New rules fail to palliate the trend of mainland mothers

Statistics show that the increasing number of pregnant mainlanders giving birth in Hong Kong has contributed to an increase in the Hong Kong birth rate over the past years. In 2007, 27,000 out of 70,000 babies born in Hong Kong were born to women from mainland women. In 2010 that figure had increased to 50 per cent of the total of 88,000 births. The growing trend has prompted Hong Kong government to implement various measures in a bid to alleviate burden on public hospitals caused by pregnant mainland women rushing to Hong Kong in time to give birth.

Miss Leung, an obstetric nurse at Tuen Mun Hospital, expressed the concern that the rocketing number of births was affecting the quality of service. She told Deutsche Welle: "Due to the shortage of delivery wards, pregnant women sometimes have to sleep in fold-up beds in the corridor. These fold-up beds are very uncomfortable. We can imagine how hard it is for mothers after labor to sleep in these beds. Not only the mothers have to suffer, our workload has increased significantly. " Hong Kong mothers are not given priorities in terms of service. "The hospital treats mothers from Hong Kong and mainland China the same," added Miss Leung.

Schemes introduced to relieve pressure

Last year there were protests against the influx of mainland mothers in Hong Kong. To ease the strain on obstetric specialists and appease the outcry of local citizens, the Hong Kong government has launched a number of schemes: a quota of 3400 is set for year 2012 to cap the number of mainland women allowed to give birth in Hong Kong public hospitals, a 70 per cent drop compared to 10,696 in 2010; Officials have the right to refuse the entry of mainland women who are more than 28 weeks pregnant and have not reserved a place in a maternity hospital.

Joseph Cheng, professor of Political Science at the City University of Hong Kong, argues that it was necessary for the government to establish a quota system. "The obstetric service in Hong Kong is limited. It can’t cope with such a huge demand of deliveries. Under this circumstance, I think we should give priorities to local pregnant women," he told Deutsche Welle.

Emergency births of mainland mothers triples

In spite of effort by the Hong Kong government, the trend has however intensified with the number of emergency births of pregnant mainlanders who circumvent the rules almost tripling at the end of last year. The cold weather helps them dodge officials at border checks as they wear baggy clothes to conceal their pregnancies.

According to the Hospital Authority, the number of emergency births in November last year is 1,453, nearly 3 times the 500 emergency births in the same month a year earlier. Some of them even ended up having their babies delivered in ambulances.

"One-child Policy" is the root cause

Dr. Ray Yep from the Department of Public and Social Administration of City University of Hong Kong explains why mainland mothers-to-be try every mean, even risk their lives for labor in Hong Kong: "it is quite obvious. Deterred by ‘one-child policy’ in mainland China, they come to Hong Kong if they want more than one child. Usually mainland women come here to give birth to their second child after having one in their hometown. Another important point is that the children born in Hong Kong can get a Hong Kong identity card which entitles them to social welfare such as health care, education and housing in the future. "

Author: Miriam Wong
Editor: Grahame Lucas