China News Service, February 26. According to Taiwan's "China Times", according to statistics from Taiwan's health and welfare department, Taiwan's maternal mortality rate in 2019 hit a 23-year high. Although it has dropped slightly in recent years, it is still much higher than Japan and South Korea. The hidden concern of the island’s low birthrate may be even more serious.
Some doctors on the island pointed out that the Taiwanese authorities did not pay enough attention to maternal and child health. If more resources could be invested, the maternal mortality rate could be halved.
Pregnant women undergo ultrasound examination.
Information map of Taiwan’s China Times
Taiwan's maternal mortality rate hit a 23-year high in 2019, reaching 16 per 100,000, and has dropped to 13 to 14 per 100,000 in the past three years.
Japan's is 3.4 per 100,000, and South Korea's is 8.8 per 100,000, both far lower than Taiwan.
Wang Penghui, director of the Department of Women's Medicine at Taipei Veterans General Hospital, said that Taiwan's performance is worse than that of Japan and South Korea, and it does need to reflect on it, but this involves many aspects, such as different definitions of live births.
Zhan Defu, chairman of Taiwan's "Perinatal Medicine Association", reminded that there may be slight differences in statistical methods in different places.
The high maternal mortality rate in Taiwan is related to older children and fewer parities.
Zhan Defu said that the older a pregnant woman is, the higher the risk of heart disease, diabetes, hypertension, stroke, pulmonary embolism and other diseases.
In addition, first-time mothers are also at a higher risk of complications, and most modern people only give birth to one child, which is also one of the factors affecting maternal mortality.
Wang Penghui pointed out that Taiwan's high-risk pregnancy referral process is not mature enough. The health and welfare department has promoted the "Perinatal Care Network Plan" since 2021. For high-risk pregnant women, it is hoped that prenatal referrals will be to hospitals with more complete medical resources. Hospital.
Zhan Defu emphasized that under the current prenatal check-up system, many prenatal check-up items are ignored, so some diseases are not discovered early, and some pregnant women often sacrifice or ignore discomfort in order to take care of the fetus. For example, once pre-epilepsy attacks, high blood pressure causes pulmonary edema. Or a stroke, it's too late. If you can deal with it early, you have a chance to avoid regrets.
"If we can reduce the problems of three mothers a year, the maternal mortality rate can be reduced by 2 to 3 per 100,000." Zhan Defu said that there were only 130,000 newborns in Taiwan last year, and any one case can easily affect the overall maternal mortality rate. Efficiency, in other words, as long as you put in a little more effort, you will have great results.
He believes that the Taiwanese authorities devote too few resources to pregnant women and newborns. If investment can be increased and appropriately revised, it is estimated that half of the cases can be detected and treated early, and the maternal mortality rate is expected to be halved.