Move to hospital deliveries saves mothers, infants in Tibet

Source: Xinhua | 02-25-2009 17:23

LHASA, Feb. 25 (Xinhua) -- It was a quiet afternoon and sunshine poured into the room through a window, which opened onto a view of distant snow-capped mountains.

Basking in the sunlight was a baby boy, several months old, sleeping soundly amid the scents of milk and mild Tibetan incense. His mother, 27-year-old Cering Zhoigar, tucked in his quilt gently.

"This is my fourth child," she said. "The first three died within a fortnight after their births."

The difference in this case was the baby was born in a hospital, rather than the room at home where his three siblings lived and died.

Like many Tibetan women, the introverted Cering from the Lhaze Township of Xigaze grew up believing it was dangerous and perhaps shameful to give birth in a hospital.