30% rise in 'last chance' pregnancies expected

The number of pregnant women older than 35 in China is expected to exceed 3 million each year between 2017 and 2020, an increase of 30 percent compared with the average level in the past several years, a senior health official said.

The increase, a result of the universal second-child policy adopted at the beginning of last year, will impose great challenges on the country's health system, Ma Xiaowei, vice-minister of the National Health and Family Planning Commission, said in Beijing on Thursday at a video conference on ensuring maternal safety.

"For the present and a certain period in the future, ensuring the safety of mother and baby is a heavy task that deserves no optimism," Ma said, calling for efforts to improve distribution of obstetrics and pediatrics resources.