Quebec doctors are seeing an increasing number of tourists showing up at hospitals to give birth. (CBC)

Quebec doctors say they're seeing an increasing number of pregnant women from other countries visiting Montreal on vacation just to deliver their babies, a strategy known as "baby touristing."

The practice is promoted on some international websites and blogs as a way to get automatic Canadian citizenship for children.

Now officials from the Quebec Federation of Medical Specialists and the Quebec Association of Gynecologists say they are seeing more and more female tourists from French-speaking countries arriving at Montreal hospitals to give birth to their babies.

Gaétan Barrette, president of the medical specialists federation, raised the issue with Quebec's new Health Minister Yves Bolduc this week.

Barrette said doctors started becoming suspicious about the increasing number of female tourists in labour at three Montreal hospitals in particular: St- Justine Hospital, St. Mary's Hospital and St-Luc Hospital.

He said doctors realized it was more than just a coincidence when many of the women started asking the doctors to sign documents necessary for them to apply for Canadian citizenship for their children.

In many cases, said Barrette, the women left without paying their hospital bills.

Barrette couldn't give a number of how many cases doctors are seeing, but he estimated the practice is costing the Quebec health care system hundreds of thousands of dollars a year.

Doctors refusing to sign citizenship forms

Barrette said that when the patients leave before paying the bills, the doctors don't get paid.

"The doctor is supposed to be paid $400 for the delivery. Do that 25 times over the year, which does happen to some doctors, and that doctor will lose $10,000," he said.

Barrette is encouraging doctors not to sign citizenship-related documentation until the new parents pay their medical bills.

"In cases where we see that there [are] irregularities, like with deliveries, then we won't fill out the paperwork that they need," Barrette said.