The medicalizing of mothers and children in Colonial Vietnam, 1860-1939

Abstract

Almost nothing has been written about the history of maternal and child care in South East Asia. The issue however has a great amount of interest. For instance, French Indochina under colonial rule (1860-1954) experienced significant advancements in both areas. Writing their history helps to better understand the international dissemination of medical intervention towards pregnant women and their children and some of the movement's national characteristics. Maternal and child care rapidly became the only area within the health policy Indochina received before and after the establishment of an official health program (1905). Its rise also occurred during a period of great scientific change which necessarily had influence on its trends and applications. Certainly, the French Republic wanted to exploit its new territory. Consequently, the colonial government in Hanoi would concentrate on infant morbidity and mortality. Nevertheless, within a few years and especially between the two world wars, the administrators would even provide social welfare, particularly to babies and grown children. Maternal and child care were priorities for the Vietnamese territories. However the colonial health system took local pathological, sociocultural, and economic contexts and peninsular medical traditions into account. The system was based everywhere on maternity wards and indigenous midwives to achieve colonial goals about fighting mortality and educating populations in hygiene. The data indicates that France's moves towards offering health care to Indochinese people improved morbidity and rates and accelerated medical acculturation.