Maternal mortality has always been real and is now at a low level. There is a saying that a pregnant woman giving birth is “a foot in the door”, which is true for the backward level of maternal health decades ago. Since most pregnant women gave birth at home at that time, there are no detailed statistics to record the real maternal mortality rate. Several countries with relatively low maternal deaths internationally include Canada, Japan, Australia and some countries in Western Europe, all of which are below 10/100,000. Our maternal mortality rate was reported to have dropped to 23/100,000 by 2013, another reduction of about 50 percent compared to 10 years ago. In some cities, the maternal mortality rate has reached the level of developed countries, and, with the advancement of maternal health care, the gap in maternal mortality rates between urban and rural areas is shrinking significantly. As physicians, our job is to reduce and re-reduce this rate through our ongoing efforts. What can you do as a pregnant woman? To reduce risks during pregnancy, pregnant women should 1. Pay attention to pre-pregnancy medical examinations and assessments: pregnancy can aggravate certain diseases and even lead to life-threatening conditions, and women with these diseases should pay attention to these risks and even choose to forgo childbirth if necessary. As a physician, I understand that it would be cruel for any woman to give up her right to have children, but if she is at significant risk for her life, she and her family need to be aware of that risk and make a reasonable decision. Examples include certain serious heart conditions, high blood pressure where a cerebrovascular accident has occurred, etc. When I was a graduate student, I worked with my supervising physician on a pregnant woman with Eisenmenger’s syndrome (a serious heart condition) who died despite the use of the entire hospital’s resuscitation efforts. The patient was a migrant worker who was unaware of her severe heart disease since childhood and had no discomfort, even tending to her family’s doughnut stall a few days before she was admitted to the hospital. This case also reminds us that even if we feel “healthy”, we should not take it lightly, and professional pre-pregnancy medical check-ups and assessments are the only guarantee. 2, pay attention to the regular examination during pregnancy: although the pregnancy examination can not avoid all the risks, but can find problems, greatly reducing the chance of risk. For now, there is a huge difference between urban and rural medical conditions in China, that is, there is still a big difference in the ability to rescue serious complications, why the level of maternal mortality can be increasingly close? It is because the national efforts to reduce maternal mortality have really worked, and these efforts have been achieved by increasing the number of maternal checkups and the proportion of hospitalized deliveries among rural pregnant women. 3. Pregnancy care and choice of delivery method according to medical advice: There are many misconceptions about pregnancy care, and despite doctors’ advice, some pregnant women still listen to the rumors of “people, friends, mothers, mothers-in-law or online doctors” and make various choices that increase their risk. Some common examples are “cesarean delivery is safer than normal delivery, over-nutrition during pregnancy, and prolonged bed rest during pregnancy to keep the baby alive”. It has been well documented that for the majority of cases, normal birth is a much safer method of delivery than cesarean, and that cesarean is the only reasonable choice in cases of true obstructed labor or in rare cases (where the risk of surgery is considered worthwhile). As for excessive nutrition during pregnancy, gaining too much weight is not as simple as becoming fatter or uglier, it can greatly increase the risk of gestational hypertension, diabetes and other diseases, or even complications in severe cases, and can also cause birth injuries to the fetus during delivery, and even hypertension and diabetes in the distant future when the child grows up. I have just forwarded the science of prolonged bed rest during pregnancy, there is no harm but good, the risk of blood clots brought about by prolonged bed rest can lead to life-threatening. 4. Follow the doctor’s advice when danger occurs: The chaos of doctor-patient relationship leads to patients’ distrust of hospitals, and as a doctor, I feel powerless and don’t want to say too much. But once the danger occurs, please keep in mind that doctors are the group of people who are more reluctant than you to appear in danger, and for medical risk prediction and treatment is their profession! It is also important to know that medicine is one of those disciplines that cannot be explained by 1+1=2, so please understand that doctors sometimes cannot be categorical in their conversations and may just give you appropriate advice by telling you the ratio of certain risks. I remember a pregnant woman, a senior intellectual studying science and technology, who had normal maternity exams during her pregnancy, but was suddenly found to have “severe pre-eclampsia” during a maternity exam in the late pregnancy. This is a disease unique to pregnancy, which is caused by spasm of small blood vessels throughout the body, resulting in hypertension and urine protein. The pregnant woman first refused to be hospitalized, finally persuaded to be admitted, then refused to do any treatment, and when she agreed to the medication, she firmly refused to agree to terminate the pregnancy. No matter how much we explained and talked about the risks, she always said, “I’m in good health, it won’t happen, I have my own numbers”. The mother of the pregnant woman, a simple farmer, sneaked into my office to persuade me, “Doctor, I’m sorry, I understand what you’re saying, and I want to do what you say, but she’s an intellectual, I can’t get her ideas ……” Fortunately, the next day the husband of the pregnant woman The next day, the husband of the pregnant woman rushed back from the field and gave her the idea to listen to the doctor’s advice to terminate the pregnancy in time. After the operation, the pregnant woman still had HELLP syndrome (a serious complication of pre-eclampsia), and it took some time to recover. I was a bit scared for a long time after this incident, in case the husband of the pregnant woman could not come back further away ……. The consequences were unimaginable. The risk of pregnancy and childbirth is very small and will be reduced through the joint efforts of the pregnant woman and her doctor, so there is no need to be overly nervous. As for those who are not yet pregnant, you should not choke and give up the right to be a mother.