United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) issued the State of the World's Children 2009 Report (Chinese edition) in Beijing Thursday that showed a large disparity between coastal and urban areas and remote rural areas in the category of maternal and infant health.

According to statistics in the report, almost 1.6 times as many mothers die during childbirth in rural areas as in urban centers. Infant and child mortality is almost 2.7 times higher in the western than eastern regions, 2.4 times higher in rural than urban areas, and even 5 times higher in the poorest rural counties than in large cities.

"While China has made great progress in maternal and child health in recent years, further gains can be made in reducing maternal and newborn mortality in China," said Dr. Yin Yin Nwe, UNICEF Representative to China.

Maternal and child death rates in China are at an intermediate level by global standards, still far higher than the rates in developed countries and also higher than some countries less economically developed than China, such as Vietnam.

According to the report, around 7,000 women die in childbirth each year in China, down 59 percent from 1990 levels, but still representing 1.3 percent of the world's maternal deaths. An estimated number of children dying before their fifth birthday in 2007 is 382,000, 60 percent of whom died in the first four weeks of life mainly because of asphyxia (due to lack of oxygen before delivery), low birth weight and infection.

"Interventions for avoiding death of many mothers and infants are actually very simple," said Dr. Hans Anders Troedsson, World Health Organization China Representative, "such as periodical health checks, skillful delivery, and the very effective one, breast feeding."

"Last year's milk powder scandal in China told us the importance of breast feeding and the risk of feeding infants with formula milk," said Troedsson.

Since the 1990s, medical insurance reform, big input in public health facilities, and a series of maternal and infant healthcare laws have largely improved the health of Chinese mothers and children, said Zhang Deying, inspector with the Department of Maternal and Child Health Care and Community Health, Ministry of Health.

"The rate of childbirth in hospitals increased from 51 percent to 91.7 percent in 2007 over the past 20 years," said Zhang.

Zhang noted that the detailed plans for China's upcoming medical reform will specify the methods of providing equal service to women and children across China. The methods include giving children under three systematic health examinations, enhancing the control of HIV from mother to children, and providing pregnant women with free folic acid, a nutrition that can prevent neurological defects.

(Xinhua News Agency March 12, 2009)