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

The FNMS services were popular from the beginning. The clinic saw 480 new clients
between November 1929 and June 1930, with 476 additional return visits (See Table 3.6). 410
The hospital was expanded a few years later to house 65 beds. The delivery service between
November 1929 and June 1930 delivered 126 babies in the maternity hospital and another 89 at
the patients’ homes. 411 In 1930-31, there were 4,504 clinic visits and 597 deliveries. 412 By 1932,
students of the FNMS had attended 1,369 deliveries, and had seen 7,103 antenatal cases, 2,248
postpartum cases, and 1,826 well-baby clinic cases. 413 However, that same year the clinic
attendance was about 40 percent lower than expected, due to the fact that the clinic was moved to
a more distant location on Jiaodaokou in North City. Most of the FNMS’s patients came from
central and southern Beijing. The FNMS hoped that after the patients got used to the new
location, attendance would soon grow to 25,000 with 1,500 deliveries per annum. 414 By 1933,
the clinic saw 4,279 total new cases and 7,854 total return visits, for clinic attendance of
12,133. 415 That is far short of the 25,000 goal, but it is apparent that the clinic’s attendance was
growing steadily. One of the most telling statistics is that between 1929 and 1935, hospital
deliveries rose from 125 to 1,538, an astounding increase. Furthermore, home deliveries
attended by FNMS midwives increased from 89 to 388. The total number of deliveries by
modern midwives from FNMS rose from 214 to 1,926 in this period, a ninefold increase in only
six years (see Table 3.4). 416
The clinic was also successful. Of the 89 women who received antenatal care and
delivered at home between 1929 and 1930, there were no maternal deaths and only six infant
410
"First Annual Report, FNMS," 7.
411
Ibid, 8.
412
"Second Annual Report, FNMS," 7.
413
"Hygiene and Public Health: The First National Midwifery School, Peiping."
414
"Fourth Annual Report, FNMS."
415
"Fifth Annual Report, FNMS," 8.
416
"Sixth Annual Report, FNMS," 14.
165