评论
打印
With wealth comes improved health
财富改善健康
China has achieved notable success in the past 15 years in improving maternal health and bringing down its child mortality rates — two of the eight Millennium Development Goals that the UN established in 2000. Its high population means such gains in China translate into survival for hundreds of thousands of women and children.
过去十五年里，中国在改善孕妇健康和降低儿童死亡率——联合国在2000年确立的八大“千年发展目标”(Millennium Development Goals)中的两点——方面取得了显著成功。中国庞大的人口意味着这一成就相当于挽救了几十万名妇女儿童的生命。
That success is partly a result of the country’s rapid increase in wealth, which has led to improvements in nutrition for pregnant women and babies. The state has also been able to invest more in medical care, including prenatal check-ups and neonatal intensive care units.
这一成就部分源于中国财富迅速增长，从而改善了孕妇和婴儿的营养状况。同时政府也有能力加大医疗保健方面的投资，包括产前检查和新生儿重症监护病房。
“Before, some babies were simply not treated because of family poverty. But now fewer and fewer are left untreated, because parents have health insurance and the state has more resources,” says Dr Liu Cuiqing, head of the neonatal unit at Hebei Provincial Children’s hospital in Shijiazhuang. “But that puts more pressure on us, given the shortage of doctors, because to treat babies with serious conditions requires more work, more equipment and more time.”
河北省儿童医院新生儿科负责人刘翠青医生表示：“以前一些病重的孩子由于家庭经济困难放弃治疗了，现在有了医疗保险，部分医疗费用由政府负担，放弃治疗的越来越少了。但是对于目前儿科医生短缺的我们来讲，压力很大，因为救治危重病孩需要做更多的工作和需要更多更好的医疗设备以及更长的时间。”
There are also darker explanations behind the shining improvements in the statistics. China’s rigid population control policies — which have been eased over the past three years to allow almost all couples to have a second child — have meant that most families would abort at any sign of irregularity in prenatal scans, to avoid a possible health problem in their only child.
统计数据上闪闪发光的成绩背后，也有着更阴暗的解释。中国的刚性人口控制政策——过去三年已有所缓和，几乎所有夫妇都获准生二胎——意味着在孕检出任何异常迹象时，大多数家庭都会选择中止妊娠，以避免唯一的孩子可能出现健康问题。
Some doctors and parents admit privately that stillborn babies, or newborns with untreatable conditions, are sometimes handed to their parents unregistered so that hospitals do not miss their targets for reducing infant mortality.
一些医生和家长私下承认，死产婴儿或患有不治之症的新生儿有时未经登记就交给父母，这样院方就可以完成降低婴儿死亡率的目标。
