Laws requiring prospective mothers to undergo medical checks have been strengthened in China as part of an intensifying effort to improve health care.

Health chiefs have ordered that pregnant women must go for a diagnosis before delivery to check on the well-being of the foetus and detect any birth defects.

"Through these laws, we will step up efforts to monitor the continued growth of the foetus. This will be good news for mothers that are deeply concerned about their deformed babies," said Li Zhu, director of Institute of Birth and Health Research under Peking University.

Li addressed a seminar on the implementation of the regulation yesterday in Beijing and said curbing birth defects should be the top priority for advancing health care for women and children in China in the future.

The regulation, which takes effect this month, will work parallel to the Law on Maternal and Infant Health Care, the first comprehensive law on health care of women and children in China. The law, which came into force on June 1, 1995, is the first legal framework in China dedicated to women and children's livelihood.

China is among a few nations in the world to have such a law.

Birth defects are among the top health concerns in China.

Every year, there are about 1 million newly-born babies hit by defects of many kinds, of which about 600,000 infants suffer serious innate heart attacks, deformity, cleft palates and viscera deformities.

Peng Yu, vice-minister of health, said more research will be conducted to improve the technology for the checks while more training will be given in medical institutes down to county and village levels to benefit prospect mothers.

China is the only developing country to join the global effort on gene sequence research, a breakthrough which may help scientists detect which gene is related to a particular disease and help lead to the production of antidotes.

China has made constant headway in improving the livelihood of women and children in the past decade. A major progress was the sharp drop in maternal and infancy deaths.

The death rate of pregnant or delivering women fell to 53 per 100,000 people in 2000 from 56.2 per 100,000 people in 1995.

The same period witnessed a steep decline in the death rate for infants from 3.32 per thousand to 3.26 per thousand.

The country has set up nearly 3,200 health clinics for women and children with a medical team of more than 500,000, according to official data.

(China Daily 07/20/2001)