New births help Sichuan quake victims overcome loss of children
Healing influence of motherhood enables women who lost their children in 2008 to overcome despair and rediscover purpose in life
Yang Zhengrong smiled at the mention of her son, who will turn three in August.
"He is such a joy to the family," the 45-year-old restaurant owner in Mianzhu's Jiulong township said. "We will be in our 60s or probably gone when he is only a teenager and he won't be able to do much for us, but just to think of all the joy he brings the family makes me so grateful."
Yang's 18-year-old daughter died with more than 300 fellow pupils when the Dongqi Middle School in Mianzhu collapsed in the magnitude 8 earthquake that hit Sichuan five years ago.
Nothing can erase the memories of your first child, but we have to move on with life
Yang once petitioned the government to punish those responsible for the many school buildings that collapsed in the quake. The government told media the severity of the quake was to blame, not poor construction.
The wounds are healing for some mothers who have found new hope in the birth of a child. "Nothing can erase the memories of your first child, but we have to move on with life," Yang said.
The central and provincial governments provided hundreds of millions of yuan for free medical services and the advice of top fertility experts to families who lost a child in the 2008 quake. More than 8,000 families in Sichuan lost their only child or saw them become handicapped, according to state media reports. Now, more than 2,400 babies have been born to such families.
Yang had a nervous breakdown after the quake and could not ever recognise relatives. Her relationship with her husband was tense and they fought daily.
"Everything in my life was falling apart," she said. "I'd lost my daughter. My house had gone. There was no meaning to life. For a long time I thought only death could relieve me of all this."