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

conditions.” 382 Furthermore, the Station participated in a school health program whereby
medical personnel examined school children and taught them basic modern public health
methods like brushing teeth and washing hands. They also administered free inoculations,
especially smallpox. In 1928, this included 25,660 home visits by nurses, 78,870 sanitary
inspections, 57,787 curative treatments (which included 44,575 for trachoma alone), and 1,148
death investigations.
In 1932, the Health Demonstration Station entered into a formal agreement of
cooperation with the PUMC Department of Obstetrics. The agreement provided for a maternity
service run by the Health Demonstration Station to give practical experience to PUMC’s medical
students studying obstetrics. The Department of Obstetrics was to provide a staff member and
one student to oversee one antenatal and one postpartum clinic. Each patient at the antenatal
clinic was to receive a leaflet (in Chinese) stating that at the onset of labor a male or female
doctor would be sent with a “public health visitor” to attend the birth. When a patient went into
labor, her case was referred to the Health Station and then relayed to the information desk at the
hospital, who would then call the physician and public health visitor on call. The Obstetrics
Department was to provide all necessary instruments for such deliveries outside the hospital, and
it would also provide ambulance service to those unable to pay for such. All records were to be
kept in Chinese at the Health Demonstration Station, with a duplicate record housed at PUMC in
case a patient were to be admitted to the hospital. The public health visitor would be responsible
for all postnatal care and reporting the cases to the physician in charge. 383
382 Ibid.
383 "Minutes of the Peiping Union Medical College Committee on the Hospital," (Beiping: Peiping Union Medical
College, 1932), folder 669, box 94, RG IV2B9, RAC.
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