Pregnant Spanish women pushing to get 'baby cheque' bonus

Pregnant women in Spain are pushing to give birth before January 1st to receive the €2500 (£2130) 'baby cheque' from the government before the scheme ends and are asking to be induced or have caesarean sections.

The cheque bebé was introduced in July 2007 as an incentive to try and boost Spain's population. However, the scheme will be axed at midnight on New Year's Eve as part of the government's austerity drive in the face of the country's national debt.



"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 said. "They don't dare say so openly but we know they want to bring the due date forward."

The rush to get the payout before the year ends has also seen a rise in the number of women requesting caesarean sections. "If there's no medical reason not to, we can do that," said David Marchante, the medical director of the Belén clinic in Madrid. Spain's birth rate is 1.36 for every woman of childbearing age – below the EU average of 1.4.