Rural China and birth

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"Get out of the house!

When the project launched in 1999, it was one thing to convince rural-dwellers about the benefits of giving birth in hospital rather than at home, and quite another thing to get them out of their homes, into the hospitals and receiving the treatment they needed and deserved.

As well as raising awareness of the greater safety of hospital deliveries - which was achieved through the use of local media, community champions and group learning activities - it also introduced new schemes to ensure that obstetric services were, in the first place, actually affordable."

I certainly understand that these women may need more resources and education, but making sure they all get out of their homes and into the hospital is not exactly the way to go. Why can't they educate midwives and lean on the hospitals for emergency care only.

"Under the project, local health centres received a substantial investment to make them places that people would want to visit. A flurry of building and renovating followed, which saw rooms being heated for the first time, new toilets installed, and patients' concerns about privacy incorporated into designs. Up-to-date equipment, selected with local needs or demands in mind, was also introduced. "

And wouldn't you know money would be involved to get the hospitals to take on these new patients.

What do you think? Is this the way to improve births. The government had a big role in this program. Do we want the government in our free country taking this kind of role here?