Study finds 40 percent of parents happy with one child_美文

Study finds 40 percent of parents happy with one child

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About 40 percent of Nanjing residents who meet China's requirements to have a second child are unwilling to do so, according to a report by the city's family planning commission released this week.

The capital of Jiangsu province is facing the lowest birthrate in recorded history, at 1.3 children per couple.

Statistics show that in the 1950s and ‘60s, the average number of children per couple in Nanjing was 5.8, the report said.

Hesitation to have a second child and the current family planning policy are among the reasons for the falling birthrate, according to the commission.

In the city, children under age 14 now account for 9.5 percent of the population, while at the time of the fifth national population census in 2000, the figure was 15.45 percent, the report said.

The national figure is 16.6 percent.

"I don't want a second child no matter how persuasive my parents are," said Chen Yanqiu, a 32-year-old mother who lives in Nanjing's Yuhua district. "Bringing up one child is much harder than I imagined. When my daughter was a baby, I never had the chance to sleep for more than four hours a night. Changing diapers, breastfeeding three times during the night and watching over her when she was awake really exhausted me."

Chen meets China's requirements of having a second baby - both she and her husband are the only child of their parents.

Chen said she agreed with her parents that having a second child would make her 4-year-old daughter less self-centered and bring more joy to the family, but she's concerned about the pain of another childbirth and the fatigue that follows.