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Hospital births spur huge drop in deaths
Source: Agencies |
September 17, 2011, Saturday
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NEW data show that encouraging Chinese women to give birth in the hospital has contributed to a sharp drop in infant deaths over a 12-year period.
A study released yesterday in The Lancet, a British medical journal, says that newborn deaths plummeted 62 percent between 1996 and 2008 based on an analysis of 1.5 million births.
The study, co-authored by researchers from Peking University and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said more babies survived mainly because women were increasingly giving birth in hospitals or clinics.
"In 1988, less than half of all women in China gave birth in a hospital, but only 20 years later, hospital births have become almost universal," it said.
"Where you give birth really matters," said one of the authors, Carine Ronsmans, a professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
There were 24.7 deaths of newborns in China per 1,000 live births in 1996 but by 2008 that figure had fallen to 9.3 per 1,000, it said.
Traditionally, poorer countries have tried to reduce newborn deaths by training community health workers such as midwives to assist in home births.
Ronsmans said those methods have helped reduce newborn deaths "a little bit" in countries such as Nepal and India.
"But you couldn't achieve a 62 percent reduction just with a community-based strategy," she said.
"What's novel here is that the Chinese government has adopted a very different strategy," she said. "The Chinese government has really invested in strengthening hospitals."
The approach has proved effective nationwide, even in the poorest Chinese provinces, she said.
However, one of the downsides, said Ronsmans, is that the rise in hospital births overseen by doctors may have encouraged unnecessary medical interventions, such as Caesarean sections. C-sections now account for as many as 65 percent of births in China.
Ideally, Chinese women should continue to give birth in health care centers or hospitals but with a midwife's supervision, instead of a doctor, unless medically necessary, according to the professor.
"Investment in midwives is something that the Chinese government did not do and that's something I would do differently but I would still encourage facility-based delivery because you offer a much safer environment than at home," she said.
Ronsmans countered the point, saying that in China today "almost all women give birth in hospital, whether rich or poor."
The study was funded by UNICEF and the China Medical Board, a New York-based non-governmental organization.
A study released yesterday in The Lancet, a British medical journal, says that newborn deaths plummeted 62 percent between 1996 and 2008 based on an analysis of 1.5 million births.
The study, co-authored by researchers from Peking University and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said more babies survived mainly because women were increasingly giving birth in hospitals or clinics.
"In 1988, less than half of all women in China gave birth in a hospital, but only 20 years later, hospital births have become almost universal," it said.
"Where you give birth really matters," said one of the authors, Carine Ronsmans, a professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
There were 24.7 deaths of newborns in China per 1,000 live births in 1996 but by 2008 that figure had fallen to 9.3 per 1,000, it said.
Traditionally, poorer countries have tried to reduce newborn deaths by training community health workers such as midwives to assist in home births.
Ronsmans said those methods have helped reduce newborn deaths "a little bit" in countries such as Nepal and India.
"But you couldn't achieve a 62 percent reduction just with a community-based strategy," she said.
"What's novel here is that the Chinese government has adopted a very different strategy," she said. "The Chinese government has really invested in strengthening hospitals."
The approach has proved effective nationwide, even in the poorest Chinese provinces, she said.
However, one of the downsides, said Ronsmans, is that the rise in hospital births overseen by doctors may have encouraged unnecessary medical interventions, such as Caesarean sections. C-sections now account for as many as 65 percent of births in China.
Ideally, Chinese women should continue to give birth in health care centers or hospitals but with a midwife's supervision, instead of a doctor, unless medically necessary, according to the professor.
"Investment in midwives is something that the Chinese government did not do and that's something I would do differently but I would still encourage facility-based delivery because you offer a much safer environment than at home," she said.
Ronsmans countered the point, saying that in China today "almost all women give birth in hospital, whether rich or poor."
The study was funded by UNICEF and the China Medical Board, a New York-based non-governmental organization.
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