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About 3 million babies were expected to be born in China one year after the country officially removed the one-child policy. But in 2016, one 1 million babies were born.

Moreover, a lot of the births were made by older women who were forced to limit their children to just one since the policy was implemented in 1979. Younger urban women shunned having a second child.

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Boosting the Birthrate

In scrapping the policy, China aimed to hike birthrate to 1.8 babies for every woman by 2021, The Telegraph reported. At the rate Chinese women are heeding the call, experts project the birthrate would rise only to 1.7 children.

By 2016, the National Health and Family Planning Commission expects more than 17.5 million birth. They hope it would reverse the decline in new births in 2015 and be the highest birth rate figure since 2000.

The situation would cause worker shortage needed to create wealth to man the country’s production facilities. Despite calls, the target women are not heeding the state’s call to have more children.

Urban Women Say “No”

“The new family planning laws mainly apply to couples in urban areas, where the lifestyles of younger people and huge pressures make them reluctant to have second children. Older mothers have no time to watch and wait,” Li Jianmin, professor of population studies at Nankai University, said.

In contrast, the rush to get pregnant among elder women created an increase in demand for IVF treatments and costly post-birth care by a specialist, South China Mornig Post reported. Such services, like the 28-day package offered by the Better Care Centre in Beijing, could cost up to 290,000 yuan.

 The Beijing Perfect Family Hospital confirmed the boost in IVF demand following the scrapping of the one-child policy. Some of the women who sought IVF were already in their 50s and 60s who were having second babies.