Love's labor not lost
DEQIN, Yunnan: She wonders how many times she fainted in pools of blood. Sixteen years on, the memory has dimmed. But Drolma Lhamo remembers clearly the pains of contractions and the thrill she felt as she held her newborn son.
Deqin is a sparsely populated region where only in the past few years have the improved roads seen more vehicles between the villages and the Deqin county seat in northwest Yunnan Province. |
"I was extremely scared, wondering if I would die," recalled Drolma, who now lives with her 67-year-old mother in an old house standing alone on the only road that leads out of Deqin County to the tourist-swarming Meili Snow Mountain in Southwest China's Yunnan Province.
The delivery cost her nothing in money but everything in health. She has been suffering a bad back and aching legs ever since.
"I had wanted to go to hospital, but we were too poor," she said. In those days, it cost hundreds of yuan for a hospital childbirth in the Shangri-La region, to which Deqin belongs. However, living on limited farming land and a small flock of sheep, Drolma's family could not afford to call for doctors. "Only one or two women in the area went to hospital to give birth," she said.
That was in the old days but even today, the majority of pregnant women in the region still have their babies at home. The home delivery rate in some villages stands at 100 percent.
Drolma Lhamo (right) and her mother Lurong Lhamo prepare tea for guests. Drolma had her son in this room. |
The maternal mortality rate in that region has remained at a high level for decades in some places, the rate is even 50 times that in the eastern coastal cities, and three times the national average which was put by the Ministry of Health at 48.3 deaths for every 100,000 people in 2004.
In Yunnan Province, 85 percent of the births occur in the rural areas, which however, share in just 15 percent of the province's health resources.
Something should be done to safeguard the mothers, said Zhao Baige, vice director of the National Population and Family Planning Committee, at the launch of a new program that is aimed at promoting local people's health, earlier this month.
The maternal mortality rate should be given the highest priority in plans to develop the region, she said.
"New Rural, New Family" is a national program that will introduce new concepts into the rural health system. This year, an initial fund of 1.8 million yuan ($231,000) will be distributed among nine counties in Sichuan, Yunnan and Tibet, where Tibetan people
Lurong Lhamo, 67, hopes her grandson's future wife will be able to make it to a hospital to deliver her baby, when the time comes. |
"Instead of having some 'grand' goal or stereotyped measures, our program will take a cultural perspective," said Zhang Kaining, a leading expert with the program.
Zhang said the program will educate local people and officials about the importance of a hospital delivery and provide relevant health information. An investigation into the poor health conditions, especially frequent maternal deaths, is key to the success of the program, he said.
Major difficulties
Zhang and other experts said there is a traditional belief among Tibetans that childbirth is dirty. Women are forbidden to deliver in rooms where statues of gods are kept. Lurong Lhamo, Drolma's mother, delivered all her three children on a grain stack in the family's store room.
In addition, high hospital charges mean that local women deliver mostly at home. Tashi Udui, director of the Deqin Population and Family Planning Committee, said a hospital delivery cost an average of 600 to 3,000 yuan ($80-380) in Deqin, a county with a population of more than 50,000.
Deqin has been listed as a State-level poverty county since 1998. The average annual income is less than 600 yuan.
Agema, a colleague of Tashi as well as a local doctor, said the county had only one hospital which can accommodate about 100 women in labor a year. Though the hospital labor rate saw a little improvement last year, up from 21 percent to more than 30 percent, it is still much lower than the better-developed regions in China, where almost all women go to hospital for delivery.
Transport poses another challenge. There was no vehicle to send Lurong and her daughter Drolma to hospital, which is hours away by foot.
Like the other eight pilot counties in the new program, Deqin is sparsely populated, with eight people per square kilometer. The region's mountainous terrain poses another problem. Only in the past two to three years have the improved roads seen more vehicles between the villages and the Deqin county seat.
"We have many taxis passing by, I hope my grandson's future wife will be able to go to hospital on her special day," Lurong said.
Tashi has a plan to realize Lurong's dream. He plans a "free driving" scheme in the county, under which mothers in pain can ask for a free drive between their homes and hospital. The county will also give the mother 110 yuan ($14) as subsidy, he said.
The county is also training an anesthetist for the local medical service station. In two or three months, pregnant women can come to the station to give birth at a much lower price or even for free, Agema added.
Zhang Kaining emphasized that Deqin's plan would only apply to that county. "Every county has its own scheme to develop. They can borrow from each other but shouldn't copy one another," he said.
(China Daily 01/30/2007 page20)
