Mothers and babies receive better care in Tibet
By Lin Jinghua (China Daily)
Updated: 2005-08-26 08:32

New dress

"It costs only 300 yuan (US$36.99) for a natural labour," said Tsoyung, adding that every pregnant woman is able to get 20 yuan if she gives birth in hospital, and each of her companions can get 10 yuan. The new-born baby also gets a set of new dress.

"Many rural doctors have played a crucial role in helping women in labour," said Xiao Li, deputy director of the Health Bureau of Nyingchi Prefecture. "Apart from spreading knowledge they have taken full responsibility of taking care of the villagers."

Every township clinic has to cover four sections including medical treatment, medical care, epidemic control and planned immunity.

In Puqu Township, Tamdrin, 28, a native of Lhasa, is one of the four doctors in the local clinic. After graduating from Jiangning Medical School in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province seven years ago, she was assigned to work here. She has mainly taken charge of maternity and child care.

"Once in a while I will visit the nearby 13 villages one by one. What I do most is to encourage local women to have gynaecological check-up," she said.

She also makes a list of pregnant women on her rounds, bringing them vitamins and giving on-the-spot check-ups. There are about 2,400 villagers in the region.

She still remembers her first experience of being a midwife.

"I was frightened but succeeded with the help of the director of the clinic," she said.

She has so far delivered 30 children. When it comes to the time for vaccination, Tamdrin, like other village doctors, must visit from door to door to give children injections.

She said that she planned to have further training in Chengdu. "I want to be a good doctor."

Not only do village doctors do regular medical rounds on the vast grassland, but those from regional hospitals also carry out the same routines.

In Shannan Prefecture, also in southern Tibet, doctors in Shannan People's Hospital take turns to tour the rural areas.

"Three doctors go to the rural areas every year to help train local doctors," said Tsamjo Drolma, director of the department of gynaecology and obstetrics of the hospital.

They usually stay for half a year in one place. There are 12 counties in the region with 320,000 people. They cover three counties at one time.

"Village doctors quite appreciate the help from the prefecture hospital," said Tsamjo Drolma.

"Thanks to the economic growth and wide spread of maternity and child care, more and more people prefer to give birth in hospital," said Tsoyung.

"But it's still hard for us to take care of them all because the villagers are sparsely scattered around, particularly those herds people who live a nomadic life," she said. "Sometimes it takes us the whole day to visit only one family," she said.

"We still need more hands to do the job. There are now 20 doctors and nurses in my hospital. The number is far from enough," Tsoyung said.

(China Daily 08/26/2005 page13)

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