Each local new mother received an average of 15,000 yuan (US$2,144) delivery allowance from the government last year, the biggest amount since the allowance was introduced in late 2001.

And every woman aged more than 23 years giving birth received a 2,000-yuan subsidy for the first month of the child's life, said officials from Shanghai Population and Family Planning Commission at the weekend.

Last year the local government distributed 40 million yuan in allowances for newly retired people who followed family planning policy, 27.11 million yuan for families whose only child died or was born with a disability and 29.23 million yuan in subsidies to poor rural families following the policy.

(Shanghai Daily April 21, 2008)