease, improper sterilization practices, and lack of sanitary training. Also, they were not trained in the proper birthing techniques. It was found that many of the untrained midwives would cut the umbilical cord with any sharp object they happened to find lying around; in some instances teeth were used. The bleeding from the cord would be stopped with dirt or a rag. There was no education about the importance of sterilization and cleanliness. At times, if a woman was having trouble delivering, the untrained midwife would use hooks or tongs to help create traction on the baby (Wegman, 36).

In 1929 Young opened a school, the North China School of Midwives, for the study in midwifery. She trained nurses from the Peking Union Medical College and existing untrained midwives. At the end of her courses, she gave each midwife a basket of goods that would help them apply the correct measures while assisting a birth. This was an important step in women’s public health. With trained midwives, there would be less of a chance of using incorrect procedures, and a standard of sanitary and sterile procedures (Wegman, 36). Medical and nursing students were not the only ones to learn about hygiene and sanitation. The PRC had a large education campaign to educate the public about these issues. Also included was material to convince adolescents to marry later in life, and to focus initially on their careers. When they do want a family, it is suggested that it is kept to one to two children (Wegman, 246). This education spread from urban to rural areas, along with many doctors and nurses. The rural areas were the hardest to reach, for they were the ones rooted deep in tradition. The farmers and other rural workers believed heavily in traditional Chinese medicine. The new PRC policies tried to incorporate western healthcare techniques to help concentrate more on women’s health.

Laws
Chinese healthcare policy has tried to assured Chinese women the same treatment as men. There was a strong traditional culture that the People’s Republic of China has been trying to modernize. In this traditional culture, women did not have any priority in healthcare. Chinese culture was based on Confucius thought, patrilineal kinship system, and Ancestral Worship. These three factors focus strongly on the male, favoring them (Hong, 545). Making the healthcare policies of the People’s Republic of China an important step towards women’s healthcare in China. A whole set of laws, administrative decrees and local regulations, based on the Constitution of the People's Republic of China and the PRC Law on the Protection of the Rights and Interests of Women, such as the PRC Marriage Law, the PRC Inheritance Law, the PRC Labor Law, the PRC Law on Maternal and Child Care and Regulations on Labor Protection of Women Workers, that are aimed at protecting the rights and interests of women and promoting the development of women has basically come into being (China).

Recently China has made efforts to develop women’s issues. Backed by the UNDP, the All-China Women’s Federation has called for more rights in their Development of the Chinese Women (1995 – 2000) program. Their goals are to “mobilize and organize the women of all nationalities to plunge into the open-and-reform and socialist modernization efforts, comprehensively raise the quality of women, safeguard the rights and interests of women in accordance with the law and further improve the status of women.” The program later goes on to state that all areas of the government and society must work hard to understand and help implement these goals (China). This is important because women would be taking care of each other, and knowing the problems personally will allow for more emphasis on women’s issues.

The goals stated were to increase the amount of educated women, so that they will be able to work in government departments, therein giving females a voice. The People’s Republic of China, during the fifth session of the seventh national people’s congress in 1992, created laws to protect the rights and interests of women. In article 33, it is stated that women will enjoy the same rights as men. It also became illegal to murder female infants, discriminate against those who have female children, kidnap or traffic in women, and engage in prostitution. Earlier in 1956, the Chinese government made public the intentions of controlling the population size through education and publicity. Madame Le The-chuan, the minister of health at this time, made these intentions known. A few months later, Zhou Enlai approved the population control intentions and began the first of the many campaigns for smaller families. Contraceptives and family planning were widely advertised. Workers started in urban areas, then worked their way to the more rural parts promoting these practices. The government was successful in recreating the family image to a mother, father, and one child that the prominent view of a “perfect family” involves a mother, father, and child (Chen, 239).

With the uses of contraceptives, there was a large push for more research in producing more effective contraceptives. By the late 1960’s, a 22-day pill was created. This became very popular because of the low cost and near absence of side effects. Factory workers and rural laborers began receiving the combined oral contraceptive pills for free or for a very low cost (Chen, 245). Another alternative to using the birth control pill was a form of induced abortion. In 1989 it was reported that doctors are able to perform this for free of charge. The government and businesses fully supported this practice and offered two weeks off with full pay (Chen, 245).