New NPR 奢華坐月子中心大陸正夯

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一胎化之下的大陸，產生了許多社會現象。
一個月要價三十幾萬的豪華坐月子中心
與尿布奶瓶等高檔的母嬰產品炙手可熱
六兜綜合症six pocket syndrome則成了
不可避免的現象。預知詳情
請參考本文並聆聽廣播

NEW FROM NPR

Why Is China's Baby Care Industry Booming?

by Frank Langfitt

LINDA WERTHEIMER, HOST:

It's MORNING EDITION, from NPR News. I'm Linda Wertheimer.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

And I'm Steve Inskeep, with a mystery about China. This is a country with a one-child policy- controversial具有爭議性的, but effective. It has held the fertility rate生育率 of the world's most populous country全世界人口最多/稠密的國家 to an average of 1.6 births per woman. That is lower than Norway, lower than Sweden, lower than the United States. But here's mystery: Why, with a stable number of births each year, is China's baby care business booming? NPR's Frank Langfitt explains from Shanghai.

FRANK LANGFITT, BYLINE: Chinese tradition dictates規定 that new moms must spend their first month indoors新手媽咪要坐月子. Older generations老一輩的 think this protects the health of the mother and child. Young moms often go stir crazy因為被限制行動或是囚禁而發瘋(stir為prison監獄的美式俚語). Cao, a Shanghai accountant, just gave birth to a daughter. She ticks off the rules因為感到討厭而刻意不去遵守 she's supposed to follow.

CAO: (Through translator) For instance, at home, the more traditional approach says you cannot bathe or wash your hair. And there are many things you can't eat, like raw fruit生冷的食物.

LANGFITT: Cao doesn't believe in this stuff, but she still shares a home with her parents. So after she gave birth, she and her daughter checked into入住 Care Bay. It's essentially a full-service hotel設備齊全的坐月子中心 for new moms and babies.

CAO: (Through translator) Here, there are no such limits. You can take a shower, wash your hair. If we spend the month at home, we may have conflicts with our parents. We young people prefer modern ways. Coming here gives us more freedom.

LANGFITT: And nice amenities設備. Rooms are equipped with king-size beds, flat-screen TVs and milk-bottle sterilizers(奶瓶)消毒器.

LANGFITT: A screen簾子 lowers from the ceiling to provide privacy to a nursing mother正在哺乳的母親.

LANGFITT: Downstairs is a baby spa with four small pools...

LANGFITT: ...where the staff bathes infants. Care Bay has two facilities in Shanghai and one in Beijing. The cheapest rooms here go for more than $12,000 a month. Athera Chao, the company's president, says there's lots of demand需求量非常大.

ATHERA CHAO: (Through translator) Here we have 33 rooms. Almost 80 to 90 percent of the rooms are booked. In August and September, there were too many clients. Some had to stay in hotels for a couple of days.

LANGFITT: Care Bay is an extreme example of a growing trend: Chinese families spending more and more on their babies. It's a result of growing incomes and the demographics人口統計 of a one-child policy一胎化政策.

LIAM BUSSELL: What this leads to is something called a six-pocket syndrome. 六兜綜合症，指六個大人針對一個孩童進行多重開銷的現象(multiple spending on one child)

LANGFITT: Liam Bussell is Asia-Pacific strategic marketing manager for Mintel, a research firm.

BUSSELL: You have two parents, and then four grandparents, essentially all buying for a single child.

LANGFITT: And increasingly willing to pay for quality and safety. Bussell says baby food sales jumped more than 400 percent between 1999 and 2009. The market is now worth more than $9 billion a year. One reason: many parents swore off發誓不再 cheaper Chinese baby food in 2008. That's when companies here were caught lacing milk and formula with melamine奶粉中含有化合物三聚氰胺, an industrial chemical. Six children died.

BUSSELL: There are a lot of people buying the more expensive formulas嬰兒配方奶粉, imported formulas, safe brands, what they consider safe.

CHRISTINE CHING: I'm Christine Ching, working for Huggies in China.

LANGFITT: Traditionally most Chinese children don't wear diapers尿布. They wear pants that open so they can relieve themselves尿尿/排泄. Even on city sidewalks.

CHING: There's this product called split pants開檔褲. Split pants, basically you have a hole in the middle so that the baby can pee尿尿 anywhere, anytime.

LANGFITT: Ching, who works for Kimberley-Clark, says sales of disposable diapers紙尿布 are rising rapidly and still have room to grow. As families become more conscious of hygiene衛生, Ching sees big opportunity.

CHING: This is, like, a huge market. And imagine, in China, we have 16 million newborns every year.

LANGFITT: The key: convincing more parents to shift from the old ways and invest in a modern convenience for themselves and their kids.

Frank Langfitt, NPR News, Shanghai.