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

would accept women with high school educations and give them longer and more extensive
training. Members of this new profession would be well-educated and well-trained, could keep
up with advances in medicine, and could “stand on their own two feet” (keyi liwen liang jiao 可
以立稳两脚). 454 These midwives – both new and old-style – were definitely subordinate to
physicians. This is shown by the numerous regulations prohibiting midwives from using
instruments like forceps; requiring that they call on a physician for difficult cases or if any real
intervention, such as version (manually turning an infant in the womb from breech or other
undesirable position), were required; and forbidding them from calling themselves “doctor”
(yisheng 医生).
This brings me to the terminology used to describe and delineate the activities of the new
midwives and the old-style midwives. Jieshengpo literally means “old woman who receives the
birth.” Note the “old woman” connotation. This term refers to a likely uneducated peasant
woman with no official training, other than as an apprentice. Zhuchanshi, on the other hand,
literally means “birth helper.” The shi suffix is a term denoting a scholar, an educated person.
The change has come about dramatically, from an uneducated old woman to a scholar delivering
a child. Not incidentally, the modern word for nurse, hushi, also contains the shi suffix. This
naming is an important characteristic of the new, modern, scientifically-trained zhuchanshi,
separating them from the activities of the old-style jieshengpo.
454 Yang Chongrui (Marion Yang), "Wo De Zizhuan," in Yang Chongrui Boshi: Danchen Bai Nian Ji Nian (Dr.
Marion Yang: 100 Year Commemoration), ed. Yan Renying (Beijing: Beijing yike daxue, zhongguo xiehe yike
daxue lianhe chubanshe, 1990), 147.
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