TAIYUAN, May 29  -- North China's Shanxi Province on Thursday relaxed its family planning policy to allow couples to have a second baby if either parent is an only child, the local legislature said.

An amendment to the provincial Population and Family Planning Regulations was passed at a meeting of the Standing Committee of the Shanxi Provincial People's Congress on Thursday.

The amendment allows couples to have a second baby if either parent is an only child. Under the new policy, the province is expected to see an additional 189,600 to 238,000 newborns by the end of 2020, according to an official with the provincial health and family planning commission.

The population growth will not add pressure to public resources allocation, the official said.

China's family planning policy, put in place in the late 1970s, is designed to curb population growth.

In addition to Shanxi, the municipalities of Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai and Chongqing as well as Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Anhui, Sichuan, Guangdong and Jiangsu provinces and Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region have also changed their policies.