China has abandoned its controversial one-child policy because of concerns about its increasingly elderly population.
Self-study activity:
Watch the video and answer the questions below.
1. How old is the woman who is about to have a child?
2. When did she have her first child?
3. What sex is the child?
4. Who was worried about the sex of the baby?
5. How many good embryos does Yemin have?
6. When did China’s one child policy change?
7. Which women are at an advantage with the new policy?
Heartbeat of an imminent arrival, a last ultrasound scan for a 48-year-old mother-to-be. She had her first child through fertility treatment 16 years ago. The hospital kept her frozen embryos, and now that China's one-child policy has become a two-child policy, she's about to have her second miracle baby. More good news for Fan-fun-nian, it’s a boy.
She tells me she’s thrilled. She's got a daughter already and would be happy with another, but the in-laws want a grandson. A two-child family is still a great novelty here, so a big fuss at the clinic for a special visitor, especially as this miracle was conceived here in a petri dish, and frozen as an embryo for years, until China's policy changed and she could become somebody's little sister.
As soon as I heard about the policy change, I was terribly excited. I ran to the hospital immediately. My second child had been frozen there for too long. I couldn’t wait to take her home.
Not everyone is so lucky. Yemin is desperate to have a second child, but there are questions over
whether her embryos are viable.
I only have three embryos left and the doctor says one is good, one is average and one is poor, but I'm staying optimistic. I hope heaven will give me this gift.
Blessings born from frozen embryos, many of them second children, after last year's policy change. Older mothers with fertility problems are now suddenly at an advantage, because they have frozen embryos to fall back on, where other older women don’t. Fan-fun-nian back home and getting ready
for the new arrival. Baby clothes from the first time round, 16 years ago. Hospital bag ready for the birth, and she's already decided if the two-child policy becomes a three-child policy, she’ll go for a third.
Carrie Gracie, BBC News.
KEY:
1 forty-eight years old
2 sixteen years ago
3 a boy
4 her in-laws
5 only one
6 last year
7 older women with fertility problems
