[citation needed] Ida Kahn was born on December 6, 1873, in Jiujiang, Jiangxi, China, the sixth girl in the family.

[2] Due to her adoptive mother's faith, Kahn grew up Christian, an element that became a defining characteristic of her missionary work.

At the age of nineteen, Kahn, along with Mary Stone, was brought to the U.S. to obtain a degree in medicine, which was sponsored by the Methodist Episcopal Church.

[4] Kahn took a short break from her work in Nanchang, and went back to the United States between 1909 and 1911 to receive a Bachelor's degree in English literature from Northwestern University.

[6] Kahn returned to China following her graduation from University of Michigan, Ann Arbor School of Medicine in 1896 and opened a dispensary along with Mary Stone in Jiujiang.

"[10] From March 1912, when some stability had come to China, to her death in 1931, Kahn worked in the hospital providing care to patients of all socioeconomic backgrounds.

[12] In fact, she used her connections as a doctor to important political figures to develop popular support for the health of women and children within the province.

Kahn performed many Caesarean sections on her own and often shared stories of dramatic childbirth cases, but she also dealt with other illnesses as well, especially a type of infection known as Carbuncles.

[16] Prior to Ida Kahn and Mary Stone, Chinese women in the medical field were unheard of, those practicing Western medicine in particular.

To this end, Kahn, along with her colleague, Mary Stone, trained a "Chinese corps" of nurses, which would help in building a strong "new China.

[16] She sought for China to be a place where its women could serve the nation in a good way, while simultaneously presenting a view of where they were saviors rather than victims in the eyes of Kahn's American audience.

At the time, women didn't have much to do outside of the family, but Kahn showed that missionary work, both religious and medical, was a viable path.