The maternal mortality rate in China has notably dropped as the country provided expectant mothers in rural areas with subsidies to deliver at hospitals, said a health official Friday.

The maternal mortality rate stood at 30 out of 100,000 in 2010, said Fu Wei, a senior official with the Ministry of Health, at a press conference. The figure was 34.2 out of 100,000 in 2008, and Fu attributed the reduction directly to the subsidies.

Since 2009, each pregnant woman in the countryside has received 500 yuan (77 US dollars) for hospital delivery, Fu said.

From 2009 to July, the central government allocated 7.9 billion yuan for the program and subsidized 22.62 million expectant mothers.

Under the program, 96.7 percent of rural expectant mothers gave birth to their children at hospitals, up 4.4 percentage points from the level in 2008, Fu said.

Hospital delivery also reduced the infant mortality. The infant mortality rate in China, 13.1 out of 1,000 in 2010, dropped by two thirds from the 1990 level, which met the goal set by the United Nations in its Millennium Development Goals.

The country launched other programs related to rural women's health in 2009. One distributes free folic acid tablets to expectant mothers to reduce neural tube abnormality among newborns, a major birth defect.

The incidence of neural tube abnormality among newborns declined by 11.4 percent from 2008 to 2010, according to Fu.

To cope with breast and cervical cancers, two major killers for rural women, the country began to offer free screenings in 2009. By July, about 10 million rural women had cervical cancer screenings, and 1.18 million had breast cancer screenings.