SINGAPORE – The maternity sector is gearing up for a bump in births in 2024 as the auspicious Chinese Year of the Dragon approaches, with some hospitals opening new wards, confinement businesses hiring more hands and a clutch of new services unveiled across the board.

Ahead of Feb 10, the first day of Chinese New Year, Mount Elizabeth Hospital and Mount Alvernia Hospital have opened freshly renovated maternity wards, while Thomson Medical Centre will finish upgrading its facilities in March.

Showing optimism, service providers like confinement nanny agencies and confinement meal caterers told The Straits Times they are ramping up recruitment.

In Chinese culture, the dragon symbolises luck and power. Boys born in the Dragon Year are considered especially privileged and thought to be stronger or destined for success.

The Dragon Year, which occurs once every 12 years in the Chinese zodiac cycle, has historically set the high-water mark for total live births every dozen years in Singapore.

This is even as its lead over other zodiac years continues to shrink – a decline that the industry registers as the dwindling influence of zodiac superstitions on young couples.

According to data from the Singapore Department of Statistics, in 2012, the last Dragon Year, 38,641 resident live births were recorded, compared with 36,178 in 2011 and 35,681 in 2013. In 2000, there were 44,765 resident live births, compared with 41,327 in 1999, and 39,281 in 2001.

Already closely watched as a benchmark, the stakes are even higher this Dragon Year after the total fertility rate (TFR) hit a historic low of 1.04 in 2022. The TFR refers to the average number of live births each woman would have in her childbearing years.

Analysts told the local media then that the year was an anomaly, blighted twice over by the unpopular Year of the Tiger and the Covid-19 pandemic, on top of a steadily declining TFR. The imminent Dragon Year was pitched as the better measure of Singapore’s demographic prospects.

Data for 2023 has not yet been made public.

The maternity industry has already recorded an uptick in customer interest in its services.

Compared with the same period in other years, more obstetrics scans have been scheduled at Thomson Medical Centre, while PEM Confinement Nanny Agency has seen a 5 per cent to 7 per cent increase in bookings, and confinement meal caterer NouRiche said it is inundated with queries.

Most hospitals and service providers ST approached said they are poised for a jump of between 5 per cent and 20 per cent in business.

Star Confinement Nanny was the most optimistic. It is estimating a rise of about 30 per cent to 40 per cent in demand for its nannies, and is increasing recruitment accordingly, said director George Tan.

The agency, which serves about 800 mothers a year, has also rolled out a new “cooking auntie” service for which it is still mass hiring and training.

Unlike the traditional confinement nanny, who bears heavier duties of caregiving, aiding breastfeeding and doing light chores, cooking aunties only cook, with their dishes calibrated for mothers’ post-partum needs, Mr Tan said.

Projecting a 5 per cent to 7 per cent rise in demand, PEM also began actively recruiting and training nannies in 2023.

Both PEM and Star report a rise in nanny recruitment costs, which PEM is absorbing at the moment, while Star has raised its rates slightly.

Confinement nannies are popular in many parts of Asia. The Chinese concept of “confinement” has new mothers staying home for a month to recuperate from childbirth. Nannies are often hired to help care for mother and baby at this time.

For NouRiche, the numbers are still trickling in, but having witnessed a surge in catering orders of between 20 per cent and 30 per cent in past Dragon years, it intends to hire more kitchen, operations and delivery crew, said its spokesman.

Of the hospitals, Raffles Hospital has added two employees to its lactation support team, a spokesman told ST.

Hospitals are also launching a suite of services: a class on baby massages and tele-lactation advice at Raffles Hospital, a maternity programme at Thomson Medical and horoscopic deliveries at Mount Elizabeth Hospital from February.

A horoscopic delivery would allow families to choose their preferred horoscopic or astrological timing for caesarean delivery, said a Mount Elizabeth spokesman.

For instance, a mother due to deliver at the cusp of the Dragon Year might schedule a caesarean section birth within that year.

Still, industry optimism is tempered by the recognition that zodiac superstitions hold less sway over couples today.

KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital, one of the most popular hospitals for expectant mothers, is anticipating a slight increase in the number of pregnant women compared with other years.

Its chairman of gynaecology Tan Hak Koon said: “However, we also recognise that in current times, couples are less influenced by the zodiac sign when it comes to starting a family.”

Couples whom ST spoke to were mostly ambivalent about having babies in the Dragon Year.

Mr Tan Sheng Li, a 34-year-old bank officer whose wife is expecting their first child, said the timing is coincidental, as they had wanted to “squeeze in a few big trips” after the pandemic, before starting a family.

Another person who is expecting a Dragon baby is Ms Vernice Yeoh, a 29-year-old marketeer. She said that she and her husband had not planned specifically for one, although she is pleased about the baby sharing the same zodiac sign as her husband – a fellow Dragon Year baby.

Some, like Ms Eva Tan, prefer to avoid giving birth in the Dragon Year.

“We don’t want our first kid to be in the Dragon Year, it’s too competitive,” said the 30-year-old product manager, referring to the theory that if there are more babies born in a year, the increased competition among that cohort would hurt the prospects of its individual members.