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Exploring women's decisions about childbearing after the lifting of the one-child policy

Wang, E; Hesketh, T; (2018) Exploring women's decisions about childbearing after the lifting of the one-child policy. Culture, Health and Sexuality , 20 (11) pp. 1230-1243. 10.1080/13691058.2018.1424352. Green open access

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Abstract

In 2016, China officially ended the ‘one-child’ policy permitting all couples to have two children for the first time since 1979. While the policy was relaxed due to demographic concerns, it simultaneously provided many women with a new reproductive opportunity. The goal of this study was to qualitatively understand the childbearing decision process in the new era of the two-child policy. We conducted in-depth, semi-structured interviews with 45 postpartum women at two hospitals in Zhejiang Province, China. The interviews explored women’s views on the two-child policy and reproductive decisions and how they decided to have their first or second child. Most women approved of the lifting of the one-child policy; however, many were hesitant or uncertain about their own decisions to have second children. Many felt pressured to have two children for the good of, or as an obligation to, the family. However, they also felt that caring for two children was burdensome, and that they would have to sacrifice a lot in terms of freedom, energy and money. Their responses to the new reproductive opportunity highlight the complexity of childbearing decision-making in modern Chinese society, against a background of persisting traditional values.

Type: Article
Title: Exploring women's decisions about childbearing after the lifting of the one-child policy
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1080/13691058.2018.1424352
Publisher version: https://doi.org/10.1080/13691058.2018.1424352
Language: English
Additional information: This version is the author accepted manuscript. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher’s terms and conditions.
Keywords: China; two-child policy; childbearing; family planning; decision-making
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > Institute for Global Health
URI: https://discovery-pp.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10044849
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