Xinhua seagate, 21 september: focusing on the whole life cycle to ensure “efficiency” of our maternal and child health services
Xinhua's reporter chen kai-sung
In the midst of the wind and rain, it is most gratifying to hear the tears of the baby's birth. During the 3rd chinese academic congress on maternal and child health, a video clip was shown on a rolling basis during the attack on hainan by typhoon moe, all maternal and child health workers worked hard to ensure the safety of the mother and child and to protect the emotional footprints of the maternity wards of the storm。
From 20 to 21 september, the third chinese academic congress on maternal and child health was held in haikou city, which recently experienced a super-typhoon. The aim of the conference was to bring together academic elites, to focus on the main issues of women's and children's health, to share scientific findings, to share practical experiences, to explore optimal strategies and to work with women and children in the future。
In the view of participants, maternal and child health was the cornerstone of health for all. After decades of effort, the health of mothers and children has been significantly improved and maternal health care continues to improve。
According to xiaofeng leung, vice-president of the chinese association of preventive medicine, the core indicators of maternal and child health in our country have continued to improve in recent years. The national maternal mortality rate, infant mortality rate and under-five mortality rate are all record lows. In particular, in 2023, infant mortality fell below 4. 5 per 1,000 for the first time, reaching the advanced levels in high- and middle-income countries。
The improvement of maternal and child health is dependent on continued improvement in maternal and child health services。
According to wang kejean, the second inspector of the maternal and child health department of the national health commission, the network of maternal and child health services is constantly being developed and the establishment of provincial, municipal and county-level centres for the treatment of women and children at risk, as well as centres for the treatment of children at risk, covering a wide range of areas of responsibility, hierarchically linked up and down, and an orderly system for the treatment of women and children at risk has been established. It has also established a basic, focused, broad-based and bottom-line maternal and child health insurance system through the strengthening of the legal and regulatory framework and the strengthening of the protection of inputs。
In terms of improving the quality of maternal and child health services, we have strengthened the referral of women at risk and newborns, and implemented measures to prevent and control birth defects at three levels, such as premarital examinations, prenatal screening and screening for neonatal diseases. At present, 99. 9 per cent of hospital deliveries take place in the country, and the national coverage of cervical and breast cancer screening programmes is over 90 per cent. In addition, pre-pregnancy eugenic health check-ups, the addition of folic acid prevention neural tube defects have been incorporated into the national basic public service standards, and the implementation of the congenital heart disease screening project has been further expanded and many priority diseases have been strengthened。
Based on the “high score” of maternal and child health work, our country was rated by the world health organization as “one of the ten high-performing countries in maternal and child health worldwide”. Richard holden, editor-in-chief of the lancet: china has done a great job。
“at the same time, it must be sobered to see that the health of women and children still faces many challenges.” according to liang xiaofeng, our country is a country with a large population of some 880 million women and children, with uneven rural-urban development, new health problems resulting from changes in the demographic structure, lifestyle and disease spectrum, and the increasingly diverse and differentiated health needs of women and children, requiring innovative thinking, innovative models, innovative technologies and efforts to build a high-quality system of maternal and child health services adapted to the requirements of china's modernity。
To accelerate the improvement of the system of reproductive support policies, to upgrade quality reproductive services and to promote high-quality development of the population ... In the face of difficult tasks, our maternal and child health services are moving towards a full cycle, a full spectrum and a whole process。
According to wang kee, a network of early screening, early diagnosis, early treatment and early intervention is to be built up, with an increase in maternal and child nutrition, mental health care, as well as an increase in the number of outpatients in specialty specialties, as well as short sheets such as paediatric construction, medical experience, and a shift from “no” to “yes or no” and from “scaling” to “efficiency”。
The faculty of public health of the university of jordan, for its part, teaches that the cause of maternal and child health in our country is at a new stage of development and that it is necessary to continuously strengthen the resilience of the system of maternal and child health services, to maximize the prevention of disease and to work tirelessly towards a vision of the health of women and children throughout their life cycle。
