China’s Maternal Mortality Rate Has Decreased Dramatically

China’s Maternal Mortality Rate Has Decreased Dramatically

The National Health and Family Planning Commission released a report this month showing that China’s maternal death rate has dropped by over seventy-five percent in the past twenty-five years.




China’s maternal mortality rate dropped from 23.2 per 100,000 births in 2014 to 21.7 per 100,000 births. The maternal mortality rate in 1990 was 88.8 per 100,000 births, which means there has been a 75.6%-percent drop in the last twenty-five years.

The National Health and Family Planning Commission attributed China’s progress to more social programs that gave allowances to rural Chinese women to give birth in hospitals and equitized medical care. Chinese health professionals also give free pre-pregnancy check-ups and care to reduce the spread.

“[The lowered mortality rate is] the result of strong political will and willingness to invest in healthcare for children, which is a tremendous achievement given the size of the country and population,” said Pia MacRae, country director for Save the Children in China. MacRae recognizes, however, that China still needs to take further steps in addressing inequalities in children’s health due to uneven development across the country. She says there is still much to be done on “lasting improvements in children’s health, in particular supporting the training and supervision of frontline health workers in remote areas of rural China.”

According to the China National Program for Women’s Development (2011-2020), China wants to continue the decrease the number of maternal deaths to 20 deaths per 100,000. With this new report, China officially meets their Millennium Development Goals, as designated by the United Nations. Members of the UN were to cut their maternal mortality by seventy-five percent by 2015.

http://feminist.org/blog/index.php/2015/06/16/chinas-maternal-mortality-rate-has-decreased-dramatically/