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

major impact on health policy and administration” in the Chinese government. 553 During Lim’s
tenure, the CMJ devoted entire issues to public health and improving maternal and child health.
In the process, it modernized and scientized these fields. The CMJ’s readers included OB/GYN,
nursing and midwifery students and faculty, and in many cases we can see the flow of
information from the journal to the people (mainly women) on the street.
For in addition to the written word, by the 1930s China also had a growing cadre of
newly trained midwives to instruct and inform Chinese women about the science of reproduction
and child-rearing. Furthermore, women could choose to give birth in a hospital or a maternity
institution, patronize physicians versed in the latest breakthroughs in reproductive technology,
and attend meetings that taught the most up-to-date child-care methods. By the 1930s, the
number of women enrolled in midwifery schools was very small. Most programs had fewer than
30 students in each class, and while the number of such schools was growing, modern midwifery
still affected only a small minority of women. However, these women were a significant force in
spreading ideas about modern childbirth, maternal and child health, and child-rearing.
(Figure 5.3).
Let us turn to the image of a First National Midwifery School graduate on a home visit
553 Chen and Bunge, Medicine in Rural China: A Personal Account, 63.
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