Giving birth to a child was a life-or-death struggle for the mother and baby as late as the early half of this century; an estimate survey revealed a (36) rate among mothers as high as 15 per thousand and infant mortality as high as 200 per thousand at that time. Midwifery was practiced by the mother-in-law, the mother herself, or more (37) , by an elderly woman in the village who practiced more (38) means than useful aid to the mother.
By the time of the (39) of the People’ s Republic of China, some sixty years ago, a basic mater- uity and child hygiene (40) had been established in China. The statistics for 1950 (41) that there were 126 maternity and/or child hygiene hospitals or (42) , 54 midwifery schools and 45,910 trained 43
While efforts were made to train more medical workers, traditional midwives were also trained in the new midwifery method. (44) (45) However, difficult labor, post-natal hemorrhage and premature delivery were threatening women’ s lives. (46)