Planning on having a baby in Beijing? Find out what you need to know about maternity and baby care on The BeijingKids forums. Here are some highlights:

How to donate breast milk in Beijing?
“Hi, my friend runs China Little Flower orphanages, and they have one especially for medically fragile orphans (typically orphaned at birth because of their “imperfections” so almost all are infants). CLF houses and feeds these babies and arranges for life saving medical help and surgeries if needed.” More.

Are Baby Wipes Suitable for use with New Born Babies?
“Research studies from the UK have led to 75% of maternity hospitals changing their practice in relation to products used for newborns. The common practice of cleansing the diaper area with baby wipes is now discouraged for babies under the age of 4 weeks. Many manufacturers of baby wipes advertise their product as being suitable for newborns. Dermatologists in the UK say that the skin of newborns is not able to cope with the strength of the cleansing product in these baby wipes.” More.

Aside from BJU, anyone deliver baby at Mary or Amcare? Comments good/bad?
“… my wife gave birth to a little girl a month ago at Amcare… price is much less steep than BJU, but i believe the service and the level of the clinic and the doctors is as good as BJU. All the professors are heads of different obstetric services in Chinese hospital and as such are respected and experienced doctors. Overall we were very satisfied with the pre-natal care, even though it can be a bit confusing to go from one doctor to another as they’re not always the same who follow your case.” More.

Good advice on choosing pregnatal package and hospitals
“Beijing Family hospital in Lido area will give you a good prenatal package and also let you budget for the birth by letting you know what the cost of various options are. I had my 4th baby there and the birh was fantastic and worth every penny as English was widely spoken. Having said this, the prenatal care was average but was not consistent as you do not have a regular obstetrician which I believe is an American healh care system …” More.

Share Your Birthing Experience
“You may want to viist Baby Cafe, a breast feeding support group for pregnant and New Mums. You will have an opportunity to meet Mums who have given birth in a selection of the hospitals available in Beijing.” More.

Join in the discussion on the BeijingKids forum.

What tastes better and has more immune-boosting qualities than cow’s milk? Why, human breast milk, of course.

Here’s where it gets weird. Seeing its renminbi-making potential, scientists in China have genetically modified cows to produce human breast milk. Testing is still in the works, but the plan is to have the cow (I mean breast?) milk on supermarket shelves within three years.