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

educational visits to instruct mothers how to prepare for delivery and care and feeding of
children. 384 The number of confined mothers that FNMS midwives attended in 1929-30 was 214
(89 at home plus 125 in hospital). That number grew in 1935 to 1,926 (388 at home and 1,538 in
hospital, see Table 3.4). 385 The FNMS clinic gave antepartum, postpartum, child welfare, and
gynecological exams. Annual clinic attendance, including return visits, grew dramatically from
956 in 1929-30 to 19,710 in 1934-35. 386
Confined
Table 3.4: First National Midwifery School Delivery Service
Number of Confined Mothers and Newborn Babies
Nov 15, 1929 – June 30, 1930 July 1, 1930 – June 30, 1931
At home At hospital Total At home At hospital Total
Mothers 89 125 214 149 448 597
Confined
Nov 15, 1931 – June 30, 1932 July 1, 1932 – June 30, 1933
At home At hospital Total At home At hospital Total
Mothers 263 826 1089 359 927 1286
Confined
Nov 15, 1933 – June 30, 1934 July 1, 1934 – June 30, 1935
At home At hospital Total At home At hospital Total
Mothers 360 1281 1641 388 1538 1926
Reproduced from “Fifth Annual Report, FNMS,” 1933-34, p. 15.
The school also provided clerkships (what we today would call internships) to its own
midwifery students. As discussed in Chapters Two and Four, the FNMS and PUMC were in
large part feeders for bureaucratic posts in the Nationalist government, and this type of training
facilitated that transfer of knowledge and personnel. The objectives of the midwifery clerkships
384 "Sixth Annual Report, FNMS."
385 Ibid., 14.
386 Ibid., 7.
154