오는 8월 8일은 중국사람들이 오랫동안 기다려왔던, 하계올림픽이 중국 베이징에서 공식적으로 열리는 날이다. 요즘 중국의 임산부들은 이날이 즉 8월 8일이 길일이라 해서, 그날에 아기 낳기를 원하여, 할수 있는 조치를 다 하고 있는 유행이 번지고 있다한다. 특히나 그날 저녁공식적으로 시작하는 오후 8시 8분에 낳기를 원하고 있다. 각 병원에서는 임산부들이 그날에 몰릴것으로 보고, 병상 늘리기에 온갖 심혈을 기울리고 있다한다. 임산부들과 산부인과 의사들은 이날 어린아이를 태어나게 하기위해 자연분만외에,제왕절개 수술을 해서 세상에 태어나게 한다. 어떤 임산부는 이날에 맞추기 위해 2개월 정도가 있어야 정상 분만이 가능한데도, 앞당겨 이날 제왕절개 수술로 아기를 낳겠다는 위험을 무릎쓰고 준비하고 있다 한다. 이날 중국의 인가 증가율이 기록적으로 올락가게 될것으로 예측하기도 한다. 이런 이유때문에 지금 중국의 제왕절개 수술율은 1970년대에 비해 10배 이상이 늘었고, 이 비율은 세계보건기구(WHO)에서 설정하고 있는 기준치 15%을 훨씬 상회하는 비율이라고 한다. 금년에 중국에서 태어날 아기의 숫자는 약 18백만명이라고 하는데, 이숫자는 작년도보다 약 5십만명이 증가한 숫자라고 한다. 중국 임산부들은 단지 이날 뿐이 아니고, 설날과 기타 고유명절날에 낳기위해 제왕절개 수술이 기하급수적으로 늘어나고 있다 한다. 중국의 언론이 예측하기로는 이러한 베이비붐으로 인해 덕을 볼 곳은 아기용품을, 즉 육아용 분유, 아기옷들을 생산하는 기업들일것이라고 한다. 자세한 내용은 아래 원문을 참조 하십시요. 글로브 앤드 메일지에서. The day every Chinese woman wants to give birth February 27, 2008 at 4:52 AM EST BEIJING — Chinese doctors are bracing for a hectic day on Aug. 8. It's an auspicious day, the long-awaited opening of the Beijing Games, and a day when many of their patients will demand cesarean sections to ensure a lucky birthday for their babies. Hospitals in Beijing are expecting a miniature baby boom on that August day as superstitious parents do everything possible to ensure their infants are born on the opening day of the Olympics, according to doctors quoted yesterday by the Beijing News, a leading newspaper here. Birth rates will peak on Aug. 8, and hospitals are adding new beds and shortening their minimum stays to cope with the anticipated surge. The Olympic baby phenomenon shows the continuing grip that numerology, superstition and other traditions have on Chinese life. Even the precise timing of the opening ceremony, at 8:08 p.m. on the eighth day of the eighth month of 2008, was chosen because eight is considered lucky. A growing number of Chinese women are choosing to accept the medical risks of a cesarean section in order to have their babies born on an auspicious day or year. On the advice of their feng shui masters, some women are opting for cesareans up to two months earlier than their due date in order to give birth on a lucky day. It's among the leading reasons why China now has one of the world's highest rates of C-sections, more than 10 times higher than the rate in the 1970s and far above the 15 per cent rate thought reasonable by the World Health Organization. An astonishing 50 per cent of Chinese births are C-sections, dramatically higher than the average of 5 per cent recorded from the 1950s to the 1970s, according to a report by the Chinese news agency Xinhua. Thousands of Beijing women chose to have cesarean sections in 2004 to ensure that their babies would be born in the Year of the Monkey, considered a lucky year in the Chinese lunar calendar. The birth rate in 2004 was far higher than a typical year. One exhausted obstetrician in Beijing said he did a dozen C-sections on a single night in the fall of 2004. Surgery, of course, is not the only tactic in the struggle for a lucky birthday. Last fall, Xinhua reported that many Chinese couples were trying to conceive a baby in October so that they would have a chance at an Olympic baby. "If my wife is lucky enough to deliver an 'Olympic baby,' the luck means something more than family joy," one husband told Xinhua. To maximize their chances of conceiving a lucky baby, he and his wife chose to "stay at home" instead of joining the crowds of tourists during the October national holiday, the agency said. If they cannot arrange a birth on Aug. 8, many Chinese parents are still determined to have an "Olympic baby" by giving birth some time this year, even if it requires artificial help. "More and more couples are trying artificial insemination to make their Olympic-baby dream come true," the Shanghai Evening News reported yesterday. China is projecting 18 million births this year, which is about 500,000 more than last year, according to media reports. China already has more than 3,000 children who were named Aoyun (Olympic) in the past few years, and another 4,000 children were named after China's five official Olympic mascots. But the expected Olympic baby boom will have a negative side, beyond just the medical risks of cesarean sections. Health experts are warning that the quality of medical treatment will deteriorate during the baby boom because of equipment shortages and overworked staff. And the new wave of children will face increased competition in schools, universities and the labour market. On the positive side, the Chinese media are predicting a big increase in sales of baby products, milk powder and baby clothes this year.