A prominent Chinese obstetrician has taken to social media to lament the closure of obstetrics departments in Chinese hospitals, prompting social media comments that the ruling Chinese Communist Party needs to make life better for young people if it wants to reverse falling birth rates.
"Save obstetrics!" wrote Duan Tao, obstetrician at the Shanghai No. 1 Maternal and Infant Health Hospital, in the title of his post to the social media platform Weibo at the end of last month, following a meeting of obstetrics department heads in Shanghai's Pudong New Area.
"One man who has been a director of obstetrics for more than 20 years wept as he told the meeting that his department had recently been shut down," Duan wrote, pointing to a fall in births from 17.86 million in 2016 to just 9.02 million in 2023.
"The government asked hospitals to add more beds after childbirth was liberalized [in May 2021]," Duan wrote. "The number of births has fallen ... and the number of obstetric outpatient clinics and obstetric beds is falling every day."
Communist Party leader Xi Jinping last October
called on women to focus on raising families, and the National People's Congress this month
started looking at ways to boost flagging birth rates and kick-start the shrinking population, including flexible working policies, coverage for fertility treatment and extended maternity leave.
But young women in today's China are increasingly choosing
not to marry or have kids, citing huge inequalities and patriarchal attitudes that still run through family life, not to mention the sheer economic cost of raising a family.
According to Duan's post, more than a dozen obstetrics departments closed in 2022, with further closures reported in Zhejiang, Guangzhou and Guangxi last year. So far this year, three more facilities have closed.
