Maternal deaths in 2019-2021

[Reporters Qiu Zhirou and Lin Huiqin/Taipei Report] "You can live more than chicken and wine, but you can't give birth to four boards" is a metaphor for the hardship and danger of women's childbirth. According to the latest statistics from the Ministry of Health and Welfare, a total of 22 pregnant women died in 2021, and the mortality rate was Fourteen per 100,000 live births, the second highest in the past decade.

In 2019, compared with the 38 countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), my country's maternal mortality rate ranked seventh, surpassing many European countries, and also surpassing Japan and South Korea.

7th highest maternal mortality rate in OECD

The National Health Administration recently released the latest "Health Promotion Statistics Annual Report", Taiwan's maternal mortality rate in 2019 was 16 per 100,000 live births, ranking seventh among the 38 OECD countries, although lower than the United States' 17.

Four, but higher than many European countries such as Britain, France, Germany, and Righteousness, and also higher than South Korea's nine in Asia.

Nine people, three in Japan.

Seven people.

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Huang Jianpei, secretary general of the Taiwan Medical Association of Obstetrics and Gynecology, analyzed that there are three major reasons for the high maternal mortality rate, including the increasing number of pregnant and lying-in women of advanced age; the westernization of diet, the higher proportion of maternal weight; There is a higher chance of having multiple births.

He suggested giving birth at the right age, 25 to 34 years old is the best, and having a healthy weight when preparing for pregnancy is an important principle of natural birth.

Perinatal Care Network Program Reduces Risk

The National Institutes of Health and the Department of Medical Affairs of the Ministry of Health and Welfare promote the "Perinatal Care Network Program" to improve controllable risk factors.

Xu Mingxuan, vice president of the Yunlin Branch of National Taiwan University, pointed out that, for example, in the past, the clinic was worried about the hospital stealing business. Even if postpartum hemorrhage occurred, it would not be transferred if it had to. But now the clinic and the hospital have established a mutual trust relationship. The patient is carried out in the hospital and returned to the clinic after delivery.

In addition, pregnant women are most afraid of heavy bleeding during childbirth. In the past, the director of the clinic had to drive the blood to adjust the blood. The administrative process and the journey took an average of three hours. Now the hospital can schedule it immediately, and then cooperate with the taxi fleet, and the blood can be sent to the clinic in 30 minutes.

Chen Meihui, executive secretary of the Children's Medicine and Health Research Center of the National Institutes of Health, said that in addition to establishing a prenatal referral mechanism for high-risk pregnancies, the plan also established an external neonatal team. Consult the hospital with a neonatal specialist team, and establish an open hospital model, so that clinics that are limited in manpower and equipment and unable to provide delivery services can still provide pregnant and lying-in women with nearby obstetric examinations, and then go to a hospital with adequate equipment when giving birth.

Since the implementation of the plan, 115 pregnant women with high-risk pregnancies have been referred to key hospitals for care before delivery. The key hospitals have also safely transferred 221 high-risk newborns to key hospitals or through the neonatal external team. Medical Center Care.

There are also three hospitals in the open hospital model, and a total of 25 pregnant women gave birth in hospitals and clinics.

my country's maternal mortality rate ranks seventh in the OECD, surpassing many European countries, and also surpassing Japan and South Korea.

The picture shows a pregnant woman undergoing an obstetric examination.

(file photo)