The Improvement of Maternity Care Services and Infant Health in Rural China
This paper employs the micro data from China In-depth Fertility Survey to examine the change of maternity care services and its effects in rural China before the Reform and Opening-up.The data reveal a significant improvement in childbirth condition:the percentage of hospital delivery increased by 11.2％and the percentage of home delivery which women receiving assistance from medical workers increased by 10.1％.Regressions with mother fixed effects show that both hospital delivery and home delivery with the assistance from doctors or midwives significantly lowered infant mortality.Robustness check excludes the disturbance of the premature delivery and the family planning policy.Instrumental regression is used to solve the endogeneity problem because of women's health status and results confirm the importance of childbirth condition improvement for infant health.
Primary Health CareMaternity Care ServicesChildbirth ConditionHealth
万方数据
维普
