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

the municipal government a charter to establish the Beiping Municipal Midwifery School. It was
written by a committee of medical specialists and “local notables” Li Dequan (李德全), Zhang
Hexian (郑河县), Song Youzhu (宋友竹), and Zeng Xianzhang (曾宪章), along with Yang. At
the same time, the committee also created a resolution outlining China’s midwifery training
plans, including the Beiping Municipal Health Department’s old-style midwife training course.
The resolution was passed at the first meeting of the National Midwifery Board on January 23,
1929, thus creating China’s First National Midwifery School, funded by the Ministry of Health
and the Rockefeller Foundation’s International Health Division, and directly under control of the
National Midwifery Board. Yang’s goal from the start was to have the FNMS be the model for
midwifery schools nationwide, and also to train highly skilled personnel to provide further
training and leadership in the midwifery field. The qualified trainees would then go on to help
establish and staff similar schools and maternal and child health departments in each province.
In this way, China would not have to expend its money and resources relying on foreign or
foreign-trained personnel.
The National Midwifery Board was committed to midwifery training at all levels. Its
first Five-Year Program (1929-1933) was ambitious. Yang and her colleagues were to carry out
a survey of the state of midwifery education, establish “adequate supervision and control of
midwifery,” investigate medical problems of maternal and child health, and encourage and
educate the general population to seek improved public health services. 317 By 1932, five
regional national schools would be established, one each in Beiping, Nanjing, Hangzhou,
Canton, and Hankou. Furthermore, by 1933 each province would have its own school. In
317 "Midwifery Education," (Midwifery Training School, 1930), folder 372, box 45, series 601, RG 1, RAC, 2.
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