Spanish Expectant Mothers Race To Give Birth Before New Year To Claim $3,303 'Cheque Bebe'

A new round of public spending cuts in Spain has many expectant women scrambling to give birth before the end of the year, the Guardian is reporting.

Introduced in July 2007 as part of an attempt to boost the country's low birthrate, the so-called cheque bebé -- a 2,500 euro ($3,303) incentive for new parents -- is set to be axed by the government next year, but many Spanish mothers-to-be are not going down without a fight. In fact, many Spain-based doctors are already reporting a slew of new maternity ward admissions, including women due to give birth via caesarean section.

As the Guardian reports:

"What we're seeing in the public sector is that women who are due to give birth in the first fortnight of January are coming in and saying they are spotting blood or that their waters have broken," a midwife in a Seville hospital told El País newspaper.

"They don't dare say so openly but we know they want to bring the due date forward. We examine them and send them home."

David Marchante, the medical director of the Belén clinic in Madrid, which delivers 3,000 babies a year, agreed. "There have been a lot of remarks in our consultations, with women saying, 'Gosh, I do hope I give birth ...' but they don't dare say any more," he said.

The cheque bebé, payable for every child either born or adopted, was brought in to help raise Spain's birthrate, which, at 1.36 for each woman of childbearing age, is even lower than the EU mean of 1.4. According to Euro Weekly News, parents received an extra 1,000 euros ($1,321)if they were single parent or large families or if the child was born disabled.