The effects of China’s two-child policy are on display in Guangzhou, where statistics released yesterday by public health authorities show that the number of second babies being born in hospitals has exceeded that of first babies.
According to a Xinhua report, Hu Bingjie, Guangzhou’s deputy head of the Health and Family Planning Commission, stated that the city saw over 123,000 births between October and March, of which second babies accounted for over 57 percent.
The numbers reveal the effects China’s two-child policy is having on the family unit in Guangzhou. It's been over a year since China officially abandoned the decades-old one-child policy, replacing it with a two-child policy that took effect on January 1, 2016.
"The new policy shift started to show effect since last quarter of 2016," Hu told Xinhua. He added that 2017 will likely see a ‘baby boom,’ with a lot more mothers having a second child.
To deal with the rise in second births, Guangzhou is set to build more women's and children’s hospitals to ensure adequate access to healthcare resources, according to the report.
READ MORE: Birthrates Still Low a Year After Two-Child Policy Enacted
[Image via Asia Times]
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