Childbirth Hygiene In Modern Shanghai, 1927-1949

The change of childbirth behavior and technology has been a revolution in western medicine since 18th century. In the process of modernization in China, western obstetrics was introduced as a resource to reduce the maternity & infant mortality rate. In 1970s, the western academic world began paying attention to medical sociology about the female, which inspired historians to discuss the history of childbirth hygiene from perspectives such as technology, gender and politics. They focused on the replacement of the traditional midwives by the modern ones, and the medicalization and nationalization of childbirth. My dissertation discusses the childbirth hygiene in Shanghai 1920s-1940s, including the themes on nation discourse, knowledge resource, medical people and medical organizations. I dig into the rich literature of archives, newspapers and periodicals, as well as books, and review the childbirth hygiene administration, midwifery education, modern midwives, and medicalization of childbirth during the twenty years in Shanghai. In the discourse of strengthening the nation, childbirth hygiene, which was affiliated to the conception such as nation and motherhood, became a mobilization strategy as to call for the country, society and women to maintain the nation life. Accordingly, childbirth hygiene was brought into the hygiene administration program in order to control the social life. The main facets included training modern midwives, re-molding the traditional midwives, running the maternity organizations, and so on. The complexity on the history of childbirth hygiene practice in some extent gives an answer to my reflection on the modernity. As the main group who carried out the childbirth hygiene, the modern midwives' replacing traditional ones cannot be seen as a result of science defeating superstition. They even expressed they failed in the childbirth assistant competition. A comprehensive childbirth medical system had been developed in Shanghai during the period; however, the effect of medicalization of childbirth was in fact limited because of the factors such as economy and conceptions.