Baby No 2 becomes question Number 1

Should we have a second child?

That is the question that bothers Xu Ying, a 32 year-old Shanghai mother.

"I want to have another baby, but my husband disagrees," said Xu, who has a 5-year-old daughter.

"It does a lot of good to have more children in a family. My daughter will not be lonely. And when we grow old, there will be less pressure on them looking after us together," she said.

But the dream sometimes has to make way for reality.

"My husband and I are both very busy. If I want to have a second child, I'll have to quit my job and take care of two children. And that means we will lose part of our income," she said.

"Having a second child is a difficult decision to make," she said.

Like Xu, many young couples in Shanghai are reluctant to have a second child despite being eligible. But they are being encouraged to have a second child by authorities who are trying to balance out an increasingly aging population.

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