The Department of Health (DOH) said yesterday it will set guidelines for midwives helping women give birth in water.
The DOH made the decision in the wake of a reported death of a baby after its mother tried to give birth in water at a midwife clinic in Hsinchuang, Taipei County.
The clinic's owner, Tsai Sha-ning (
In 1999, Tsai assisted a Miss Lai, who had lived in France, in giving birth to a child in water, an alternative method of childbirth in the developed world. Ever since, Tsai has helped nearly 100 women to do so, five of whose babies have died in the process.
Hsu Chen-chieh (徐振傑), president of the Taiwan Society of Perinatology, said infant mortality is about 0.2 percent in normal childbirth and that the 5 percent rate for water-born infants apparently is too high.
He said it is not the procedure that is to blame, but rather the clinic's ability to handle such incidents as contamination, lack of oxygen and suffocation.
Wang Chung-lang (王炯琅), a gynecologist-turned-DOH official, said that there are only 25 registered midwife clinics throughout the nation that assist in just over 500 births, mostly in remote areas.
Wang said that the number of water births in Taiwan is too small to determine the mortality rate. However, to avoid medical disputes, the DOH will adopt three principles: to regularly check the qualifications of midwives and update their knowledge and skills; to ensure that pregnant women are informed of the risks involved in giving birth in water; and to set up guidelines on the standard procedure that can be used as evidence to determine if a midwife is professionally responsible for any mishap.
Hsu said in some countries where midwifery is common, clinics are integrated into the national health care system in such a way that whenever an emergency occurs, patients can be referred to a hospital immediately.
He said that with a hospital as a back-up, infant mortality can be greatly reduced in water-births.
Tropical Storm Nari is not a threat to Taiwan, based on its positioning and trajectory, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Nari has strengthened from a tropical depression that was positioned south of Japan, it said. The eye of the storm is about 2,100km east of Taipei, with a north-northeast trajectory moving toward the eastern seaboard of Japan, CWA data showed. Based on its current path, the storm would not affect Taiwan, the agency said.
The Taipei Department of Health’s latest inspection of fresh fruit and vegetables sold in local markets revealed a 25 percent failure rate, with most contraventions involving excessive pesticide residues, while two durians were also found to contain heavy metal cadmium at levels exceeding safety limits. Health Food and Drug Division Director Lin Kuan-chen (林冠蓁) yesterday said the agency routinely conducts inspections of fresh produce sold at traditional markets, supermarkets, hypermarkets, retail outlets and restaurants, testing for pesticide residues and other harmful substances. In its most recent inspection, conducted in May, the department randomly collected 52 samples from various locations, with testing showing
Taipei and other northern cities are to host air-raid drills from 1:30pm to 2pm tomorrow as part of urban resilience drills held alongside the Han Kuang exercises, Taiwan’s largest annual military exercises. Taipei, New Taipei City, Keelung, Taoyuan, Yilan County, Hsinchu City and Hsinchu County are to hold the annual Wanan air defense exercise tomorrow, following similar drills held in central and southern Taiwan yesterday and today respectively. The Taipei Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) and Maokong Gondola are to run as usual, although stations and passenger parking lots would have an “entry only, no exit” policy once air raid sirens sound, Taipei
The government should improve children’s outdoor spaces and accelerate carbon reduction programs, as the risk of heat-related injury due to high summer temperatures rises each year, Greenpeace told a news conference yesterday. Greenpeace examined summer temperatures in Taipei, New Taipei City, Taoyuan, Hsinchu City, Taichung, Tainan and Kaohsiung to determine the effects of high temperatures and climate change on children’s outdoor activities, citing data garnered by China Medical University, which defines a wet-bulb globe temperature (WBGT) of 29°C or higher as posing the risk of heat-related injury. According to the Central Weather Administration, WBGT, commonly referred to as the heat index, estimates
RSS