A woman has a pre-delivery check at Mary's Hospital in Beijing. There has been a rise in caesarean births recently at hospitals throughout the city. Courtesy of Mary's Hospital
Women opt for surgical procedure for 'lucky day' and fear of pain
An increasing number of women in Beijing are opting for cesarean births, a trend that is worrying local officials and doctors.
A check by METRO with several local hospitals showed cesarean births now account for between 40 and 50 percent of babies born in Beijing. According to the Beijing health bureau, 171,507 babies were born in the city in 2008.
A doctor with Beijing Obstetrics Gynecology Hospital, who declined to give his name, told METRO that the cesarean birth rate at the hospital accounted for 50 percent of births in 2009. In the past year, 13,000 babies were born there, some 10 percent of the city's total.
At Peking University Third Hospital, which mainly takes care of pregnant women who have complications, the cesarean birth rate has stood at around 60 percent in recent years.
Wang Jie, director of the education office at Beijing Obstetrics Gynecology Hospital, said many of the operations were necessary because of the growing number of large babies that might pose problems if delivered in the traditional way.
"Living conditions have been improving, which has led to an increasing number of large babies," Wang said, adding that the average weight of a newborn baby in the 1980s stood at around 2.5 kg. Today, the average newborn weighs between 3 kg and 3.5 kg.
"Babies weighing 4 kg have not been seen before recent years. They increase the risks associated with natural birth," she said.
Zhao Tianwei, chief physician at Mary's Hospital, said many young mothers are also worried about the pain of natural childbirth.
"Actually, for most them, there are misunderstandings about natural birth," she said.
A 32-year-old engineer, surnamed Tang, who hopes to become a father in two months, said his wife decided to have a cesarean because she was worried about the pain of natural birth.
Tang said she based her decision on movies and TV dramas that showed natural birth as being extremely painful.
"Some actors who have played the part of pregnant women have not experienced childbirth," said Zhao. "How can they really know how a mother would feel in that situation?"
According to Zhao, the fear of pain is one of the main reasons why so many mothers-to-be have chosen cesareans. Parents wanting a "lucky day" for their baby's birthday is another major reason.
Mothers-to-be from other countries have questioned whether too many people were choosing cesareans in Beijing.
"Cesarean births used to be reserved for dangerous cases in Russia, births that could not take place in the normal way," said Svetlana Pika, a Russian mother preparing to give birth naturally to her second child in Beijing.
"Seldom did Russian mothers choose this way if it was unnecessary."
Reports from Shanghai suggest cesarean births are popular there as well. Some 40-60 percent of women in their 20s have cesarean deliveries.
Ye Ronghua, a doctor at Peking University Third Hospital, said some women "think items used in natural births, for example, obstetric forceps, will hurt the baby. That's a misunderstanding."
Hospitals are pushing back by offering improved services for women electing to have natural deliveries.
At Mary's Hospital, special "music treatment" facilities and a water massage are offered to ease the pain and worries of mothers-to-be.
And at Beijing Obstetrics Gynecology Hospital, husbands are now allowed to join their wives in the delivery room, which helps relieve the pressure. Single rooms are also provided so pregnant women can get more rest.
"What we've done is try to encourage more mothers to go back to the original way of having babies, which is good for both mother and child," said Wang.
According to China Philanthropy Times, the average rate of cesarean birth in most provinces in China reached 40 percent in recent years.
During the 1950s and 1970s, the rate in China was around five percent.