Shanghai will establish four new emergency centers for pregnant
women with health problems this year to make room for an expected
baby boom, Chen Zhirong, a member of the Shanghai People's
Congress, told the organization's annual plenary meeting this
week.
Chen, who is also director of the Shanghai Public Health Bureau,
said the emergency centers will mainly target pregnant women with
heart disease and high blood pressure, which can cause problems
during childbirth.
"Now most families have only one child, and they all want to
have better service," Chen told the meeting. "So we are planning to
establish the emergency centers to ensure safety during
childbearing."
Shanghai is currently home to 56,200 beds in four obstetrics and
gynecology hospitals, and nine hospitals for women and children.
Those facilities are enough to meet normal demand, Chen said.
But some medical centers, well-known obstetrics and gynecology
hospitals in particular, face a lack of beds this year due to an
expected peak in births. The Year of the Pig on the lunar calendar
is always popular for having kids, and this is a Golden Pig year,
which happens only once every 60 years and is considered an
especially good time to have children.
More than 137,000 births are expected in Shanghai this year,
according to the city's Population and Family Planning
Commission.
"We have already had about 8,000 pregnant women register at our
hospital, but of course it is impossible for all of them to give
birth to a child here," said Yu Leping, director of the neonatal
section at the Obstetrics and Gynecology Hospital affiliated with
Fudan University.
"It is hard to get a bed even if you book it 10 days ahead,"
said Yu.
Zhou Jianping, a member of the Shanghai Committee of the Chinese
People's Political Consultative Conference, the city's top advisory
body, said couples should give careful thought to having a child
during the baby boom.
"The idea of 'Golden Pig babies' is superstition," she said.
"The baby boom will affect children entering school and hunting for
a job later. Parents should fully consider all these problems."
(Shanghai Daily January 31, 2007)