Detailed explanation of Shanghai’s second-child reward policy Shanghai has liberalized its second-child policy since 2016, allowing families to decide independently on the number of children they have. At the same time, in order to encourage families to have children, Shanghai has also introduced a series of incentive policies for having a second child. Let’s take a closer look below. 1. Maternity subsidy and medical expense reimbursement. The Shanghai Municipal Government will provide a certain amount of maternity subsidy to families that have more than one child.