Beijing should encourage more newly married and engaged couples to take free health checkups before they start a family in a bid to reduce the number of babies being born with birth defects, a senior health care worker has urged.

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Pan Ying, director of the health care department at Beijing Maternal and Child Health Hospital, said the rate in the capital of children born with defects has risen from 13 per 1,000 in 2003 to 17 per 1,000.

Prior to 2003, couples had to undergo the health checks before they could get married. Today, the checks are optional.

It was reported that around 460,000 babies were born between 2007 and 2009 in Beijing, which means, about 780 had birth defects.

Pan said the fact that people are no longer required to have the health checks accounts for the rise. A few years ago, fewer than 5 percent of couples were taking the health checks compared with 98 percent before 2003, according to Pan.

To improve the situation, the city started to offer the now voluntary checks to couples free of charge, which nudged the take-up rate up to 10 percent.

Today, around 30,000 people out of 300,000 who tie the knot each year in Beijing take the checkups. Pan said, nationwide, about 17 percent take them, while in Shanghai, 80 percent do.

While some avoid the checkup because they fear they will not be allowed to get married if they have a health condition, many now fail to take the test simply because they do not take it seriously.

Li Ang, 27, a civil servant with the Beijing Bureau of Statistics, registered her marriage in September. She said she was given a pamphlet after she got her marriage certificate saying she could have a free checkup at a designated hospital if she wanted one.

"I don't think I will take the premarital checkup right now, because we are very busy," she said. "I will think about it before I am ready to have a baby."

Pan said more cooperation between "the civil affairs bureau, which is in charge of marriage registrations, comprehensive hospitals and sub-district committees" would ensure more people take the tests.

She said the civil affairs bureau should vigorously promote the health checks and also champion the prescription of folic acid, which helps prevent birth defects if taken in the early stages of pregnancy.

Moreover, sub-district committees should require every pregnant woman to register with them and the committees should send out staff to teach newly pregnant women how best to look after themselves and their unborn children.

Pan said the city also has a relatively high maternal death rate, with 15 women dying out of every 100,000 who become pregnant. The death rate is ranked 11th nationwide, Pan said, and lags behind similar-sized cities.

The causes of deaths among pregnant women include bacterial infections and severe bleeding and complications from unsafe or unsanitary abortions, said Pan.