Why Have I Never Seen a Pregnant Chinese Woman?
Chinese women have a lot of rules they are supposed to follow. For instance, they shouldn’t eat pineapple because it is believed to cause miscarriage. They are also not allowed to attend weddings because it is considered bad luck.
This is the reason why a pregnant Chinese woman can be so hard to spot.
2. They don’t want to be pregnant
Pregnancy can be a huge burden for many Chinese women. Not only do they have to deal with the physical demands of pregnancy, but also the emotional ones. Some have even found that taking time off to have a baby can have a negative impact on their careers, as employers may sideline or demote them once they return from maternity leave. In addition, the one child policy has persuaded many Chinese women to opt out of having children altogether.
3. They don’t want to have a baby
The Chinese have their own set of health beliefs and practices based on the balance of hot (yang) and cold (yin) energy. Foods and diseases are classified as “hot” or “cold.” In China, pregnant women are advised not to eat pineapple because it can cause miscarriage. They also aren’t allowed to paint their nails or decorate the house while expecting, as both activities can disrupt the fetus.
Moreover, working mothers in China have found that taking time off to have a baby can be detrimental to their careers. They’ve reported being sidelined, demoted or replaced by their employers when they returned from maternity leave.
4. They don’t want to have a baby with a foreign man
Seeing authorities in hazmat suits visit her neighbors during the stringent COVID-19 lockdown last spring altered Claire Jiang’s life plans. The Shanghai woman, 35, who works as a sales manager for a cosmetics company, says she’s no longer interested in having babies in China. “The whole experience of being visited by the police really scared me and changed my mind,” she said. Jiang, who has two children already, is now planning to have her third child in the United States, where she and her husband are based.
Most women of child-bearing age in China have lived under the government’s brutal one-child policy, which has persuaded them that families are best off with only a single child. They’ve also heard the folk sayings that a girl is preferred because she will bring honor to the family and a boy is preferred because he or she will help support the family financially.
A few Chinese women I spoke with also reported that their Western boyfriends and husbands didn’t understand the traditional postpartum zuo yue zi practice of staying in bed for a month after giving birth to recover strength and health. Several of them were able to explain the rationale behind this strange-to-Westerners practice to their partners, and they had their full support in doing so.
For many women, having a baby in the United States can be a way to skirt China’s strict one-child policy and avoid the hefty fines that result from violating its population control rules. Miao, 29, is among those who have been able to do so. She and her husband, both of whom work in tech, are now based in Rowland Heights, California, where they’ve secured a short-term rental home that’s popular with pregnant Chinese women.
