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

classes. Based on other evidence presented throughout this work, it seems that poorer patients
were more likely to give birth at home and, therefore, FNMS hospital patients were more likely
to be of a higher socioeconomic class. The following year, the numbers were quite different,
with 530 A-type (42 percent), 230 B-Type (18 percent), and 480 C-Type (39 percent) distributed,
suggesting there was a greater effort to reach the poorer classes.
There has been much research in the past few decades on the hegemony of modern
medicine in developing countries. 424 Marion Yang and the FNMS seem to have been much more
accommodating to the Chinese patients than most Western medical personnel. For example,
Yang and her staff undertook investigations to solve two consistent problems within the FNMS
and the Beiping Child Health Institute regarding jieshengpo and zhuchanshi. First, Yang
constantly struggled with instructional and supervisory methods for jieshengpo, as they were
illiterate. Her problems were similar to those encountered in Dingxian (see Chapter 2.C., Rural
Midwifery Programs). Yang had to develop methods for registering and controlling these
midwives who were so often reluctant to submit to government control. Regarding modern
midwives, Yang aimed to develop curriculum to “extend their activities to include the
undertaking of satisfactory antenatal and postpartum examinations that will screen out and refer
abnormal cases to physicians.” 425 Furthermore, Yang was interested in accommodating Chinese
customs and culture. She had traveled widely and studied many different public health programs
around the world but did not attempt to force any Western system in toto upon the Chinese,
hence the emphasis on community outreach and the training of jieshengpo. On the other hand,
the expectation that mothers make numerous clinic visits and submit themselves and their
children to frequent medical examinations seems excessive and unrealistic.
424 In particular reference to the Peking Union Medical College, see Arnove, Philanthropy and Cultural Imperialism.
425 "First National Midwifery School, Peiping," 8.
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