Shanghai needs to improve its perinatal care

In view of the situation that the perinatal mortality rate of Shanghai keeps dropping, doctor Hua Jiazeng from the Shanghai No. 1 Maternity Hospital told the reporter recently that to further lower down the perinatal mortality rate in Shanghai, the perinatal care should be improved through replacing maternity facilities and equipments, keeping the mother and her baby together in the same ward in hospital, and raising the breastfeeding rate. According to the latest statistics, the maternity mortality rate is now 23.8/100.000 in Shanghai, and the perinatal mortality rate has been 12-13/1000 in the past 10 years. These numbers show that there is still a gap between Shanghai and some developed countries regarding perinatal care. There are 3 reasons behind this: 1) since the early 1980s, Shanghai has been in the birth peak period and each year there are 180,000 babies born on the average, as a result, short of beds and lack of staff, the quality of puerperium monitoring and parturition treatment is impaired; 2) maternity facilities and equipments in quite a few hospitals are obsolete and do not suit the needs of modern maternity care anymore, and many hospitals still put newly-born babies together in a big ward which make babies easy to be infected; and 3) breastfeeding rate is dropping as more families do not choose breastfeeding. Doctor Hua suggests: first, we should make a good use of the 3-level maternal and childcare network covering the whole city, strengthen primary care, and pay particular attention to the women of 1st pregnancy at middle age and the unhealthy pregnant women; 2nd, health and medical sectors should put some funds on improving maternal facilities and equipments, increase maternity staff, and raise the income of maternity workers; lastly, all hospitals should keep the mother and baby in the same ward, and greatest efforts should be made to raise the breastfeeding rate.