Positive diagnosis for state of hospitals
The idea of setting up a network of hospitals and clinics in China offering obstetrics care came to Roberta Lipson after seeing women sharing a room during childbirth.
Lipson, from the United States, witnessed the scene when she accompanied a pregnant Chinese friend to a hospital in Beijing in the late 1980s, when the country was undergoing a baby boom.
“I was surprised, but it wasn’t because the hospitals only wanted to treat the patient in such a mechanical way,” said Lipson, who first arrived in Beijing in 1979 as a marketing manager for a trading company.
“Instead, it was because the extremely busy ward and the lack of resources didn’t allow them to be compassionate about childbirth.”
In the 1990s Lipson returned to the U.S. to have her three children. She eventually relocated to China and founded United Family Healthcare, which opened its first hospital in Beijing in 1997 and its first in Shanghai in 2004.
Healthcare in China today is vastly different to what Lipson encountered more than 30 years ago.
Women in cities now have access to an independent delivery room where family members, especially fathers, can be on hand to offer their support during the birth.
“Childbirth today is not only about being as safe as possible,” she said. “It can also be a pleasant experience to be celebrated as there is nothing happier than welcoming a new life.”
The improved conditions for the delivery of children epitomize how well-rounded healthcare in China has become, Lipson said.
In fact, the improvements she has witnessed in China’s healthcare system over the past four decades have been incredible, she said.
Life expectancy for the Chinese reached 77 in 2018, more than double the figure seven decades ago. Over the same time the maternal mortality rate fell from 1,500 per 100,000 women to about 18 per 100,000.
The enormous strides in obstetrics can largely be put down to the nationwide management system of pregnancies even in the countryside, better nutrition and postnatal health checkups for babies and mothers.
“Chinese women now get five free prenatal checkups for every pregnancy,” Lipson said.
“Women undergoing a highrisk pregnancy are sent to hospitals that can really handle those risks, even in very poor rural places. I saw on the wall of one local health center a chart about all the high-risk pregnancies in the area.”
Pain reduction during delivery has also made noticeable progress, she said, adding that it is important to be aware of the safety of both the mother and baby. When the mother is in pain, hormones are released, which in turn reduce the amount of oxygen to the baby, she said.
United Family Healthcare is said to have been the first medical institution on the Chinese mainland to offer pain control, in the late 1990s. Lipson said this increased women’s awareness about reducing pain that triggered changes in public hospitals.
At least 20 hospitals in Beijing now offer pain control services for pregnant women.
The change of focus from disease treatment to prevention has been another huge improvement in China’s healthcare system, Lipson said.
“From the country’s perspective, it’s a lot less expensive to prevent diseases than trying to cure them. Preventing diseases also stops some people becoming trapped in deep poverty.”
“Childbirth today is not only about being as safe as possible. It can also be a pleasant experience to be celebrated as there is nothing happier than welcoming a new life.” ROBERTA LIPSON