The unexpected outbreak of the COVID-19 has continued to spread around the world, thus evolving into a world crisis and a global pandemic. The government of China has rallied on a swift response under which 1.4 billion Chinese people have united to bring the domestic epidemic under effective containment. This swift response has also bought time and contributed to the global response.

As a priority group, the pregnant women in China have received full attention from the government. During the epidemic, the National Health Commission and relevant academic associations have promptly issued a number of new guidelines and normative documents related to the prevention and control of COVID-19,guided by a substantial body of evidence and actions.Together with the large amount of health education messages released, all such documents have played an instrumental role in guiding health workers and the general public to prevent and control COVID-19.

The World Health Organization commented, “the high speed and massive scale of China’s moves are rarely seen in the world.” This showed the advantages of Chinese system, thus the relevant experiences of China are highly valuable to inform the responses of other countries.

President Xi Jinping highlighted the greatest need of the international community now for firm confidence,concerted efforts, and united response. Therefore, it is essential to enhance the international cooperation on all fronts, and rally a powerful concerted effort in the fight against the pandemic. To this end, we are ready to share the Chinese experiences with the international community, and specifically we have documented the effective measures and experiences to ensure maternal safety in this special period through a Q&A handbook.The handbook consists of forty Q&A, which consists of three parts: Management Chapter, Service Chapter and Public Communication Chapter. The Management Chapter mainly collects the relevant policies and measures on the safety management and treatment of pregnant and lying-in women, prevention and control of hospital infection and information management issued by the Chinese government during the epidemic. In the Service Chapter, specific contents and forms of services provided in different aspects of health care during pregnancy and childbirth are summarized, such as antenatal care, delivery, postpartum and psychological guidance. The Public Communication Chapter is mainly aimed at the daily protection of pregnant women and their families and the knowledge of antenatal health care, self-monitoring and other contents.

The purpose of the handbook is to timely summarize China’s experience and share it with the international community to help fight the global epidemic and ensure the safety of the lives of maternal. This is our original aspiration, just as the poet John Donne wrote, “No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main.”

As members of a global community with a shared future for humankind, we must wage a unified response to COVID-19. We believe that with the joint efforts of all countries, the world shall eventually prevail against the pandemic and usher in a safe and healthy future.