(Ecns.cn)--According to China's strict one-child policy, a woman can only give birth once in her current marriage.
Normally, it means there will only be one child in a family, but this is not the case if a woman has a multiple birth pregnancy.
In a recent survey conducted by the People's Hospital in Jiangsu Province covering 1,000 couples, 42.3% admitted their hopes of having more than just one child by means of a multiple birth pregnancy. "It's believed to be a great way to dodge the one-child policy," said Liu Jiayin, director of the Reproduction Medicinal Science Center of the hospital.
The natural rate of having twins is between 0.8 to 1%. However, this number has already reached 1.8% this year nationwide, reports the Guangming Daily.
After conducting a thorough investigation in the Maternal and Child Care Service Centre of Nanjing, where the birthrate of twins increased to 2.01% in the first half of the year and 2.03% last year, Professor Liu concluded that "artificial measures have been introduced to facilitate multiple birth pregnancies."
These artificial measures, according to Professor Liu, mainly include fertility drugs and assisted reproduction techniques. Both are supposed to be good news only for sterile couples, but are now being used to challenge the country's policy. The former is especially popular among couples who have the deeply-ingrained desire for not only more than one child, but also for a male child.
This, of course, is a secret. No one would turn to their doctors and ask for such prescription drugs, but still these drugs are available. By surfing online, asking around, and sometimes going to small clinics, anyone can easily purchase fertility drugs, which are believed to bring about5-7% multiple birth pregnancy.
And, it's cheap. The most commonly seen such drugs at the chemist's store are Clomifene Citrate Capsules, which are only 120 RMB ($19) for one box of the tablets.
Online drugs on the other hand are mostly sold by stores located in Hong Kong, Guangdong Province, as well as Macao, with prices from 120 to 160 RMB.
"How do you get the prescription drugs?" a reporter from the Zhejiang-based Morning Express asked an online seller. The seller declined to answer the question, claiming "it isn't convenient."
Besides breaking the law, another problem with turning to drugs for a multiple birth pregnancy is the medical risk involved, which can hurt both the mother and the babies. Women conceiving multiple babies are highly vulnerable to high blood pressure, anemia, as well as postpartum depression. And, the incidence of premature birth can be as high as 50%—the number increases as the number of babies conceived increases.
It's more harmful when the woman takes too many of such pills. "In addition to the harms for the mother, babies are extremely vulnerable to bradygenesis, slow development in intelligence, as well as being underweight.
