Abstract
The Chinese policy on healthy childbirth and childcare is prescribed in the Maternal and Infant Health Care Law of China (MIHCL), along with its subordinate regulations and administrative regulations, and municipal/local regulations, an example of the latter is the Maternal and Infant Health Care Ordinance of Heilongjiang Province. The MIHCL and its subordinate regulations impose the following duties on doctors (who belong to medical institutions recognized under this same law) and on couples who plan to marry. First, couples who plan to marry must, before marriage, undergo a "premarital medical examination" and submit a "certificate of premarital medical examination" to the marriage registration office before marriage. Moreover, based on the MIHCL and its subordinate regulations, under certain circumstances, doctors must advise the couple to postpone marriage, withhold issuance of a "certificate of to premarital medical examination," advise the couple to use birth control for an extended period or undergo a sterilization procedure, perform prenatal diagnosis on pregnant women, and, based on the result of the prenatal diagnosis, advise them to have an abortion. In addition to stipulating duties, the MIHCL and its subordinate regulations prescribe perinatal care services and care for newborns (Article 14 of the MIHCL and Article 26 of the Measures for Implementation of the Law of the People' s Republic of China on Maternal and Infant Care), reflecting the Chinese policy on better childcare.
