Paralyzed ex-gymnast, new son doing well

Paralyzed former gymnastics champion Sang Lan lies in bed after giving birth to a baby boy by cesarean section on Monday in Beijing. Sang fell during warm-ups at the Goodwill Games in 1998 in the US, leaving her paralyzed from the mid-chest down. Tang Shizeng / Xinhua News Agency

Paralyzed former gymnastics champion Sang Lan gave birth to a baby boy in Beijing.

At 12:19 am on Monday, Sang announced on her micro blog that she had just delivered a 2.85-kg baby boy by cesarean section at the Aviation General Hospital in Beijing, and she and the baby were both in good condition.

Sang, born in 1981, was a national champion gymnast before she fell during warm-ups at the Goodwill Games in 1998 in the United States, paralyzing her from the middle of her chest down. She then became an advocate for improved conditions for disabled people in China.

In 2013, Sang married Huang Jian, a former fencer and now Sang's agent.

On Oct 16, Sang first mentioned her plan to have a baby, saying on her micro blog that people should not be surprised that a disabled woman like her is doing so.

On Oct 27, Sang disclosed the risk she was taking to be a mother. She had been taking medicine to control her bladder sphincter since her paralysis, so she was worried the drug would affect her child.

Although Sang's doctor said that although there was no evidence that the medicine would affect the fetus, it could still cause problems during childbirth.

"I have to go through this anyway," Sang wrote on her micro blog.

Gao Guolan, the surgeon who performed the C-section on Sang, said that doctors haven't noticed any adverse affects of Sang's medicine on the baby. "But maybe Sang should avoid breastfeeding the baby to avoid a possible affect the medicine may have on his nervous system," she said.

Sang is in good health, but she needs to stay in the hospital for at least five days, Gao added.

On March 11, Sang made her last micro-blog post before childbirth, writing: "It is beyond imagination that I am going to be a mother that I feel so grateful."

Wang Aiming, director of the department of gynecology and obstetrics at Navy General Hospital in Beijing, said that paralyzed women need C-sections as their muscles don't have enough strength for a natural birth. "But they can conceive like others as long as their womb and ovaries function normally," she said.