Midwife pens graphic guide to childbirth
For many women, childbirth can be a stressful and confusing experience. The situation is worse if communication is difficult — such as if the mother speaks a foreign language, or is unable to hear or speak.
Zhang Xin, a midwife at the Shanghai First Maternity and Infant Hospital, has come up with a solution — a graphic booklet that shows the preparatory steps and processes during childbirth.
The 24-year-old, who graduated from the Shanghai University of Medicine and Health Sciences in 2014, drew the cartoons herself.
“Over the past three years as a midwife, I’ve experienced several cases when it has been difficult to communicate with the mother,” Zhang said.
For example, she has received expectant mothers from ethnic groups who speak only their local dialect and can’t understand Mandarin or English.
“Anxiety is high in such a situation, and I really think this can be solved,” she said.
One day, Zhang read an article online about an anesthetist who drew comics for patients having difficulty communicating.
Inspired, the midwife started work on the hand-drawn graphic guide in her spare time. She didn’t have any drawing skills, but Zhang managed to finish more than 10 pages of cartoons based on her working experience in the hospital within two weeks.
Her illustrations have proved both effective and popular. The hospital decided to make them into a brochure, which is divided into five chapters, covering topics such as delivery, having an epidural and birth companions.
Zhang has also composed a series of short phrases for expectant mothers to memorize, covering important information about the events before and during childbirth.
“For those who don’t know what will happen and are afraid of not being able to understand the doctors or not being understood, the brochure tells them almost everything they need to know in a simple way,” Zhang said. “It does help.”
About 17.86 million babies were born in China last year, a rise of 1.31 million compared with 2015, thanks in part to the country’s secondchild policy.
Shanghai First Maternity and Infant Hospital ranks top nationwide in terms of the number of babies delivered in the past three years.
“About 2 to 3 percent of the women in delivery have some kind of communication barri- er with the medical staff,” said Liu Hong, head nurse of the hospital’s obstetrics department. “While the percentage of people with hearing and speaking difficulties remains stable, we’ve been receiving a growing number of women from foreign countries.”
Which is why the hospital has introduced an English version of the booklet.
“We’re glad to see that the brochure helps not only those who have difficulty communicating with our medics, but also generally all those who come here to have babies,” Liu said. “It helps them relax.”
The hospital plans to make the brochure an official guide and give one to every pregnant woman who comes to the hospital.
Zhang said she feels “proud and gratified” when she helps deliver a child successfully and is able to hold a newborn baby in her arms.
“I will keep on collecting feedback on the brochure to improve it,” she added.