From the Washington Post:
…Chinese hospitals have been submerged in recent months under a tide of pregnant women; newborns are arriving in droves; and companies that manufacture diapers are upping their advertising budgets.
The reason is simple: The Year of the Pig, which began Feb. 18, is a good year to be born…
The government’s family planning department said it has not yet established a nationwide estimate for how many extra babies will be born in the Year of the Pig. But Beijing hospital officials surveying busy birthing and prenatal care wards predicted a 20 percent increase. Extrapolating that to the 16 million births recorded annually across China in recent years would mean a jump of about 3 million babies. [Full Text]
