More midwives, beds to deal with 2 million extra babies
Print Edition
CHINESE hospitals will be required to add more beds and recruit more midwives to cope with an expected baby boom as a result of the country relaxing its one-child policy.
The National Health and Family Planning Commission (NHFPC) will introduce measures to boost the capacity of health institutions to handle an expected annual increase of 2 million babies, Zhang Shikun, director of the commission’s maternal and child health service bureau said at a press conference yesterday.
China loosened its decades-long one-child population policy in a key decision of the Communist Party of China issued last November. The new policy allows couples to have two children if one of them is an only child.
The shortage of beds is universal, NHFPC vice minister Wang Guoqiang said yesterday, citing the findings of a tour of grassroots communities he made.
The NHFPC will urge local authorities to build more health institutes for women and children and ask hospitals to offer better services and recruit more midwives, said Zhang.
Other NHFPC initiatives include stricter controls on situations in which women are offered Cesarean delivery, increased advocacy for breast-feeding and the prevention and treatment of birth defects, Zhang said.
The figure of 2 million additional births a year is at the top end forecasts based on the relaxation of the policy, said experts.
Some say the number might be lower due to the growing acceptance in China of smaller families.
The new policy has taken effect in Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin and Chongqing, and the provinces of Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Anhui, Sichuan, Guangdong and Jiangsu and Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region.
Yesterday, north China’s Shanxi Province also relaxed its family planning policy in accordance with the Party decision, the local legislature said.
Shanxi expects to see an additional 189,600 to 238,000 babies by the end of 2020, according to an official with the provincial health and family planning commission.
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