More than half of Chinese couples not willing to have second child despite policy ease

Though often seen as one of China's most draconian laws, the one-child policy, introduced at the end of the 1970s and abandoned at the beginning of 2016, achieved what it set out to do - rein in growth of the country's population. More than three decades on, as economic prosperity and nature have taken their course, the country faces a new demographic issue: it looks set to become old before it becomes rich. In the first half of 2016, 8.31 million babies were born in China, up 6.9 percent year on year. Of these newborns, 44.6 percent were a second child, up 6.7 percent, according to the FPA. From December 2015, about 30,000 women registered to have children in Beijing, yet the city only has about 4,900 maternal beds and is capable of serving only 25,000 women. According to Peking Union Medical College Press 2015 health statistics yearbook, China only has 0.43 pediatricians for every 1,000 children. The relaxation of the family planning policy means that China will need 89,000 more maternity beds, and 140,000 more obstetricians and midwives by 2020, according to the National Health and Family Planning Commission. Different provinces have set the wheels in motion to support women who want to have a second child, with plans to offer them longer paid maternal leave.