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http://www.womenofchina.cn/womenofchina/html1/1506/917-1.htm?=mail
CHINA – MATERNAL DEATH RATE DROPS 75% IN PAST 25 YEARS
Editor: Kiki
Liu – June 11, 2015
China's maternal mortality rate has shrunk
by 75 percent over the last 25 years, according to the National
Health and Family Planning Commission (NHFPC) on June 10.
Maternal death
rate was 21.7 per 100,000 in 2014, compared with 88.8 per 100,000 in 1990, a
75.6 percent drop.
That meets the Millennium Development Goal one
year ahead of the deadline. Under the goals adopted by the United Nations in
2000, nations are expected to cut maternal mortality by three-quarters by 2015.
The commission
attributed the decrease a more equitable medical care and allowances provided
for rural women to give birth in hospitals.
Hospital delivery
rate in rural families was merely 36.4 percent in 1990, while in 2014, the rate
has increased to 99.6 percent.
The NHFPC said in
2014 the infant death rate and mortality for children under five dropped to 8.9
per thousand and 11.7 per thousand, respectively, seven years ahead of the
Millennium Development Goals deadline.
Health authorities
have also reduced the birth defect rate by providing free pre-pregnancy
check-ups and medical care. For example, through intervention therapy, HIV
mother-to-child transmission reduced from a previous 34.8 percent to 6.1
percent in 2014, preventing 6,890 children from being infected.