AUTHORITIES last month granted approval to 1,730 couples to have a second child under the city’s relaxed family planning laws.

The total represented more than 60 percent of all applications received in the month, the Shanghai Health and Family Planning Commission said.

More than 80 percent of the couples were urban residents, and in almost 70 percent of cases both parents were registered Shanghai citizens, it said.

Since March 1, couples in the city have been allowed to apply to have a second baby if either of the parents is an only child.

The ages of the women applicants ranged from 22 to 45, with a mean of 33, while the men were aged 23 to 54, with a mean of 35, the commission said.

The mean age of the families’ first child was 5.8 years, with the youngest 6 months and the oldest 16 years. A majority of the applicants, 54 percent, said their first child was a girl.

A doctor told Shanghai Daily he has seen an increase in the number of middle-aged couples visiting him to discuss the possibility of having a second child.

“Most of the older parents wanted to know if their ages would affect their chances of having a healthy baby,” said Dr Yin Chuanmin, from the Gynecology and Obstetrics Hospital of Fudan University.

“I fully understand their concerns,” he said. “It has taken the government a long time to relax its policy and while older parents are keen to take advantage of it, they want to make sure everything will be fine.”

A woman surnamed Yin, who has a 10-year-old daughter and is five months’ pregnant with a second child, said: “I went to apply for a permit for my second child last month.”

The commission said the largest number of applications were made in the Pudong New Area, followed by Minhang and Xuhui districts.

The government said earlier that an additional 20,000 to 30,000 babies are expected to be born each year as a result of the relaxed policy.