Pregnant women at a maternity ward in a Ho Chi Minh City hospital.

Doctors in both public and private health sectors continue to reveal fetal gender to parents although the Ministry of Health recently warned it would revoke the medical license of those violating a ban on doing so.

The inspection followed a warning issued by the General Office for Population and Family Planning early this month of an alarming gender imbalance at birth favoring male babies.

The inspectors also found the average male to female ratio at birth at the center was 116:100 in the first six months this year, and the ratio had increased over the months. The ratio in June was 130:100.

Inspector Pham Huu Quoc said the ratio was alarming.

The city’s male to female ratio at birth was 115:100 in the first six months this year, far exceeding the normal level of 103-107:100.

A mother being examined at the University Medical Center on Tuesday told Sai Gon Giai Phong newspaper she has carried the baby for 14 weeks and was waiting for the doctor to tell her whether it was a girl or a boy.

At the center’s ultrasound diagnosis ward, there were nearly 100 pregnant women waiting to be examined, and many of them said they were worried that doctors could no longer inform them of their baby’s gender.

A top official of the Tu Du Hospital said they have followed strictly the ban on revealing fetal sex. However, the official also conceded that it was difficult to monitor its implementation.

Meanwhile, the ban was been virtually ignored by private medical services.

At a medical service on Huynh Tinh Cua Street in District 3, a thirty-year-old woman said she couldn’t wait to know the gender of her 14-week fetus, saying she’d been told that doctor could inform her after just five minutes of examination.

A father-to-be said he was taking his wife to be examined there because the service always informed parents of the gender of the fetus.

A number of private medical services on Ly Thuong Kiet Street in District 5 and Hung Vuong Street in District 6 also inform clients of the fetus gender regularly, the paper reported.

Nguyen Minh Hung, chief inspector of the HCMC Department of Health, said they would enforce more inspections and order all hospitals and medical services to delete the gender item, which is common in examination records to be supplied to mothers.

However, he said it would be difficult to fine violators because they have to be caught red-handed as evidence.

Last week, the Ministry of Health said it had proposed a regulation that could revoke the license of doctors for revealing fetus gender.

A recent survey by the General Office for Population and Family Planning found the male to female birth ratio had climbed up to 125:100 in some localities, while the national average has increased from 107:100 in 2006 to 112:100 at present.

Experts have attributed the disproportionate imbalance to the traditional preference for male children in Vietnamese society and blamed diagnostic and other services for facilitating the identification and abortion of female fetuses.

Source: Agencies