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

SIX-MONTH COURSE
The Six-Month Midwifery Course was a short course aimed at quickly training many midwives
in scientific childbirth methods, with a goal to train 60,000 of these midwives by 1958.
Candidates for the course had to be unmarried women between 25 and 35 years of age, again “of
good character and in good health,” graduates of higher primary or junior middle schools, who
successfully passed the entrance examinations. As in the Two-Year Course, there was no tuition
charged, but students were held to the same letter of guarantee, deposit, and probationary period.
Their fees totaled $78, as follows: board and lodging $50, miscellaneous expenses $25, and
physical exercise and medical expenses $3. The cost for the school per student for this course
was $759.08. 335 In 1930, there were eight graduates, all employed by municipal health
authorities. 336 This course had eight students in 1931 and nine in 1932. 337 By 1932, a total of 46
students had been registered in this course. 338
Much less emphasis was placed on science, but the practical component was significant,
with 1,124 hours of antenatal, delivery, and postnatal experience required (see Table 3.2).
335
See note 318. This is the total cost per student divided by four.
336
Marion Yang, letter to Miss Mary Beard, Beiping, November 7, 1930, folder 372, box 45, series 601, RAC.
337
"Second Annual Report, FNMS."
338
"Hygiene and Public Health: The First National Midwifery School, Peiping."
135