A woman in China who is 20 weeks pregnant nearly lost her baby during a severe heatwave after her mother-in-law banned using the air conditioner and has trended on mainland social media.
Qingdao Broadcasting reported that the unnamed woman from Guangdong province in southern China and her baby were out of danger after emergency treatment in a local intensive care unit.
In a viral video shared with the news story, the woman is seen lying on a gurney with her pregnancy bump visible as a doctor conducts a medical check.
The woman said that because of her poor health, her husband suggested she stop working when she became pregnant. She said that they lived with her mother-in-law whom she accused of being a “controlling bully” who resented her presence.
When temperatures reached 38 degrees Celsius on June 10, the woman found the heat increasingly unbearable. When she went to turn on the air conditioner, her mother-in-law stopped her. The older woman allegedly told the mother-to-be that she did not deserve comfort because she was not the person paying the bills.
“All the food, clothing and daily necessities are provided by my son,” the mother-in-law reportedly said.
“You only know how to spend money.”
The pregnant woman said she soon could not breathe properly and started sweating profusely before she passed out.
She called the emergency hotline and was taken to a nearby hospital. She was immediately taken to intensive care for emergency treatment. When she regained consciousness, she was told by a doctor she would have lost her baby if she had not received treatment in time.
“I have such panic and fear, and I won’t forgive her. I will move out,” the pregnant woman said afterwards.
The story has gone viral on Chinese social media, with many people shocked by the mother-in-law’s behaviour.
One person said: “Such a mother-in-law still exists?”
Another person added: “If I were the woman, I wouldn’t listen to the mother-in-law. Why should I?”
Summer heatwaves are common across much of mainland China. In July last year, a 58-year-old man in central China, who did not use air conditioning during the height of summer, suffered acute renal failure.
In 2017, a woman in Shanghai died during a heatwave after she declined to use air conditioning during her post-partum confinement.
