Second child is a growing option (3)

When she finally got the birth permit, it was seven months after she conceived. "Our joy was dampened by the bureaucratic procedures," she said.

Yu Liye in Jiujiang confirmed the procedures and agreed that "tolerance is needed".

"It takes time to go through the procedures required to get a permit so those who want a second child should initiate the process early, say, after giving birth to the first child," he noted.

So far, all 31 Chinese provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities on the mainland have fine-tuned their policies, allowing couples who were single children to have another child. The last province to do so, last year, was the most populous, Henan.

It is important to submit applications first otherwise the couple will pay social maintenance fees despite their eligibility.

Fees vary from region to region. In Jiangsu province, they are 40 percent of the annual per capita disposable income of urban residents, which stood at 10,536 yuan ($1,653) last year.

Yuan Xin, a professor at Nankai University's population and development institute in Tianjin said that family planning policy should be adjusted according to changing practical situations.

"Finally, Chinese couples should decide on their own how many children they want," he said.

He also ruled out any possibility that the population would explode as it was proven trend that people, particularly in cities, tended to have smaller families even without imposed limits.

A survey in August last year by the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences and the Women's Federation of Shanghai found that 45 percent of Shanghai families have decided not to have a second child due to high costs.

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