2nd child too costly for many women

About 11 percent of mothers with a child under 6 have two children and 22 percent of mothers with one child plan a second, according to a nationwide online survey of 5,406 women.

China began to loosen its strict population policy in November last year, allowing couples with only one spouse from a one-child family to have a second child.

Survey organizers babytree.com said the lowest percentage of women planning a second child were in Shanghai and Beijing, where pressure of work and the high cost of raising a child were cited as the main reasons for their reluctance to get pregnant again.

Babytree, a baby products company, said its survey, held every year since 2010, was aimed at finding out pregnant women and young mothers' views about child-raising, domestic services, children's products and other needs.

The survey found that most women believed a second child would be good for their children's healthy development. However, half said two children would bring financial challenges and parents would have to work harder.

According to the survey, mothers with a lower educational background tended to have a second child within a year after their first, while those with higher education said a bigger age gap between children meant less of a financial burden and parents could invest more time and resources in their first child.

The survey also found that a quarter of pregnant women and young mothers who took part were born in the 1990s and 70 percent said they arranged their marriages immediately after discovering they were pregnant.

These women generally had a lower educational background and lower incomes than mothers who were born in 1970s and 1980s, the survey found.