As cities begin relaxing the one-child policy, some couples are anxious to add another baby to the family but some older couples have mixed feelings about the change.

Ma Xiaoyi hopes she can soon become pregnant and have a second child. Her five-year-old son Lin Xuan wants a brother or sister.

“He often asks me when his little brother or sister will be born,” says Ma, 34.

When his nursery school teacher tells the children to draw pictures for their family, Lin always writes on his work “to my would-be brother or sister.”

Ma keeps every drawing. “They’ll make a sweet present when the baby is old enough to read.”

Ma is not a single child, but her husband, Lin Maogeng, is.

According to a change in family planning policy that took effect last Friday in Beijing, couples in the capital city like Ma and Lin can now have a second child.

The change means any couple can have two children provided one of them is an only child. Previously, both had to be a single child for a couple to qualify to have a second child without paying a fine.

Shanghai is expected to enact the same policy very soon.

Demographer Zhai Zhenwu says the new policy will make an estimated 15 million to 20 million couples nationwide eligible for a second child.

It is a significant change to the country’s one-child policy that has been prevalent for more than three decades.

About 50 to 60 percent of these couples are willing to have a second child, Zhai says, quoting a recent poll by the National Health and Family Planning Commission.

Having grown up with an older brother, Ma believes having a sibling can help improve a child’s personality and development.

“My brother is five years older than me. He was a caregiver, role model and friend when we were children,” she says. “I never felt lonely, and our parents never worried about us when they were at work.”

Today, Ma often risks being late for work as she has to take her son to a nursery.

She feels guilty when she has to work overtime and leave him with the nanny.

Ma, born in Dalian, a port city in northeast China’s Liaoning Province, secured a job in Beijing after she graduated in journalism from university.

“It’s reassuring to think that my brother’s family lives only a few blocks away from my parents. Had I been the only child, it’d never have occurred to me to leave my parents,” she says.

Ma wants another child because she has witnessed the heartbreak of older parents who have lost their only son or daughter.

For over a decade, her job as a journalist has taken her to scenes of natural disasters, senior nursing homes and hospitals.

Ma has witnessed the agony and helplessness of bereaved parents. It upsets her.

“Talking about two children, most people complain about the high living costs and tuition,” she says. “But if you have witnessed the pain of those bereaved parents, you’d stop worrying about the financial burdens.”

Many of Ma’s high income peers already have a second child, and have paid a fine of about 300,000 yuan to do so.

But for Ma and her husband, both government employees, violating the one-child policy would have cost them their jobs.

Yang Zhizhu, a former teacher in Beijing, was fired after his wife gave birth to their second child in December 2009. The couple has two girls.

Yang, who taught civil law at China Youth University for Political Sciences, insists he will safeguard his younger daughter’s “right of existence” and refuses to pay any fine.

“The new policy change is far from enough to offset China’s aging problem,” Yang says on his weibo. “The country needs to scrap its restrictions on childbirth as soon as possible.”

When Gu Xuan fell ill one night with only her eight-year-old daughter by her side, she says she felt lucky she could call her sister who was just a 30-minute drive away.

Gu was taken to hospital for surgery and was told she could have died from a hemorrhage if she had arrived a few hours later.

“I told my husband, who was working in Tokyo then, ‘We must have another child. I don’t want my daughter to grow up in solitude, with no one around to give her help’.”

But at 41, Gu is not sure she can carry a fetus to term as she has anemia and chronic back pain.

“The policy change has come too late for me. If I was 30-something I wouldn’t hesitate,” she says.

The policy change has been praised by many people in their 20s and 30s. Women of Gu’s age, however, have mixed feelings.

In addition to age and health considerations, some fear they may have to give up their jobs to raise another child.

Less income plus higher expenses makes them feel insecure.

In cities like Beijing and Shanghai, many worry a bigger family means a bigger home, but house prices are beyond the affordability of average wage-earners.

Parents also worry about poor air quality, food safety and academic pressure in a society where schoolchildren spend most of their spare time attending extra classes in a bid to stand out among their peers.

As a result, many parents may decide one is enough.

Demographers are not anticipating an influx of newborn babies at a time when young couples prefer smaller families.

“More babies may be born in the first four to five years, but the birth rate is likely to drop again soon after that,” says Zhai, the demographer with Beijing-based Renmin University of China.

The country’s fertility rate is 1.5 births per woman. According to internationally accepted standards, the rate needs to be 2.1 births per woman to replenish the population.

According to Zhai, the fertility rate is unlikely to top 2 births per woman even after the new policy takes effect around the country.

Others want the government to allow everyone to choose for themselves how many children to have.

“In 2010, China’s fertility rate was only 1.18 births per woman. It is high time for the country to scrap its one-child policy,” says doctor-turned-demographer Yi Fuxian.

He says the official fertility rate for 2012 was exaggerated, indicating it was lower than 1.5 births per woman.

Yi, author of “Big Country in an Empty Nest,” which criticizes the one-child policy, has been calling for an end to birth limits for a decade, citing the low fertility rate, shrinking working population and rapidly aging society.

China has the largest senior population in the world, with 194 million people aged 60 or above at the end of 2012, according to the China National Committee on Aging.

This is expected to rise to 243 million by 2020 and by 2050, one third of the Chinese population will be aged over 60.

“It’s not enough to end the one-child policy,” Yi says on his weibo. “The government should encourage young couples to have more children.”

On his microblog, Yi quotes a letter from a young man who is seriously ill with uremia, a condition resulting from kidney disease.

“My mother is a peasant and my father is a rural school teacher. I am their only child,” the letter states.

When he fell ill three years ago, his family almost fell apart. “My mother was so upset that she had a cerebral hemorrhage and has been paralyzed ever since. My father is debt-laden and on the verge of breaking down.”

The man, who did not give his name, says he feels extremely sorry for his parents.

“Who will take care of them and keep them company after I die? If I had a brother or sister, I’d feel more relieved even if I have to die.”