BUILDING THE NATION THROUGH WOMEN'S HEALTH: MODERN ...

CHAPTER THREE. THE JIESHENGPO MEET ZHUCHANSHI:
MARION YANG AND THE FIRST NATIONAL MIDWIFERY SCHOOL 294
“The graduates of a government midwifery school will encounter
far less prejudice from ignorant and superstitious folk than if they
came from a school conducted under foreign auspices alone. …The
more thoroughly Chinese this project can be made to appear, the
faster will scientific midwifery be accepted by the uneducated
people.” 295
The creation of the First National Midwifery School (FNMS) illustrates the melding of nation
building with modern medicine. It serves as an example of the ways in which medical personnel,
modernizers, and politicians used modern medicine to further China’s nation-building goals.
The FNMS also shows how influential one organization was in visualizing a national maternal
and child health plan for China. As the national model for midwifery schools throughout China,
the FNMS had government support and was overseen by the National Midwifery Board, a joint
effort of the Ministries of Health and Education. This, coupled with the Nationalist efforts to
regulate and control midwifery, made it a formidable opponent to old-style midwives. It is yet
another example of state control over birthing bodies (see Chapter Two). Furthermore, the
FNMS was a new arena in which women could exercise their bodies and minds as part of a new
China. The FNMS recruited all sorts of women to attend varying levels of midwifery courses.
294 Much of this chapter is drawn from the Annual Reports of the First National Midwifery School from 1929 to
1935 that were sent to the Rockefeller Foundation, the primary funding body for the FNMS in these years. I was
unable to locate subsequent reports.
295 Ruth Ingram, "Midwifery Training," memo to Mr. N. Gist Gee, Peking, December 29, 1927, folder 371, box 45,
series 601, RG1, RAC.
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