According to a report in the China Daily, a hospital in the eastern city of
Nanjing has seen the number of twins and triplets jump from a yearly average of
20 sets to 90 sets in 2005.
"More women are taking fertility medicine to help them become pregnant," Gu
Ling, director of the Maternal and Child Hygiene Hospital in Nanjing, told the
paper.
Sexes imbalance
The trend is also being seen among well-off couples in other cities around
China, the report says.
Many women are using fertility treatment because they cannot conceive, but
others do so in a deliberate attempt to bear more babies, the report says.
The BBC's Rupert Wingfield-Hayes in Beijing says that the sale of fertility
drugs to people without a prescription is illegal, but that does not seem to be
stopping anyone.
Many pharmacies in cities like Nanjing sell the drugs freely, without ever
demanding a prescription, the China Daily said.
China launched its one-child policy in 1970 and claims it has been successful
in slowing the growth of the country's ballooning population, which currently
stands at over 1.3 billion.
However, human rights groups say the policy has taken a toll in forced
abortions and sterilisation and even infanticide.
Additionally, a preference for boys has created a massive imbalance in the
ratio of male to female children.
