Hospitals to be made to offer women epidurals to boost birth rates
This initiative aims to foster a more "friendly childbearing environment" for women, according to the country's National Health Commission (NHC).
The NHC's statement last week outlined further plans to extend these services to secondary hospitals, which have more than 100 beds, by 2027. The move comes as authorities grapple with declining birth rates in the world's second-largest economy.
In 2024, China's population fell for the third consecutive year, prompting experts to warn of a worsening demographic downturn in the coming years.
Currently, around 30% of pregnant women in China receive anaesthesia for pain relief during childbirth. This is in stark contrast to some developed countries, where the rate exceeds 70%, according to the China Daily.
The World Health Organization recommends epidurals for healthy pregnant women requesting pain relief and it is widely utilised in many countries around the world, including France, where around 82% of pregnant women opt to have one, and in the United States and Canada where more than 67% do.
The move will "improve the comfort level and security of medical services" and "further enhance people's sense of happiness and promote a friendly childbearing environment," the NHC said.
A growing number of provinces across China are also beginning to include childbirth anaesthesia costs as part of their medical insurance schemes to encourage more women to have children.
High childcare costs as well as job uncertainty and a slowing economy have discouraged many young Chinese from getting married and starting a family.
In June, health authorities in China's southwestern Sichuan province proposed to extend marriage leave up to 25 days and maternity leave up to 150 days, to help create a "fertility-friendly society."
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The Independent
5 hours ago
- The Independent
Air pollution and herbal medicines could be behind lung cancer in non-smokers, study finds
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Telegraph
6 hours ago
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China ‘to triple number of Uyghur organ-harvesting centres'
China is to triple the number of facilities it uses to forcibly harvest the organs of detained Uyghur people, it has been claimed. Experts have raised the alarm after it emerged that the Xinjiang Health Commission, a branch of China's national health authority, plans to build six new medical centres by 2030, bringing the total in the region to nine – more than any other province in the country. The expansion has heightened concerns over China's treatment of Uyghur people, against whom the government already stands accused of genocide. Beijing has also been accused of forcibly harvesting the organs of prisoners from minority groups and, in some cases, selling them to wealthy recipients willing to pay the equivalent of tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of pounds. 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Even before the new facilities were announced, Xinjiang was known as a hub for organ transplants. In the province's capital Urumqi, its airport has green arrows on the ground – known as 'Green Passage' lanes – to fast-track the transit of those transporting organs. The new facilities, four of which will be built in Urumqi, will add to the types of transplants that can be carried out by increasing the province's capacity to harvest hearts, kidneys, livers, small intestines and lungs. Dr Rogers told The Telegraph that the new facilities would likely allow for the 'donation' and implantation of organs to happen at the same place. 'It would be more cost-effective to bring the recipients to Xinjiang for their operations rather than send the organs out because it shortens the time in between taking the organ out of the person who's killed and putting it into the recipient,' said Dr Rogers. 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Daily Mail
6 hours ago
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Deaf people are regaining their hearing thanks to groundbreaking new treatment
A new gene therapy could restore hearing in deaf children and adults, a groundbreaking study suggests. Researchers from several Chinese hospitals looked at 10 patients who were either born deaf or developed severe hearing loss due to a genetic mutation. All of them, who ranged from infants to young adults, were injected one time with modified version of adeno-associated viruses (AAV). The viruses are not meant to spread disease but instead help deliver gene therapies to cells. The researchers found the treatment improved hearing in all 10 participants within a year, and most noticed a difference in just one month. On average, sounds only needed to be half as loud as previously played for participants to pick them up. Young children had the most significant improvements. One seven-year-old deaf girl was able to hold a conversation with her mother four months after treatment. The shot is thought to help restore functional copies of the OTOF gene, which helps transmit sound and was mutated in all of the participants. The team suspects the study 'is just the beginning' in developing treatments for the 200,000 deaf people worldwide who have a mutation in their OTOF gene. Maoli Duan, study author and consultant docent at the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden, said: 'This is a huge step forward in the genetic treatment of deafness, one that can be life-changing for children and adults.' The study, published Wednesday in the journal Nature Medicine, included 10 people ages one to 24 with either congenital deafness - meaning they were born with it - or severe hearing impairment. All participants had mutations of their OTOF gene, which provides instructions for making the protein otoferlin. Otoferlin helps transmit sound from the inner ear to the auditory nerve. Each participant received hearing and genetic testing prior to the experiment. All of the participants received injections containing two AAV viruses in the cochlea of each of their ears. The cochlea is a fluid-filled cavity in the inner ear that converts auditory vibrations into electrical signals, which the brain interprets as sound. Before treatment, participants on average could only hear sounds at least 106 decibels, about the volume of a motorcycle, car horn or sporting event. After a year, they were able to hear sounds 52 decibels or louder, the same as a normal conversation. The seven-year-old girl in the study went from only being able to hear 101 decibels to 40 after only two weeks. Within two months, she could detect sounds above 25 decibels, about the volume as a whisper. After four months, the girl could have daily conversations with her mom with no assistive hearing devices. Only one participant was an adult, about 24 years old. The treatment allowed him to identify certain spoken words and the sound of hands clapping after several months. Dr Duan said: 'Smaller studies in China have previously shown positive results in children, but this is the first time that the method has been tested in teenagers and adults, too. 'Hearing was greatly improved in many of the participants, which can have a profound effect on their life quality. We will now be following these patients to see how lasting the effect is.' There were also no severe adverse reactions to the injections. Experts believe the injections may have helped provide the bodies of participants with functional copies of mutated genes, which may have helped their OTOF genes produce more otoferlin needed for hearing. OTOF mutations account for about two to eight percent of genetic deafness cases. Dr Duan said the new treatment 'is just the beginning.' She added: 'We and other researchers are expanding our work to other, more common genes that cause deafness, such as GJB2 and TMC1. These are more complicated to treat, but animal studies have so far returned promising results. 'We are confident that patients with different kinds of genetic deafness will one day be able to receive treatment.'
