China News Service, Beijing, January 22 (Zhang Yuhui) In mid-to-late January, provincial-level two sessions were held in intensive manner in many places across the country. China News Service noticed that marriage and childbirth support is reflected in government work reports in many places, and is also a hot topic among representatives and deputies. Marriage and childbearing support measures such as improving medical insurance, implementing subsidies, extending marriage and childbearing leave, and providing childcare services have been frequently mentioned.

Many places have written fertility support into government work reports

China News Service has noted that many provinces have written fertility support measures into government work reports, including a series of positive measures such as improving medical insurance, implementing subsidies, extending childbirth leave, and providing childcare services.

Recently, the Hubei Provincial Government Work Report released a list of the top ten people's livelihood projects in Hubei Province in 2025, among which "relieve the worries about childbirth" is placed first.

Hubei has clarified a series of birth support measures, such as free screening of newborn diseases and maintaining the "first level" of newborn health; promote cities and counties to continuously implement housing purchase subsidies for families with second and third children, so as to make up for all those who should be compensated and all those who should be compensated; strengthen publicity and supervision, law enforcement inspections, and ensure that maternity leave, nursing leave, parental leave and other birth leave are implemented in place.

The Beijing Municipal Government Work Report made it clear in the 2025 people's livelihood work that it will improve supporting policies for child-friendly society, provide diversified childcare services, and achieve full coverage of urban childcare comprehensive service centers.

The Tianjin Municipal Government Work Report mentioned that we should improve childbirth support policies and promote the construction of district-level childcare comprehensive service centers.

Similarly, the Zhejiang Provincial Government Work Report mentioned "improving the policy system and incentive mechanism for childbirth support", "carrying out pilot projects for basic public services for universal childcare", etc.

Extend marriage leave and childbirth leave

Encourage childcare services

How to strengthen the construction of a marriage and childbirth support system? Recently, representatives and deputies from many places across the country have had heated discussions on this.

Wen Xueqian, a member of the Sichuan Provincial People's Congress and a member of the Provincial People's Congress Social Construction Committee, suggested that, referring to other provinces, the marriage leave will be extended to 15-20 days, and more care and support will be given to young people in terms of marriage and childbirth.

Xing Hui, a member of the Hubei Provincial People's Congress and secretary of the Party Committee of Xiangyang Central Hospital, suggested that the maternity leave system should be further optimized, the maternity leave for female employees will be extended to 180 days, and the male employees will be given longer paternity leave, such as 30 days. At the same time, a cost sharing mechanism is established to reduce the cost burden increased by enterprises due to extending maternity leave through government subsidies and corporate tax incentives.

Cai Xiangfen, member of the Jiangxi Provincial Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and Secretary of the Party Group and Chairman of the Yingtan Women's Federation, suggested that a childbirth subsidy system should be established, and different levels of childbirth subsidies and care allowances should be issued to families with first, second and third children; reduce the burden of family childbirth and raising medical expenses, and include related medical expenses such as infertility, high-risk and critical maternal supervision into the scope of medical insurance fund payment; increase financial support and increase the number of days of maternity allowance payment.

Jin Zhenzhen, member of the Zhejiang Provincial Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and deputy director of the Volunteer Rights and Interests Department of the Provincial Youth League Committee, suggested that efforts should be made to extend the childcare and childcare services for 2-3 years old to provide reliable connection and transition for young couples to send their children to kindergartens. Furthermore, large units and enterprises with conditions are encouraged to establish nurseries, open "pre-child classes" and "noon-day care classes", etc., and provide childcare facilities and services. The government provides corresponding subsidies to solve the difficulties of employees' families in taking care of their children nearby.

Strengthen the publicity of "family culture"

Boycott high-priced brides

In addition to introducing a series of marriage and childbearing support measures, representatives and deputies also advocate the spread of healthy and correct views on marriage and love.

Jin Zhenzhen called for strengthening the legitimate rights and interests of women in the process of giving birth and raising children, and at the same time strengthening the publicity of traditional "family culture" so that young people can reshape their yearning for marriage and family.

Yang Wenxian, member of the Hainan Provincial Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and member of the Jiusan Society, said that the construction of intimate relationships between the two genders, including the concept of marriage and love, family construction and other related contents should become an indispensable part of ideological and political education in colleges and universities.

Yan Jie, member of the Gansu Provincial Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and general manager of Qingyang Circle Internet Technology Co., Ltd., proposed to set up a youth marriage and love service center to provide one-stop services such as marriage consultation, marriage and love guidance, and legal consultation, and be equipped with a professional team. At the same time, psychological counseling institutions, marriage counseling institutions, etc. were introduced to provide young people with premarital education and psychological counseling to improve their marriage and love literacy and sense of happiness.

In response to the issue of high-priced bride gifts, Yan Jie suggested promoting the harm of high-priced bride gifts through various channels, improving relevant laws and regulations, clarifying the scope of recognition and return principles of bride gifts, encouraging social supervision and reporting, and creating a good atmosphere of resisting high-priced bride gifts.