Dr. Eric Chong Highlights Risks of Overseas Births Amid Rising Trends

According to a report by the U.S.-based The World Journal, on November 2 (local time), the Superior Court of Orange County, California, issued a final ruling in a case involving the death of a Chinese mother who had traveled to the United States to give birth, awarding $5.2 million in compensation to the plaintiff. While it is no longer uncommon for pregnant Chinese women to travel to the U.S. for childbirth, this verdict serves as a stark reminder of the significant risks lurking behind the allure of overseas delivery.

Zhuang Yiqiang, Director of the Hong Kong Ai Li Bi Hospital Management Research Center, stated that rushing to give birth abroad would face many problems.

First, parturients need to spend one or two days on the road. Multiple flight transfers, turbulence, and travel fatigue can easily lead to accidents, and there is a lack of necessary medical support.

Second, due to visa time constraints, pregnant women typically arrive abroad close to their expected delivery date, leaving insufficient time for comprehensive prenatal examinations. Coupled with language barriers, physicians struggle to obtain a thorough understanding of the maternal health status, thereby increasing the risk of unexpected complications during childbirth.

Third, while intermediary companies make all sorts of promises during domestic registration, they often ignore these commitments once clients are abroad, leaving postpartum women without adequate care. The hospitals and postpartum care centers where patients stay may lack proper qualifications; many are located in residential buildings with poor environments, and the so-called doctors and nurses may be impostors.

Fourth, in the United States, mothers are typically discharged one day after a vaginal delivery and two to three days after a cesarean section, leaving both mother and infant without adequate postpartum care. A report issued by the American Academy of Pediatrics states that, compared with U.S. mothers, postpartum hospital stays overseas are on average twice as long, approximately half of these women require reoperation, and neonates have higher rates of intensive care unit admission and readmission. Dr. Wang Sumei, Associate Chief Physician in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Beijing Chaoyang Hospital, added that due to smaller populations abroad, blood inventories are often insufficient; in cases of obstetric emergencies such as severe hemorrhage, even securing a blood transfusion may be difficult.

Beyond childbirth, some individuals also travel abroad for cosmetic surgery and medical treatment. Data from the UCSF Medical Center at the University of California, San Francisco, shows that the number of patients seeking care in the United States from China is growing at an annual rate of more than 25%.

China’s medical standards are by no means inferior to those abroad. For various benign gynecological tumors, domestic treatment options are already quite effective, with minimally invasive techniques leading the world. Due to the larger patient volume treated by Chinese physicians, surgeons have more extensive operative experience, resulting in safety and success rates that are even higher than those overseas. Compared with the three- to four-month waiting periods common abroad, scheduling appointments in China is relatively convenient, and medical costs are comparatively lower. As a result, many overseas Chinese and even foreign nationals come to China for medical consultations and surgeries. As for advanced-stage malignant tumors, this remains a global challenge; treatment outcomes are similar regardless of location, whereas seeking care abroad often entails exorbitant medical expenses.



(This article is reposted from the WeChat official account “Ailibei Observer,” with authorization for redistribution granted by Dr. Zhuang Yiqiang.)