On February 25, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Maternal and Fetal Medicine was inaugurated and established in First Maternity and Infant Health Hospital Affiliated to Tongji University. Academician CHEN Yihan, Vice President of Tongji University and Professor ZHENG Jialin, Dean of Tongji University School of Medicine, attended the ceremony.

In recent years, due to various socio-economic factors, such as the accelerated pace of life, increased work pressure, and changes of marriage and childbirth, the childbearing age has been continuously delayed.

According to the latest official data, the average age at first childbirth of Shanghai's registered female population in 2019 is 30.29 years old, an increase of 0.19 years from 2018. At the same time, the opening of the country’s “two-child policy” has also objectively caused the phenomenon of late birth of the second child, causing a series of reproductive and developmental health problems, such as the decline in fertility and abnormal embryonic development of the parturient due to advanced age factors.

It is reported that research on maternal and fetal medicine is the foundation and core of ensuring the safety of mothers and babies and improving the quality of our population. The obstetrics department of Shanghai First Maternity and Infant Health Hospital is the first batch of national key clinical specialties and special specialties of national maternity health care; its fetal medicine department is the first batch of fetal medicine centers in China, and the number of fetal operations is the largest.

In recent years, Shanghai First Maternity and Infant Health Hospital has carried out a large number of clinical and basic research on the mechanism, prediction and intervention of important maternal and fetal diseases such as preeclampsia, premature birth, fetal growth restriction, and offspring brain development, with excellent results, is an important promoter and practitioner of the development of maternal and fetal medicine in China.

WAN Xiaoping, dean of Shanghai First Maternity and Infant Health Hospital, said that the country's first-class maternal and fetal medicine research platform will be built and it will enter the international advanced level, so as to serve the country's scientific strategic deployment, ensure the safety of mothers and children, improve the quality of the population, and promote the sustainable development of maternal and fetal medicine.