China Maternal and Infant Health Promotion Campaign Launched in Beijing

China Maternal and Infant Health Promotion Campaign launched in the Great Hall of the People on Jul. 10

Gu Xiulian, vice chairwoman of the Standing Committee of the 10th China's National People's Congress and Director of China’s Working Committee for the Care of the Next Generation attended the ceremony and made a speech 

Lin Yuming, Chairman of Harmonicare Medical Management Consulting Co., Ltd. making a speech

China Maternal and Infant Health Promotion Campaign co-sponsored by China Research Society of Family Culture, Women of China Media and Harmonicare Management Consulting Co., Ltd. was launched in the Great Hall of the People on Jul. 10, 2013. 

Gu Xiulian, vice chairwoman of the Standing Committee of the 10th China's National People's Congress and Director of China’s Working Committee for the Care of the Next Generation attended the ceremony and made a speech. She said, July 11 is the world population day and it was of great significance to hold the launching ceremony of the China Maternal and Infant Health Promotion Campaign. Our government has paid much attention to the health of women and infant and has made great efforts to continuously improve their living and health status, which have been significantly improved over the past years. Our government has formulated and revised a number of laws and regulations and has implemented many policies and development plans to protect the rights of women and infant to health at different levels and from different angles and dramatically improve the medical and health service conditions. The key health indexes of the women and infant in our country have made historical progress and ranked among the world advanced level. The infant mortality rate, maternal mortality rate and other indexes are on the top among developing countries.

mechanism and the accelerated pace of life, more public health problems, women and infant’s health and other social problems are arising and the maternal and infant health work is faced with new challenges. She hoped that government organs could enact more regulations and policies to protect maternal and infant health, especially feasible countermeasures against those top-concerned problems in current stage such as the safety of maternal and infant’s food, traffic, accident-incurred injuries. Enterprises and public institutions shall strictly implement relevant policies governing the protection of women in pregnancy and lactation period and create more human-oriented work environment for them. The central and state organs, state-owned enterprises shall play a demonstration and leading part in the promotion of the maternal and infant health. 

Song Lanqin, Deputy Secretary General of the Maternal & Infant Health Care of China mentioned breast feeding in our country in her speech. She said, in recent years, due to the poor publicity and loose management, the Breastmilk Substitutes Sales Management Measures is not executed as per requirements and the dairy product manufacturers’ peddling of the milk powder for 0-6 months’ old babies and the inundated breastmilk substitutes advertisements have brought down the breast feeding. As revealed by the data released by the Ministry of Health, the breast feeding rate of babies of 0-6 months old is only 27.6%, 15.8% in cities and 30.3% in the countryside. 

Hong Tianhui, member of the National Committee of CPPCC and Chairman of the China Research Society of Family Culture raised requirements on the follow-up work, that is, work in a down-to-earth way, stress the key point and enable all women and infant benefit from the campaign. Quantitative and qualitative investigation and research shall be carried out continuously to provide true-to-fact, new and valuable data, reflect the demands of all pregnant and lying-in woman and their families and provide suggestions for governments to formulate and adjust policies governing maternal and infant health care. 

Lin Yuming, Chairman of Harmonicare Medical Management Consulting Co., Ltd. made a speech on how enterprises perform their social responsibility and make contribution to the development of the maternal and infant health in China. he also summarized the activities carried out by hospitals under the company over the past period of time such as maternal and infant class, antenatal training concert, baby contest, etc. pledging that the company will take practical Campaign to influence and call on more people and organizations to participate in the activity and jointly promote the overall enhancement of the maternal and infant health in China. 

At the ceremony, the result of the maternal and infant health promotion Campaign survey was also released. The representative of pregnant mother-to-be presented the Natural Delivery and Bread Feeding proposal and those mothers with new-born infants also share their understanding of the Campaign. 

China Maternal and Infant Health Promotion Campaign has established its official website (www.myjiankang.org),  organized maternal and infant health classes and has published maternal and infant health guideline, open hotline, forum, survey and developed app for mobile phones to publicize the maternal and infant health knowledge and enhance the development of maternal and infant health. 

In the one year of trial operation, the campaign has held antenatal training concert for pregnant and lying-in woman, baby contest, yoga for expectant mothers and  father-to-be class to publicize maternal and infant health knowledge and promote the enhancement of maternal and infant health in the locality. By the end of May 2013, the campaign has launched about 1300 activities in 10 provincial capitals and key cities with the attendance of over 80,000 people. It also opens 14 maternal and infant health hotlines, receiving more than 8780 consulting calls and answering 15,000 questions on maternal and infant health. The campaign is well received among pregnant and lying-in woman and their families.