With demand for nursemaids surpassing supply in Shanghai, several household service companies have started training migrant women to look after newborn babies, although most families in the city still prefer to hire a local woman to help raise their child if possible.
   
The migrant women will be responsible for nursing the newly born infant around-the-clock, bathing it and cooking nutritious food for both the baby and mother during the first month after delivery, or yuezi as is known in Chinese.
   
According to Chinese tradition, a mother should stay in bed for the entire first month after having a baby. Otherwise, she may suffer from various chronic diseases in the future. In the past when ayis were not popular, the mother was usually cared for by her own mother, with the help of her husband, his mother and sometimes, even both of the baby's grandfathers.
   
Li Rong, general manager of Shanghai Laibang Household Service, said his company will introduce some 30 trained migrant nursemaids, or yuesaos, from Chengdu, Sichuan Province next week, and will train 20 to 30 Chengdu yuesaos every month.
   
"We receive two to three calls a day from expectant parents asking to hire a yuesao. In the past, however, we only received one to two calls a week," he said.
   
The shortage of nursemaids was caused by a baby boom in the city, which began last year and has yet to slow down.
   
About 1,400 babies were born at Shanghai No. 1 Maternity and Child Health Hospital during the first three months of this year, a 27 percent increase from the same period last year.
   
"It's still uncertain if the total number of newborn babies in the city this year will surpass last year's 110,000, but undoubtedly 2005 will be a 'big year' for births," said the director of the hospital's information department, surnamed Zhuang.
   
Prior to last year, the city had 60,000 to 90,000 births annually on average.
   
"Most local families worry that migrant nursemaids might be incompetent at caring for babies due to their different living habits and relatively poor education, so they prefer local women," said Wang Yonglan, an official with Shanghai Haoshi Service Center. "But the supply of local nursemaids, mostly laid-off women aged 40 to 50, is very limited."
   
Many local women are unwilling to work as nursemaids, and those that do generally charge far more than their migrant counterparts.
   
Anyone who wants to work as a nursemaid must first obtain a professional certificate from the labor bureau or a medical institute.

(Shanghai Daily May 17, 2005)