Liu Minxia

    mllmx@msn.com

    A SHENZHEN hospital is calling for pregnant women to go to nearby hospitals to deliver their children after it saw a record number of new births last month as an increasing number of residents are choosing to have a second child.

    In October, Shenzhen Maternity and Child Health Care Hospital saw more than 2,000 new births, an average of 70 new births a day and roughly 200 more than its record for a month of 1,800, said Wang Zhong, director of the hospital’s obstetrical department. Even the hospital’s corridors are packed with beds.

    “We’ve added more than 40 beds in the corridors. The baby boom is continuing into this month,” said Wang. “Our medical staff is under huge amount of pressure. Working them overtime will only increase the risk of medical accidents. We advise Shenzhen expectant mothers to choose nearby hospitals, especially when they’re not having a high-risk pregnancy.”

    Many mothers-to-be preferred the hospital because they felt safe giving birth at the top maternity hospital in the city.

    The number of residents choosing to have a second child is gradually increasing, and to meet the growing demand for obstetric beds, the city’s health commission said in July that it would increase the number of maternity beds by 4,000 before the end of the year.

    Currently, 90 hospitals in Shenzhen, including 49 public and 41 private, are qualified to offer obstetrics services, offering 3,778 beds in total, the commission said.

    In 2017, 300 more maternity beds will be put into use, which will meet the demand of 258,000 new births annually, it said.

    Shenzhen saw 219,000 new births in 2014, and 199,000 last year. In the first half of this year, there were 98,000 new births in Shenzhen, up 4.5 percent from a year ago. A total of 385,000 pregnant women have set up records with Shenzhen hospitals from Oct. 1, 2015 to Sept. 30 this year, giving birth to 211,928 babies.

    The commission expects 220,000 babies to be born this year, almost the same as in 2014.

    Shenzhen’s obstetrics capacity should meet the demand theoretically. But since large public hospitals are favored, maternity beds in Luohu and Futian districts are in short supply while private ones and those in Longgang, Bao’an and Nanshan districts are underused, the commission said.