Objective  To analyze the difference in publishing continuity of the information on maternal health care between Beijing and Shanghai, and to verify the feasibility for quantitative assessment on publishing continuity of the information.

  Methods  We systematically collected all reports and indicators on health care needs of the women in Beijing and Shanghai published by governmental agencies and professional institutions and quantitatively assessed the continuity of the information. We adopted Spearman correlation and univariate regression analysis to evaluate the relationship between publishing continuity of the information and maternal mortality.

  Results  For the information on maternal health care published by governmental agencies in Beijing and Shanghai in 2017, 41.8% and 32.0% were with desired publishing frequency and interval; but for those published by professional institutions, the proportions were 0.0% and 28.0%, respectively; whereas, when combining the information published by both the governmental agencies and professional institutions in Beijing and Shanghai, the proportions was 8.8% and 17.9% in 2000 and then increased to 20.9% and 30.0% in 2017. There was a significant inverse correlation between publishing continuity and maternal mortality for the maternal health care information published by governmental agencies and professional institutions in Beijing, with a correlation coefficient of – 0.630（P < 0.01）, and 20.5% of the variation in the maternal mortality could be linked to the publishing continuity.

  Conclusion  The continuity of the information on sensitive indicators of maternal health issued by governmental and professional institutions in Beijing and Shanghai increased gradually, but a mechanism for regular release of the information needs to be established. The results of the study show that the method for quantitative evaluation on publishing continuity of the information on maternal health care needs is feasible and could be applied in other researches.