Oink Oink

When Chineese New Year celebrations began in LA, I eagerly looked up the animal of 2007, hoping our baby would get something elegant and noble, like the horse, or cute, like the monkey. Imagine my dissapointment when I learned that the baby would be born in the year of ... the pig. I immediately took it as a sign that he or she might not be blessed with the fabled Gilstrap metabloism, as I had hoped. But then I learned from a Chinese friend that the pig is actually considered a very lucky year to be born, and this year, the year of the "fire pig" is considered very very very lucky, like once-every-60-years lucky. So our little fire pig is going to have about 19 million Chinese age-mates for complany...

Below, I have shamelessly melded an MSNBC and Boston Globe article about the baby boom into one copyright infringing frankenstien, for your amusement:

Year of Pig brings baby boom

More couples plan pregnancies

Wang Lili and her husband looked at an ultrasound image of their unborn child at Beijing Obstetrics Hospital. According to tradition, the Year of the Pig is a good year to be born in. (Li Jie/Washington Post)

By Edward Cody, Washington Post | March 4, 2007

BEIJING -- The Year of the Pig has turned into the year of the baby.

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.

Since time immemorial, prospective parents have been told children born under the pig's patronage will benefit from the animal's image as fat, happy, and prosperous. What's more, this is supposedly the year of the Golden Pig, which comes around only once every 60 years, and which Chinese astrologers say is twice blessed, giving an even better chance of wealth, happiness and longevity.

In the maternity ward of Beijing's China-Japan Friendship Hospital, one of the city's biggest, Cui Xiaohuai surveys beds lining the corridors outside overcrowded wards. She is chief nurse in the obstetric department, and says that over the next year they expect to deliver double their unusual 200 babies a month. She says the hospital is adding more temporary beds and staff to cope.

"We are already overwhelmed," she says. "Everybody wants a baby born the Year of the Pig."

Although many people now find ways of sidestepping the rules, China still has a one-child policy, and many of those in Cui Xiaohuai's ward were determined their only child be born in what they regard as a lucky year.

"My husband and I planned for it," says Chen Xing, one heavily pregnant mother-to-be, who nevertheless appeared to be cutting it a bit fine.

There was a boom in weddings during the Year of the Dog, which precedes the Pig. Others in Mrs. Chen's ward didn't quite get their timing right, and the hospital's double-decker trolleys were already laden with swaddled babies, hours ahead of the official start of the year.

Across the city there are just 3,800 maternity ward beds and only 3,000 doctors and nurses available to work in them. Beijing's health authorities claim they do have the resources to cope, but last week advised expectant women to steer clear of the city's top hospitals over the coming months.

The number of couples who calculated to have their babies in this auspicious year has provided a vivid reminder that however fast China may be transforming its economy and merging with the modern world, the pull of an ancient culture has remained strong among its 1.3 billion people. Physicians say couples who planned to have their children during the Year of the Pig include well-educated urban professionals .

The government's family planning department said it has not established a nationwide estimate for how many 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.

The birthrate has long been a carefully watched number in China, where the government enforces a one-child policy for most urban families. Premier Wen Jiabao recently declared that the sometimes controversial policy must continue to allow Chinese to benefit from economic progress. But Year of the Pig families did not appear to be contravening the rules -- just choosing this year to have their babies.

Some parts © Copyright 2007 Globe Newspaper Company, others from MSN.com