Birth and Birth-related Obstetrical Characteristics in Southwestern
China Associated with the Current Adjustment of Family Planning Policy:
A Seven-Year Retrospective Study
Abstract
Objectives: A change in the child policy could trigger a new baby boom
with changes in birth-related characteristics. Besides, the adaption of
the medical system to the policy needs demonstrating. Design:
Retrospective study. Setting: Chongqing, China, in a comprehensive
institution. Population: A total of 51,062 pregnant women with 52,589
neonates were included. Methods: All medical records involving delivery
were obtained. The records of care-providers were from the HR
department. Main Outcome Measures: The temporal patterns of deliveries,
births and care-providers were displayed. The additional births and
care-providers’ workload was calculated. The mothers’ constitution was
described and the influence factors of obstetrical characteristics were
identified. Results: The policy-leading upwards trends of deliveries and
births were obvious. The percentage of mothers aged 35 and over
increased (10.1% to 10.8% to 15.8%, p<0.001) and that of
multipara also rose (17.8% to 25.9% to 37.6%, p<0.001).
This new constitution of mothers was associated with additional births,
and with a concurrent variation in CS rate (60.4% to 52.3% to 56.3%)
but not sex ratio. The workload of care-providers decreased during this
period. Conclusions: The baby boom and following pregnancy changes after
the shifts of policies is obvious. The target women with hyper-age and
multiparity contribute considerably to the additional births and to the
policy’s general effects on various outcomes. Funding: National Natural
Science Foundation of China (No. 81771614 and No. 81771613), and the
National Key Research and Development Program of China (No.
2016YFC1000407). Keywords: China’s Family Planning Policy; birth;
obstetrical characteristics; pregnancy complications.