[1] The circumstance of Chinese women's health is highly contingent upon China's historical contexts and economic development during the past seven decades.
In the late 19th century, Chinese reformers began call for the modernization of childbirth based on Western scientific medicine.
[3]: 104 These debates intensified when May Fourth Movement reformers began criticizing the role of the traditional midwife for what they described as its backwardness and feudal superstition.
[3]: 104 In the 1920s, the Nationalist government drafted a national program of maternal and infant health care which built off the ideas of the May Fourth reformers and other concepts of medical modernization which were developing around the world.
[8] The government sought to expand hospital infrastructure and to replace traditional midwifery with modern techniques approved by the newly-established socialist health authorities.
[10] By the late 1970s, most rural areas had a developed but low-tech childbirth infrastructure, with local teams of certified lay midwives worker with barefoot doctors.
These policies were implemented as China moved to a market economy and were furthered in order to insure their membership to the World Trade Organization (WTO).
[5] These policies are hailed by many as being highly successful, producing massive economic growth while raising the standard of living by reducing poverty.
[3]: 106 Beginning in the 1990s, the China received significant foreign aid to improve its hospital and medication equipment, in part due to major international public health campaigns like the United Nations Safe Motherhood Initiative and the Millennium Development Goals Program.
[12] Young women have become the most prevalent demographic for migrant work, making up over 70% of those employed in the garment, toy, and electronic industries.
[citation needed] The dormitory life in China leaves women with little to no home space independence from the factory.
These conditions pose a great threat to not only the physical but also the mental health of these women workers being away from their home and placed in a highly restrictive environment.
[citation needed] Another factor that limits women's capabilities to access healthcare is their relative low wage compared to men.
As the industrial markets were liberalizing so too were the health systems, which left many Chinese citizens uninsured having to pay for their care out of pocket with cash.
This led to the import of better drugs and more expensive medical equipment, which in turn gave way to higher cost of care.
[13] In addition to bearing gender disadvantage, rural women suffer even more from insufficient healthcare due to increasing spatial disparity in China.
In one study it was shown that the majority of women still are reluctant to seek out medical help for issues concerning their gynecological needs.
[22] In August 2022, the National Health Commission announced that it would direct measures toward "preventing unintended pregnancy and reducing abortions that are not medically necessary.
Denoted as "postpartum confinement" in western scholarship, it is a series of everyday practices from special diet to restrictive activities meant to help postnatal women to recover from the trauma of birth.
Shu-Shya Heh et al. have found that "doing the month" makes women less likely to develop postnatal depression, because they perceive high social support from their family.
[26] Other studies have also shown that certain elements of the custom jeopardize postnatal women's health, such as lack of exposure to sunshine or imbalance of nutrition.
[citation needed] A recent sign that catches increasing attention is the rise in new infections among women compared to men.
Among various predictors, perceptions of social pressure and teasing play a significant role in impacting young women's weight-related concerns.
[32] Sing Lee et al. have found that women's concern with body fat is more severe in developed areas such as Hong Kong.
In August 2017, the 26-year-old pregnant woman, surnamed Ma, jumped from a hospital window, after she was not allowed to receive C-section by her husband's family.
The family declined Ma's request to receive C-section because they believe the procedure would make it harder for her to give birth to a second child.
The incident has stirred hot debate about women's status within households and ongoing propaganda on two-child policy.
Paul S. F. Yip attributes such progress to rapid modernization during the 1990-2000 decade, which involves great improvement in the standard of living, education, etc.
Liu Meng's field studies in rural China indicated that women sometimes use suicide as a means of rebellion in their private space, a way to achieve the influence and power that were unattainable in their lifetime.
[38] Experience of intimate partner violence was found to exert serious adverse impact on women's physical and mental health.