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

type midwives in May 1932, the instructors of whom were graduates of the FNMS. 235 Hunan’s
maternity hospital (Hunan chanyuan 湖南产院), administered by its civil administration office,
was the “central organization established to ‘move forward’ and manage the whole province’s
midwifery work” (tuijin ju guanli quan sheng zhuchan gongzuo zhi zhongxin jiguan推进及管理
全省助产工作之中心机关). 236 We can assume that these institutions engaged in formal or
informal midwife training to staff their hospitals. As we have seen above, many Western
missionary hospitals provided at least casual training of assistants, and these maternity hospitals
were modeled on Western methods and equipment.
It is unclear whether or not all of these schools and hospitals had the support or assistance
of the National Health Administration, which brings us to consider the disarray and deficiency of
some early twentieth- century Chinese government documents. Although the National Health
Administration existed to govern public health, and the National Midwifery Board to oversee
maternal and child health projects, due to China’s unstable political and social conditions,
reporting to these government offices was often inconsistent or nonexistent. It seems as though
many provincial governments jumped on the public health bandwagon in the 1930s, but the
extent and efficacy of their programs was usually lacking due to funding and administration
problems.
Liu Ruiheng’s 1937 report to LON-HO states that nine out of 18 provinces had
established provincial health services, with three in stages of advanced planning. However,
according to Liu, traditional Chinese medical practitioners still attended over 65 percent of
patients, and 26 percent of sick people were estimated to die without treatment each year.
235 "Fourth Annual Report, FNMS, Beiping, July 1, 1932 - June 30, 1933," (Beiping: First National Midwifery
School, Beiping, 1933), Appendix I: Suggested Plans for Places Surveyed, xi-xiii.
236 Neizhengbu, Neizheng Nianjian, G226.
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