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

Qihuamenwai clinic after being in labor for several days. She was carried to the hospital, but by
then it was too late. Nothing could be done to save her because her uterus had ruptured. This
tragedy could have been prevented if the woman had had access to modern prenatal care, even at
a small rural clinic. The second experience was the receipt of a letter written by a rural person in
1924 to PUMC’s surgical department that said, “Your surgical skills are good. But we don’t
know how to safely deliver babies, to keep children from dying, or what medicine to take.” 311
Long discussions with Grant about this letter led Yang to see the connection between general
public health and infant and maternal health. These two events – the woman’s dying in labor and
receiving the letter – spurred Yang to undertake the “virgin territory” of public health work, and
she began by conducting two rural tetanus neonatorum studies. In 1926-27, Yang received a
scholarship for a one-year fellowship in OB/GYN at Johns Hopkins University School of
Hygiene and Public Health.
At Grant’s suggestion, on the same trip, she also took a six-month tour of Canada,
England, Scotland, Germany, France, Denmark and other European countries to observe their
OB/GYN education and public health programs. She describes her experiences that year as
“eye-opening,” and after the trip she made the choice to go into public health. She had decided
that public health was the fastest way to improve the health of the poor masses. After returning
to PUMC, Yang assumed a joint post as assistant professor of public health and head of the First
Health Demonstration Station. Her involvement with OB/GYN and midwife training would
come later. For the present, she felt that hope for the health of the masses lay in the development
of public health services.
311 Ibid.
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