<p>Would you elect to have a C-section to give your kid a head start? These mothers think the reward is worth the risk:</p>
<p>[C-sections</a> up in China ahead of school deadline - Yahoo! News](<a href=“http://news.yahoo.com/c-sections-china-ahead-school-deadline-000345922.html]C-sections”>http://news.yahoo.com/c-sections-china-ahead-school-deadline-000345922.html)</p>
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<p>DD1 started in college a few days shy of her 19th birthday thanks to our hare-brained cutoff date of July 1st (since changed). Likewise DD2 will do the same (their birthdays are a few days apart). I could see why the Chinese Tigers would want an early start…</p>
<p>Your Ds can consider themselves lucky. They had a whole year of childhood not interrupted by classes, assignments, coloring projects, etc. :)</p>
<p>Seems stupid to me. Older children are better able to learn than younger children in a particular grade, all other things being equal.</p>
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This makes no sense at all. I wonder what they do if the mother wants to buy 1, 2, or 3 months, i.e. very prematurely, would the hospital just go ahead and do the C-section? I also wonder what ancillary damage could be occuring to some of the babies by being forced out before their natural time.</p>
<p>A pediatrician remarked that he had noticed Asian parents here trying to get their child to advance a class while others wanted their kids with birthdays after, say May/June held back so they’ll be more mature and bigger with their post September peers for next year.</p>
<p>Surprised by the article on China, though. Where I came from, we didn’t have formal birth certificates and the norm was for the midwife to put in whatever date the parent wanted. Firstly this got you into school earlier, and then when it came time to get married, the claim would be, “but I’m actually only x years old” whether or not this was true…</p>
<p>Besides school entry considerations, there are other ‘reasons’ for the increased C-section rate in some locations. Most of the reasons have no medical basis. In fact, C-sections are associated with higher risk to mother and with higher risk of certain medical and developmental outcomes. </p>
<p>My 3rd child was born in a Chinese-dominated culture country. When I looked at the maternity floor of the hospital it was jam packed with women. A few months later when my daughter was born, much less so- private rooms abounded. </p>
<p>‘Rationale’: people wanted ‘dogs’, not ‘pigs’.
‘Morale’: not all things are understandable.</p>
<p>Are ‘dogs’ better than ‘pigs’?</p>
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I’m assuming, based on my years spent in HK, you mean those born in the “year of the dog” versus the “year of the pig” as opposed to some completely different interpretation. I don’t think I noticed any preference for these when I was there, though, but then I wasn’t looking.</p>
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Very few hotels serve dogs; all serve pigs ;)</p>
<p>women in US are well known to be induced prior to the end of the year, or to schedule their planned c-section for before the end of the year. Then they get the tax break. Used to be VERY common. But only if they were close or overdue anyway. Not months early.</p>
<p>Yes, indeed. Year of the dog… better than year of the pig… for birth of babies that is.</p>
<p>I moved to my current apartment in the year of the Tiger. This meant rent was lower than in the current year of the Rabbit. People do not want to move in the year of the Tiger evidently. Furthermore, since my apartment overlooks a hospital (ironically the same hospital where daughter was born!)… rent lower still. If only the apartment were on the 8th floor, they would be paying me to live here!</p>
<p>I have given up trying to truly understand, though I try to be mindful and aware… and to make it all work to my/our benefit!</p>
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Really? I’ve never heard of anyone doing this and I’d be surprised if many doctors and hospitals would go along with it due to liability reasons in addition to the ethical ones unless maybe you’re talking about a difference of a day or two.</p>
<p>^Interesting. As it happens, we induced our D right before the year changed. It wasn’t planned. BP was racing up and the doctor thought it would prudent to do. Had no idea of dog or pig. Years later, I noticed my D eneded up being born in the year of dog. It was a good call:)</p>
<p>read this:
[Have</a> Your Baby Before New Year’s Day, Save Thousands My Money Blog](<a href=“http://www.mymoneyblog.com/have-your-baby-before-new-years-day-save-thousands.html]Have”>Have Your Baby Before New Year’s Day, Save Thousands — My Money Blog)</p>
<p>as a nurse, I have seen it for myself.</p>
<p>You lose the tax incentive at the end regardless once they turn 17, so it’s not an extra year of tax incentive…</p>
<p>Now, about my fellow Elbonian officemate who got married Jan 4th, because it was a ‘good date’ versus late December, which was not a ‘good date’… He nearly cried when I showed him the difference of claiming married vs single for the year…</p>
<p>Oops, I should have said 4th floor… 8th floor highly desirable, 4th floor highly undesirable… what was I thinking…</p>
<p>OK, could you explain why? They are both even numbers. 4 and 8 look like brothers/sisters.</p>
<p>4 is absolutely bad luck (again, I do not understand, I only accept) and 8 is the opposite. In my office tower the units on the 8th floor (the 4th floor is commercial, no offices) go for 30% more than my floor (10)… I am sure there is a Chinese-cultured person who can explain on these boards!!</p>
<p>I used to work for a major accounting firm and found it interesting that the two associates in my unit both had children born December 31.</p>
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From what I was told, the pronunciation for 4 in Cantonese - “say” was close to the word for death, and 8 “baath” sounded similar to the word for prosperous.</p>