Dragon baby boom poses social challenges

(Ecns.cn)--China is bracing for a baby boom as the Year of the Dragon arrives—the most auspicious year of the Chinese zodiac, which, predict experts and doctors, will mean new challenges for society, including inefficient maternity care services, inadequate education resources, and an even steeper imbalance in the sex ratio, reported the Beijing Evening News Thursday.

As babies born during a dragon year are traditionally believed to have a rosy future, an increase in births in 2012 has long been expected by Chinese health authorities and other experts.

"If my baby is born before Spring Festival, she'll be a rabbit," Li Yang, a 26-year-old mother-to-be, told the newspaper in mid-January, adding that "rabbits live in underground warrens, so they dislike the spotlight and are considered cautious, while the dragon flies thousands of miles, overlooking everything on Earth."

Li said she hopes her child will take on the characteristics of the Chinese zodiac's fifth creature—such as ambition and power.

However, health authorities are attempting to dissuade future parents from putting too much stock in the power of the cosmos, pointed out the Asian Correspondent, an online news platform.

In an interview with the West China Metropolis News, Chen Hong, director of the Chengdu Women's and Children's Central Hospital, feels that parents should pay less attention to their babies' astrological sign, and focus instead on raising children in the best possible environment.

Media pundit Chen Mei added that "it's already the 21st century and people are still devoted to the tenets of Chinese astrology! It's completely unnecessary to plan a pregnancy just in order to have a dragon baby. It is genes and education that affect a child's future, not the zodiac."

Liu Min, director of the Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics at the Beijing Ditan Hospital, raised the likelihood that a birth bubble associated with a single year would lead to intense competition for an already small number of spaces in the country's school system.

Liu Wei, headmaster of Nanyang No. 9 Primary School in Henan Province, recalled for China Daily reporters that the school had dealt with an explosion of new students in 2006, when dragon babies born in 2000 reached school age.

The school's seven classrooms were overflowing at 130 students a class, and he described how they coped: by building near the school "a row of makeshift shacks to accommodate the sudden surge."

"The large number of births will create shortages for those babies who come into the world this year, making it a scramble for everything from the time they're born until they try to enter the workforce," concluded Liu.

Yet, editor Wang Runjie denies the seriousness of the situation, saying that the status quo is not what the public thinks it is. "The distribution of educational resources has always been uneven and cannot be said to have worsened" is his judgment; he explains that "in six or seven years, the situation will improve, given Beijing's fast development."

What's more, this year's increase in births is likely to lead to a boom in the childcare industry.

A Xinhua report in December 2011 revealed that China was preparing for a five percent increase in births in the coming lunar year, with Shanghai expecting 180,000 newborns and Beijing 200,000.

As a result, many hospitals were already overburdened with prenatal appointments by the end of 2011. Beijing's 35 tertiary referral hospitals are operating at 110 percent optimal capacity, reported the China Daily.

The dragon baby boom has already resulted in a shortage of midwives and nannies, thus salaries for these two sought-after occupations, which typically range from 4,000 to 7,000 yuan a month, have risen over 20 percent in recent weeks, revealed the West China Metropolis News.

Price tags on products for infants have also skyrocketed, according to the China Daily, with disposable diapers increasing from 130 yuan to 180 yuan a pack, and decent baby clothes running at 200 yuan a set—twice last year's cost.

Speaking of precautions against probable social problems, white-collar worker Wang Kunzhe commented that government should be involved in correcting any imbalances in social resources.

Xiong Bingqi, vice head of the 21 Century Education Research Institute, thinks that it's the parents-to-be who should keep a cool head. Instead of choosing a lucky year to give birth, the moms and dads should direct greater attention to cultivating their mind of their child.

Then the government's role, Xiong counseled, "besides redressing an imbalance in education resources, is to create more channels for students to use their talents, and structure more opportunities for those who will not be admitted to universities."