A Guinness World Record for miscarriages has Chinese woman embroiled in birthing debate

Twenty-six miscarriages and a subsequent Guinness World Record has a 37-year-old Chinese woman embroiled in a birthing debate. After recently giving birth to a healthy baby, the unnamed woman caused the Chinese public to quarrel over the birthing rights of women. According to Asia One, the new mom had her last miscarriage in 2019.

After her recent birth was announced, highlighting her “dream to be a mother coming true,” many members of the public criticised her for placing motherhood above all else in life. But, the woman, who gave birth to a baby girl via C-section last week, says she has “always dreamed of having a child of her own” in a press release issued by the hospital. The press release went on to describe her resolve of having a baby despite repeated miscarriages, intrauterine adhesion, and light periods. It also noted that the woman almost lost hope after experiencing her 26th miscarriage.

The press release says she then opted for surgical intervention from the hospital and found herself pregnant again for the 27th time in February this year. Now she has a healthy baby girl after her struggles to carry a fetus to term. It is not clear why people were criticising her, other than the fact that she did not give up when faced with a large number of miscarriages. But, in China, the mindset of having a child of one’s own weighs heavily on citizens due to the recent history of the law only allowing one child for those that were descendants of the Han dynasty.

Now, as the one-child policy has been lifted, it is unclear how the shift in the country’s cultural mindset has changed. With an ageing population and the cost of living soaring, more people in China are choosing to wait until they are older to give birth or decide not to have children at all.