Zhao Changming was overjoyed when his new baby let out a loud cry in the simple wooden shed that serves as the maternity ward in the Mother and Child Health Center in Shifang City on April 23. "She weighs 7 pounds and she's perfectly healthy!" said the doctor smiling. Zhao's tiny daughter is one of many born to families who lost children in the disastrous Wenchuan Earthquake last year.
Zhao and his wife Wang Xiaofang named their baby girl Shengchun, which means prosperous and chaste.
Though its facilities are not the best, the simple wooden hospital is filled with love. Several well-known hospitals such as Beijing Mary's Hospital for Women and Infants and Beijing Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital affiliated to Capital University of Medical Sciences provide money and expertise to help support the health center.
Zhao's family ran a tailor shop near Shifang for generations before the earthquake. His 11-year-old son died in the earthquake and since then the couple have been tortured by grief. But Zhao said their new daughter had brought new hope to the family.
"It was really difficult for us to conceive a child because of the constant aftershocks, the disruption and chaos, the grief we were going through, and because my wife is already rather old to have a child. We have been incredibly tense over the past 10 months. But today we are grateful and overjoyed to see our daughter," he said.
A blissful smile spread over 34 year old Wang Xiaofang's tired face as she looked at her little baby lying quietly next to her.
There are many couples facing a similar situation in Sichuan. The Sichuan government announced last July that families who lost children in the earthquake would be allowed to have another child. Many decided, despite their grief, to try for another child. According to statistics from the Sichuan family planning department, more than 6000 such families are planning new babies, and 750 women had become pregnant by the end of 2008.
New babies are being born in earthquake-hit areas such as Jiangyou and Shifang every day. Some are saying the first anniversary of Sichuan's devastating earthquake will be marked by a baby boom.
(China.org.cn by Ren Zhongxi, April 28, 2009)
