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Baby Boom Expected as Year of the Pig Begins

With the up coming Year of the Pig, February 18, a surge in the birth rate across China is expected, and Chinese hospitals are preparing to accommodate the expected growth in birth rate. The Year of the Pig occurs once every 12 year, and is considered lucky. But many feel that this up coming new year will be specially fortunate, since the coming year will not only be a Year of the Pig but a Golden Year of the Pig, the first in the past 60 or 600 years, depending on what astrologer you ask.

The Chinese government press has, recently, published countless reports of gynecologists struggling to cope with an exceptionally high number of pregnant women. The weekly Life Times quoted an official saying that in Beijing itself 170 thousand births are expected this year, 50 thousand more than last year, which itself was a good year.

In recent years, Hong Kong has become a gathering point for pregnant urban Chinese women trying to evade China`s strict "one child" policy. But those who are planning on having a child in this Year of the Pig in Hong Kong will face some difficulty. In order to block the serge of pregnant women into Hong Kong, the local government has enacted new regulations, effective as of February 1st, stipulating that Chinese woman, who are more than 8 month pregnant, will have to prove that they have signed up at a hospital in the country before crossing the border.