A baby boom began this year and will last through 2015, as many parents from one-child families now have a chance for a second child, and they are making babies with passion.

The major reason for the boom, however, is that the last delivery peak was in the 1980s, and now it's about time for more.

Further, couples are allowed to have a second child if both husband and wife come from one-child families, officials said. And that's what they are doing in this metropolis of 16 million to 20 million.

About 120,000 babies will be born to local residents this year, 17,000 more than last year, according to the Shanghai Population and Family Planning Commission.

Officials estimated that newborns in 2006 will total 130,000 with a gradual upward curve reaching a peak of 160,000 in 2015.

The term "local residents" refers to the registered population and migrant and overseas people staying for more than six months.

More women deliver babies when they are between 24 and 29, the most productive child-bearing age. In 1994, 49.8 percent of the new mothers were from this group; in 2004, it was 56.5 percent.

"This period is a woman's golden time to have children, who have higher quality and lower possibility of birth defects," said Xie Lingli, director of the Shanghai Population and Family Planning Commission.

Mothers younger than 20 also increased from 48 in 1994 to 140 in 2004, showing a slight tendency to increase.

This means more young girls are having premarital sex, requiring the awareness of the society, family and government, Xie said.

To understand local married women's actual practice of contraceptive methods and reproduction health, the commission conducted a survey in June.

The results show that 85.67 percent of the interviewed women know about contraceptive methods, 2.8 percent higher than in the same study in 2003. The use of condoms also increased by 1.1 percent from the previous year to the present 20.6 percent.

(Shanghai Daily October 17, 2005)